‘What About This Man?’

‘What About This Man?’

Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

John 21:21&22

We often have a hard time minding our own business. Peter was no exception. After Christ had dealt with the issue which provoked the awkwardness between them, and given Peter the explicit instruction to ‘Follow me,’ Peter followed with what serves as the first portion of our text for today. He looks at John, and then asks Christ, ‘what about this man?’ Christ responds, ‘“If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”’ In essence, Christ says, ‘Peter, you do not need to concern yourself with the plans I have for someone else. You follow me.’ Here is the plain fact as it related to Peter and as it relates to us. Following Christ is a full-time job. If we are keeping our eyes upon following in His footsteps, we will have much less time to concern ourselves with what plans He has for other people. Much harm occurs in Christendom because we are much more concerned about what Christ has for someone else, than we are about simply following Him. Following Christ will absorb our time, our attention, our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength. If we are concentrating on following Him, we will have precious little time to do anything more than to mind our own business. Today, let us be wise enough to learn from Peter, not just what to do, but also, what not to do. Let our time and attention go toward this one great command from Christ, ‘Follow me.’

Our Holy and Wise Savior,
we rejoice that You are most Gracious, even when we are least gracious.
We praise You, that You show us how to be wise
in our behavior, that we might truly glorify you.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning