THe Shadow of Jesus

In our continued study of the book of Mark we are seeing the Gospel unveiled week by week.  This week we saw that Jesus called His first disciples to follow Him.  Pastor Phil shared that this was an invitation for these men to walk in His shadow.  The idea of walking in the shadow of Jesus is the same idea as apprenticeship.  The apprentice learns follows, observes, learns, and eventually mimics the master in their craft.  These men were given quite the opportunity to learn from Jesus.
 
What a picture of God's grace that ordinary, everyday people would be asked to follow Jesus.    This is great news that followers of Jesus simply are asked to be nothing more, nothing less.  

But what is apprenticeship of Jesus?  For the disciples it meant giving up the lives they knew and literally followed Jesus around the countryside learning from Him.  Sure they struggled at times but Christ knew what they were capable of and continued to teach and train them during His time on earth.  
The thing that strikes me the most about walking in the shadow of Jesus is the requirement for proximity.  Proximity promotes emulation.  So followers of Jesus who want to reflect Jesus in this world must keep a close connection with Him.  Jesus actually taught the disciples these very truths in John 15.  He used the picture of a vine and it's branches, saying that if the branches had any desire to bear fruit they must stay connected to the vine.  

What a joy to know that Jesus offers this opportunity to us.  Through His death on the cross and His victory over death, sinful people can walk in His shadow and experience the abundant life that comes with emulating Jesus day by day.