“For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.” Matthew 21:32 ESV
Reflection: who are you following?
There is a feature within most social media apps, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and so on, where you can “follow” someone or some topic. I’m sure you know what I am talking about. It is pretty convenient, because you will then get targeted feeds, information, related to that person or topic you are interested in. Defining your “favorites”, to get kind of a personalized stream of information. And, associated with your preferences and likes, you will then also get personalized advertising, and suggestions of similar topics, people and products to follow. And, behind all of this great technology, there are of course big companies that have an agenda to keep you engaged, for a number of reasons. And we can speculate those, but clearly one is to enter your mind. To steer your thinking, to sell products for sure, but also to sell ideas, especially in young minds who are more susceptible, more plyable. And, let’s be honest, it has been
very effective
If you take a look at your own mobile phone, just in private, you can quickly see how many minutes, hours (?) you are spending on each app. It is pretty scary. And, we all have noticed that people cannot be 2 minutes away from their phones, standing in line, sitting on a train or bus, even across the table with family and friends. As a result, we have seen shifts in the political, social and economic landscape that we never thought possible only a few years ago. People being confused about very fundamental thoughts of who they are, and how a functioning society works; even ideas that have lasted hundreds of years. But within one generation being turned upside down. But, let me ask you, who or what
do you follow?
Ok, you might feel this is a bit of a trick question, as you might want to say as a Christian, “Well, I follow Jesus, of course”. It is not meant to be a trick question. Stop for a moment and think about your time spent on who or what you follow on social media (again, you can get the time, it is recorded on your phone), or TV, newspapers, etc, versus actually “following” Jesus (meaning, listening to, learning from Him), through reading the Bible, a devotional, a Christian commentary, and practicing how to incorporate Jesus lessons in our lives. If we compare the times spent, we get an idea of
whom we truly “follow”.
Scary, I know. Paul warned young Timothy of what would happen in time, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:1-8 ESV. While he was talking here about specific doctrine, notice multiple references here to “training”; meaning, he was telling Timothy that he had to dedicate himself to what he wanted to follow.
In the focus verse today, Jesus tells the religious leaders that they had rejected the truth, and were therefore following their own way and leading others astray. They claimed they followed God, but they were not. They were self-righteous and therefore hypocrites. And, many of those who the religious considered “sinners” and perhaps “lowlife” of society, had instead received the truth and turned their lives around. They were truly following Jesus and His commandments.
Let’s make sure we actually “follow” who we say we follow.