The Footprints of Jesus for Those Who Would Follow Him

Matthew 8:17: O Lord, You have not taken offence at the infirmities of others but have borne them: You have not rejoiced in the infirmities of others but have looked on them with compassion: neither have You been dismayed at the infirmities of others but have endured them in love until the end. Oh, how often have I, who am so frail myself, judged the frailties of others, taken advantage of them for my own selfish pride, have gladly been among the lowly and the least of men, not to be lowly with them, but to be the greatest among them. But have you sought the frailties of others to bear them and to provide redemption? What do your followers do in this? What do your servants seek from people today?

Matthew 8:20: You became poor in order to make others rich. You lived poor and gave abundantly. In poverty I will be like you and your apostles, I will possess nothing on earth. But not only outwardly, but above all inward poverty, poverty in spirit, that I have no place to lay my head, nothing to rest upon that is of me, but in everything to rest upon that which You have given me through Your death and resurrection. Let me, from this day forward, speak no more good and praiseworthy things about myself; for it is said that I am rich, and yet I am poor.

Matthew 9:13: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Sinners are unreasonable, manipulative deceivers, quarrelsome, tiresome and demanding people. He did not just help such as these, but He actively sought them out. Because these were the most in need of His love and devotion. They were to Him, who was sinless perfection, the most unsympathetic people, and so His devotion to them was a continuously conquering love, where every word He spoke, every look, every deed from Him required an overcoming. His transforming Love was strong above all else, and His devotion and service sustained Him.

Matthew 10:25: When they have rejected Jesus with contempt as the One, and have said of Him: When they do not consider Him worthy of life; when they brand Him as a criminal, when they treat Him as a lunatic—what will they not do to you? What can you expect? And by whom was He rejected? Not by the outcasts of society, but by the fathers, the elders of the people, those who represented righteousness, truth, and holiness; they found in Him, the Righteous, True, and Holy One, no righteousness, no truth, and no holiness. Imagine how painful it must have been for Jesus to have been rejected by the elders.

Matthew 10:38: And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. The Lord knows His disciples by their cross. He who does not carry his cross cannot walk alongside the Lamb. Only in connection with the cross does one lose one’s self-life on which the curse rests and find new life, in which Jesus is the pivotal centre, the alpha and the omega. Lord, lead me deep into Your ways. There is rest, because you have nothing more to fear for your own part or to seek for yourself. In these two things: seeking one’s own and fearing for one’s own is the source of much unrest and, therein, lie most of Satan’s snares.

Matthew 12:50: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” His will and His love must ultimately become one and the same for us. God’s children are saved to always do God’s will.

Matthew 15:36: Jesus did not want to do everything Himself: He did not think that if He had not done it Himself, then it hadn’t been done properly. Love alone thinks no evil of his neighbour, but it thinks more highly of him than of itself. He was so humble that He could say: . . . greater works than these you will do, because I go to My Father. For us, this means that in our prayers for others, we should expect them to do and experience greater things than us. He broke bread and blessed it before sharing it with His disciples. Can we accept that others distribute the good that comes from us, and it is credited to them, and that people receive it as if it was from their hand?

Matthew 16:1: Jesus served the Father. He knew of no other service. He was not deceived by a distinguished audience. He did not bow to the teachings of the Pharisees, and He was not awestruck by the knowledge of the Sadducees. He called both leaven, which He warned His disciples to beware of.

Matthew 16:23: Jesus was here, in the first instance, not hard against Peter, but against Himself, because He did not allow Peter to take sides with Him in a false way. Everything that feeds our self-will shall be as Satan to us.