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Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

These comforting words are said by Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30) as he calls all society’s outcasts to him: the hungry, the weary, the sick, the stressed.  Those who are needy, marginalised and downtrodden.  He offers them relief, comfort and provision.  When John the Baptist asked him to authenticate himself, Jesus responds by telling him how he has met people’s needs (Matthew 11:3-5).  This continues today.  Many of us initially responded to Jesus when we found him meeting specific needs.  Some of the fastest growing churches today are the ones getting their hands dirty: they run foodbanks, debt advice centres, street pastors, pregnancy advice clinics, healing ministries.  Not just because these are effective evangelistic tools; they are places where Jesus meets needs.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there.  Once our needs are met, he starts to move us on.  “Follow me” he says (Mark 1:17), asking us to leave behind family, homes and finance to begin a pilgrim life on the move, walking in his footsteps, going where he goes, often in some fairly dubious or dangerous company.  That’s not always easy to do.  Some of us figure we have too much to lose (Luke 18:23).  Others give up everything and follow Jesus (Luke 5:28).  Where else can we go? asks Peter after everyone else had found Jesus’ teaching too difficult (John 6:68).  As Jesus plainly says, what is the point of gaining everything, and losing one’s soul? (Matthew 16:26)

But following Jesus isn’t the last word.  There comes a time when he sends us off.  As he sent out his disciples (Matthew 10:5), he sends us.  It’s not that he is no longer with us, but that we strike out from the safety of the nomadic community which has become familiar to us, to take further risks, to leave more behind in the task of spreading his word.  For some of us this means going to the other side of the world, and for some it’s the other side of the street.  But the going is there for all of us as we go on in our journey with Jesus.  Failing to go is not only disobedient, it means missing out on a key stage of our development in Christ.

Come-follow-go is not a consecutive sequence of events in the life of a believer, but three interwoven strands that feed into each other.  As we follow Jesus he sends us into a given situation and we come to him with our needs in that situation.  It’s a daily ebb-and-flow of coming, following and going that meets our needs, develops our souls and gives our lives in service.  Many Christians will not practise all three elements.  They will come but not go, wanting needs met continually.  Others are only too keen to go, but burn themselves out by not coming.  And those who do not follow do not stay close enough to Jesus to avoid becoming self-indulgent or legalistic.

Only by balancing the three do we truly become his disciples.