What is That to You? You Follow Me!/id

From Gospel Translations

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"Itu Bukan Urusanmu. Tetapi Engkau: Ikutlah Aku"

Dibebaskan dari Membanding-bandingkan dengan Kalimat yang Blak-blakan

Yohanes 21:18-22

Setelah kebangkitan-Nya dari antara orang mati, Yesus bertanya kepada Petrus tiga kali apakah ia mengasihi-Nya. Ia menjawab ya tiga kali. Kemudian Yesus memberi tahu Petrus bagaimana ia akan mati—nampaknya dengan penyaliban. Petrus ingin tahu bagaimana dengan Yohanes. Jadi ia bertanya kepada Yesus, "apakah yang akan terjadi dengan dia ini?" Yesus mengacuhkan pertanyaan tersebut dan berkata, "itu bukan urusanmu. Tetapi engkau: ikutlah Aku." Ini percakapannya.

"Aku berkata kepadamu: Sesungguhnya ketika engkau masih muda engkau mengikat pinggangmu sendiri dan engkau berjalan ke mana saja kaukehendaki, tetapi jika engkau sudah menjadi tua, engkau akan mengulurkan tanganmu dan orang lain akan mengikat engkau dan membawa engkau ke tempat yang tidak kaukehendaki." Dan hal ini dikatakan-Nya untuk menyatakan bagaimana Petrus akan mati dan memuliakan Allah. Sesudah mengatakan demikian Ia berkata kepada Petrus: "Ikutlah Aku." Ketika Petrus berpaling, ia melihat bahwa murid yang dikasihi Yesus sedang mengikuti mereka, yaitu murid yang pada waktu mereka sedang makan bersama duduk dekat Yesus dan yang berkata: "Tuhan, siapakah dia yang akan menyerahkan Engkau?" Ketika Petrus melihat murid itu, ia berkata kepada Yesus: "Tuhan, apakah yang akan terjadi dengan dia ini?" Jawab Yesus: "Jikalau Aku menghendaki, supaya ia tinggal hidup sampai Aku datang, itu bukan urusanmu. Tetapi engkau: ikutlah Aku." (Yohanes 21:18-22)

Kalimat Yesus yang blak-blakan—"Bukan urusanmu. Ikutlah Aku"—manis di telinga saya. Kalimat tersebut membebaskan dari belenggu membanding-bandingkan yang menyedihkan dan fatal. Kadang-kadang ketika

Jesus’ blunt words—“None of your business, follow me”—are sweet to my ears. They are liberating from the depressing bondage of fatal comparing. Sometimes when I scan the ads in Christianity Today (all ten thousand of them), I get discouraged. Not as much as I used to twenty-five years ago. But still I find this avalanche of ministry suggestions oppressing.

Book after book, conference after conference, DVD after DVD—telling me how to succeed in ministry. And all of them quietly delivering the message that I am not making it. Worship could be better. Preaching could be better. Evangelism could be better. Pastoral care could be better. Youth ministry could be better. Missions could be better. And here is what works. Buy this. Go here. Go there. Do it this way. And adding to the burden—some of these books and conferences are mine!

So I was refreshed by Jesus’ blunt word to me (and you): “What is that to you? You follow me!” Peter had just heard a very hard word. You will die—painfully. His first thought was comparison. What about John? If I have to suffer, will he have to suffer? If my ministry ends like that, will his end like that? If I don’t get to live a long life of fruitful ministry, will he get to?

That’s the way we sinners are wired. Compare. Compare. Compare. We crave to know how we stack up in comparison to others. There is some kind of high if we can just find someone less effective than we are. Ouch. To this day, I recall the little note posted by my Resident Assistant in Elliot Hall my senior year at Wheaton: “To love is to stop comparing.” What is that to you, Piper? Follow me.

• What is it to you that David Wells has such a comprehensive grasp of the pervasive effects of postmodernism? You follow me.
• What is it to you that Voddie Baucham speaks the gospel so powerfully without notes? You follow me.
• What is it to you that Tim Keller sees gospel connections with professional life so clearly? You follow me.
• What is it to you that Mark Driscoll has the language and the folly of pop culture at his fingertips? You follow me.
• What is it to you that Don Carson reads five hundred books a year and combines pastoral insight with the scholar’s depth and comprehensiveness? You follow me.

That word landed on me with great joy. Jesus will not judge me according to my superiority or inferiority over anybody. No preacher. No church. No ministry. These are not the standard. Jesus has a work for me to do (and a different one for you). It is not what he has given anyone else to do. There is a grace to do it. Will I trust him for that grace and do what he has given me to do? That is the question. O the liberty that comes when Jesus gets tough!

I hope you find encouragement and freedom today when you hear Jesus say to all your fretting comparisons: “What is that to you? You follow me!”

Learning to walk in freedom with you,

Pastor John