The End of the leash

who's holding yours

Our family dog Chance is a wanderer. Any time he gets an opportunity to run at full speed away from home, he will explore and disappear as fast as he can go. He needs to be tethered to something or we know we might never see him again. Being a spirited adventurer, he requires some exercise from time to time and as is our tradition, or our duty whichever the case may be, we attempt to take him on occasional walks up and down our country road. At times, this is a comical event in and of itself. Chance will pull you this way, then that way, always jerking your arm right to the end of the rope. The longer the leash you use, the more tugging he will do. So, we’ve learned that the shorter the lead he wears the easier it is to direct him and keep him from hurting himself or one of us. It's funny, I always thought it was us training him, it turns out it was training for the both of us, but the more we take control of his leading the safer he is and the fewer opportunities for him to be lost.

It seems interesting to me that I can be a little like Chance the dog when it comes to my life and in general, my walk with Christ. There is certain obedience to the will of God that is necessary to follow Christ, and even more if you want to be a disciple. Much like the control of Chance's leash, my obedience to God is there to keep me and others safe. It's there to direct my path in the right direction and yes, I think God sometimes needs to give us a tug to set us straight. In my case, it's more like a good yank at times, and that's where I want to point you in this message. 

Peter was one of the earliest to be called to follow Jesus, even though it didn’t seem that he came across as much of a follower at all. Many opinions of his attitude are described as bold, somewhat of a hotdog, and quick to react. Peter was the one follower to stand up and leap out of the boat as they saw Jesus coming to them on the water, then ends up being distracted and underwater in Matthew 14: 28-30. Matthew 16: 22-23 says that Peter takes Jesus aside to chide him for speaking of his own death in a way that was upsetting the followers, only to be righteously corrected immediately. Later, in a very dark power grab by the church officials of the day, Peter attacks and cuts off the right ear of a slave belonging to one of the high priests who came along with the local Roman detachment of soldiers to arrest Jesus while He was praying in a garden named Gethsemane. Immediately, the ear of the slave is restored by Jesus while He reminds Peter, and the entire group, that He has preached and been in the temple often, and they had never acted against Him in this sort of violent way. But now, at night with clubs and torches, they had come for Him as if he were a common robber or villain. Reminding Peter yet again, not to pull so hard on the leash, God’s plan was being carried out by every action they witnessed, both good and bad. 

In John 13: 8, Peter isn’t understanding the servant lesson of simple foot washing that Jesus is trying to teach to His followers. Again, he is resistant, pulling at his tether to the Lord, saying to Jesus, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” What Jesus is telling the group and Peter is, this is who I am and what I have come to teach, if you can’t accept it then you won’t have a share or part in building my kingdom. That’s a big revelation for them I would. Jesus is emphasizing that serving humbly is part of the calling towards the kingdom of Heaven. Peter’s adamant, “not me Lord, never!” exclamation was another yank of the chain in his obedience to Jesus’ teachings, and yet the Lord pulls him back to the real meaning of discipleship. 

Simon Peter seems to have a habit of pulling on the leash, only to have Jesus tug him back to His side. There are even a few hard yanks in the examples we just read, yet clearly, Jesus knew that Peter loved Him and had a rousing ambition to share the Gospel message. When Peter heard the teachings that sounded good and led to a more abundant and prosperous life, he was all in. Certainly, he had a heart that was fully in love with Christ, he just had the occasional wandering attitude and temper of a fisherman. His faith, like the others, was not fully mature, which led to his occasional impatience and impulsive actions. Does that sound familiar to you? It does to me. When serious illness strikes a loved one, or an evil action affects our family or town, we often think, how could God let this happen? When bills and debt pill up or we lose a job, do we tend to react by criticizing God and saying, "Hey, are you paying attention, I'm hurting here?". I think we all say or think those types of things at one time or another. Perhaps you have taken a job or attended a college without seeking wise counsel or praying about it, and now you've created a mess, and the blame, well it must be God's fault because He is supposed to be in charge, right? 

The God I know is not usually one to stop you from making bad choices. Peter denied he even knew Jesus three times, just as Jesus predicted he would; though Peter was warned and knew it could happen, the poor choices and denial were still carried out. A decision I am sure, that lingered in Peter's mind until the day he died. That one thing you've done that you wish you could undo... My point is this, even though we make bad choices, we try to pursue dangerous things for us or stray far off the path from God’s plan - if we truly give our lives to Christ and have Him living in our hearts, He will give us that tug towards His path for us, just as he did so many times for the future leader of the early church, Peter. We don't always understand it, and yes, sometimes the consequences of the tug can hurt - a lot. This I know, the Lord of Lords loves us far more than we do our favorite pets. If we do so much to care for and guide our furry family friends, how much more will Jesus do to stay by our side? Whether He is guiding us through our successes or life’s trials, He’s keeping you safely in sight. He will not allow you to be lost or wander too far away as long as you are connected to Him. He desires to keep us moving toward the goal of the gospel, reaching others that do not know Him, helping those who have stumbled and have self-inflicted wounds, and healing those who have been hurt by “good intentions”. He is stretching and molding us into His likeness and that sometimes feels like somewhere we are not ready to go. 

Maybe today you are not tugging at the end of your leash or yearning to stray off the path to discovering something new. But still, obedience is a learning process that we pass and fail with regularity. Just remember this, Jesus sees the full plan, He knows the path with its dangers and its rewards. Our reactions can tend to be like Peter, brash and quick, or unsure and faithless, we just need to keep our eyes and our lives focused on Jesus. Try every day to be the best Christ-follower you can be, that’s my goal. I fail a lot, but I hear my Makers calling, his tether to my heart, I know that I cannot do any of this “goodness” on my own, but- with one foot on top of the water, who is ready to do something miraculous. 

NASB Version 

Matthew 14: 28-30 ~ Matthew 16:22-23 ~ John 18: 10&11 ~ Luke 22: 51-53 ~ John 13:8