μοῦ - The Third Word You Should Know
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been tracking through the three words that Christ uses to call the very first disciples, Simon Peter and Andrew, from Matthew 4:19. I first revealed the interjecting nature of the initial word - Δεῦτε (deute) - often translated as, “Come; come now!” In this first post I showed how Christ called out and interrupted the lives of the first disciples and now also calls out to us. Then in a second post, I uncovered the order and direction behind Christ’s middle word - ὀπίσω (opisō) - which is translated as, “follow after or behind.” From this word I discovered the action that is tied to Christ’s initial interjection word - “Come follow!” In this final post on the short declarative sentence of Jesus, we now move to the last word - μοῦ (mou). While this might be the simplest word to translate from Greek - the 1st-person personal pronoun, "me" - it is by far the word with the biggest implications!
This single word gives the parameter for the entire sentence. Follow after who? Me, Jesus; follow after me! Now this expression would not have been foreign to many during Jesus' day as rabbis and other religious teachers had students or disciples following after them. However, when one ties Jesus' earlier message to this call to follow, then his purpose moves to a deeper level of meaning. Jesus’ early message is recorded a few verses back in Matthew – “Repent , for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (4:17). When Jesus says “follow me,” he infers two things. First, he means to imply that he, himself, is the epitome of this “heaven come near.” He is God in the flesh. Second, he also means to say that if these earlier disciples, or anyone else for that matter, desire to experience to nearness of God, then they should follow him. There is no grace other than the grace of God. There is no love other than the love of God. In order for these disciples to receive the full measure of God's blessing, they must follow after Christ – he is the only way.
Do you remember back to the early days of GPS devices? There was always a little apprehension putting trust in these navigation machines because, “How do they even know where to go!?” And we had all heard of those horror stories where the machine led a person to the wrong place or got them completely lost. Today, I want to say that we hardly think twice when we pull up the maps app on our phones. New roads are created in real time. There are even apps that predict traffic patterns and road closings with an optimal time of departure! We don’t even have to have an address anymore; we just have to drop a pin somewhere and our devices will lead us there. We give little thought to what we follow. The lady says, “Turn right,” and we do it. She gives the warning, “Police spotted ahead,” and we slow down. Why is the way we follow after Christ any different?
Peter and Andrew did it – they left their nets and immediately followed after Jesus. He went one way, and they followed behind. He sent them on a head and they went without question. He said wait here and they waited. We, however, seem more interested in one of two lifestyles: perpetual motion or fearful paralysis. Some of us are moving so often and quickly that we get ahead of Christ. The rest of us are so scared of doing something wrong or messing up that we never do anything at all. So what does Christ’s final word have to say to us? Well, if you’re the one in constant motion, perhaps you need to take some time to occasionally reflect on where Christ might be trying to lead you - don't allow your pride to cloud your need for Christ's leadership in your life. And, if you are the one sitting frozen, perhaps you need encouragement to know that you do not go alone – when you follow after Christ, you are following after God himself! When the leader in our life is Christ, we can know that he will be leading us to exactly where we need to go and we will get there exactly how and when we are supposed to get there.