THE WAY (4) – The Voice Behind You

This morning I attended a Sunday School class taught by one of the teachers I had in graduate school more than 35 years ago. I had not seen him since he preached the Baccalaureate message prior to my graduation. (Surprisingly, he remembered me when I told him where I was preaching at the time I attended his class.) He was pleased that I remembered the text of his message (which he admitted to me that he did not remember). That text was:

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!” – Isaiah 30:20-22 (NIV, emphasis added)

All of us have times in our lives when we need to be called back to The Way.

Those are the times we need teachers from our past – or present – to be a voice in our ear saying, “This the the way; walk in it.” Dr. Smith sent us out from our years of study with this thought: when the times of difficult come and you are tempted to leave The Way, let the things you have learned be a voice in your ear reminding you not to turn to the right or to the left – but to continue to walk in The Way that Jesus leads you.

That is good advice for everyone, not just students graduating from a seminary or Bible college.

Most of us know the Way in which we should walk far better than we walk that path. From even farther back (more than 50 years ago), I remember a statement by the preacher at the College Church in Searcy, AK when I was an under-graduate student at Harding College. He said that for most of us, our problem is not in knowing what to do. It is in doing what we know to do, or in not doing what we know not to do.

When we discuss the Way of the Cross, our real issue is not in lack of discernment; it is in lack of commitment. We see Jesus, the suffering servant who laid down His life for us. Like Peter (and the rest of the 11 – Judas had left the group by this time) as he declared that he would never forsake Jesus, that he was ready to die with him. Jesus responded, “Before the rooster crows tonight, you will deny me three times.” Peter was insistent – but before the rooster crowed, Peter had denied his Lord three times.

Chances are, I am no better. In fact, I am not as strong as Peter! At least, Peter repented and continued as a leader among the apostles. He remembered the voice behind him telling him, “This is the way; walk in it.”

I must listen to that voice of my teachers – but I must also keep my eye on The Teacher, that is, on Jesus. While my human teachers have given me much, Jesus has given me much more. My commitment must always be to walk in His footsteps.

In 1897 Charles Sheldon published a Christian novel, In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do. It has sold more than 30 million copies and is the 9th best selling book of all time. In this novel, Rev. Henry Maxwell challenges his congregation to take a pledge to ask themselves “What would Jesus do?” before every action or decision. Acting on a pledge like that would change our lives, wouldn’t it?

That pledge is at the heart of the Christian path being called The Way. It is the Way Jesus walked.

One of those early disciples/apostles who walked with Jesus later wrote in his old age:

Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. – 1 John 2:6

Do we?

Do I?

Do you?