JOHN xxi. 22. “Jesus saith
unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to
thee? follow thou Me.”
AT the instant when Christ spoke these words, we see
Peter moving away with Jesus from the side of the lake.
Jesus had just said to him, “Follow Me,” and he was
keeping close to Him as He walked, as if to show how
entirely he accepted both the spirit and letter of the in-
junction. There is an interest about those we love, which
is the surest sign of spiritual life. A person really “follow-
ing” Christ is never content to follow Him alone. Peter,
seeing John, saith to Jesus, “Lord, and what shall this man
do?”
From the tone of our Lord’s answer, there must have
been a curiosity about John’s spiritual state mixing with
Peter’s question.
There are two very opposite habits of mind, to each of
which, however, these words of our Lord administer some
rebuke.
1. Persons who are often asking for some sentence to be
pronounced about the spiritual condition of some friend,
forgetting that we are not to sit in judgment upon the
state of a fellow-creature’s soul.
2. Persons who are anxious about the religious welfare
of loved ones—what God will do for them, through what
experiences He will guide them—forgetting that they are
far dearer to God than they are to you.
The true repose is to throw the mind back upon the
sovereignty of God. “If I will that he tarry till I come,
what is that to thee.” The force of the sentence lies
in its indistinctness; but Christ must have had either of
two meanings—that John’s life might be prolonged to the
Second Advent, or that he should survive the taking of
Jerusalem, which was often called Christ’s coming. There
is a reproof here to those who are drawn into speculative
views of unfulfilled prophecy. The thought of our Lord’s
coming, must always be the real horizon in every belie-
ver’s prospect. But guard against the dreamy gazing
out into the future, which incapacitates for present duty.
They are the happiest “who shall be alive and remain ”
at the glorious Advent, but the question is not whether
we go to Christ, or Christ comes to us, but am I follow-
ing the Lord. He could point back from where He stood
to His whole life, and say of every step, what no one
else can ever say, “Follow Me.” This command of our
Lord is a personal thing, a real individual concern for every
one’s soul. The secret of all happiness and holiness in
either world is to place, as God as placed them—close,
indivisible, one—that “thou” and that “me.” “Follow
thou Me.”
They who have followed Him here in the cross-bearing
life will be they who shall “follow the Lamb whithersoever
He goeth.”
James Vaughan, M.A.