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Day 5: Jesus The Answer
Christians use this term often: "follow Jesus." What does that mean? Every one of us who claims to "follow Jesus" has misrepresented Him in some way. We are flawed and imperfect humans. Without meaning to, we have attached our own agendas to Him or acted selfishly while claiming it's what He would have wanted. If we look to another person to find Jesus, they will fail us time and again. The best place to look is Jesus Himself.
When we say “follow Jesus," we mean accepting His claims about the meaning of life. He taught that God created the world and all of us because He loved us. And because true love requires choice, He gave us the choice to love Him back. God shows us in the Bible how we can choose to live His way, but He did not force us to follow Him.
This is not a popular thing to say, but when we reject God’s way of living, it is called "sin." And just like everything else in life, choices have consequences. In this case, pain and death were introduced into the world because of our sins. God could have left us alone in that pain, but instead, He had a plan to restore everything back to the way it was supposed to be.
This is where Jesus comes in. By claiming to be the Son of God, Jesus was saying that He came to fix the problem. Through His death, He wiped away all punishment for sin and restored people back to a right relationship with God. In fact, He rose from the dead and defeated that consequence once and for all!
The beauty of God's story is that we don't have to provide meaning on our own. This is why the Easter story is so important! When Jesus died and rose again, He gave our lives meaning and purpose. We have worth and value because of who He is, not because of who we are.
He gives us the chance to make His story our own and to find meaning in the most deeply satisfying way. That is what it means to "follow Jesus." We can’t look to other Christians as an example of what it means to follow Jesus. We must go and find out for ourselves. And when we learn to follow him, we can confidently proclaim that “He is Risen!”
Reflection/Prayer
Use the guided prayer video below to reflect on today’s reading.
Scripture
About this Plan
Jesus has been attached to so many agendas throughout history both good and bad. Yet His teachings have persisted because they cut to the core of the human experience. To some, He is a nuisance who won’t go away. And to others, He holds the key to meaning and purpose in life. As we celebrate Holy Week together, let’s find answers to this question: “Who is Jesus?”
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