This is the invitation to us all, like the early disciples who left their boats filled with fish and their nets that needed mending, to follow Christ. The very phrase itself denotes that we are to go we He has gone and were He ultimately ended up, gaining eternal life.
We have many leaders in our time who beckon us to follow them but alas in many instances they themselves will not do or go as they would have us. This is not so with Jesus. We read in Alma 7: 11-13 "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind...And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities...Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh..." What this means is, that our Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost "know" all things but yet it was so important the He experience trials, sorrow, hunger, and disappointment, so He would really "know" what it is like to be man. To know how to heal us and to help us in our daily walk. We read that Jesus wept with His friends at the death of their brother. He knew that Lazarus would be raised in just a few moments, yet He wept! He has real feelings, those same feelings that we all have.
This is why I follow Christ, because He has walked the path and knows the way. He understands my sorrow. I can not say in the day of judgment that He just doesn't get it. He walked amongst us and yet did no sin. He was crucified and yet no word of anger escaped His lips, instead the words are "Father, forgive them..." So when He says to love your enemies, He has moral authority, because He was able to love. He says unto us, repent and be baptized because before He preached it, He was baptized, even though there was no sin in Him. He asks us to pray always, and this is what we find Him doing throughout His life. How many times is it mentioned that He was found, either in the synagogues or the Temple, often. He was always found doing good.
This is a leader we can truly follow, not because He says but because He does what He says. He is trustworthy and left His home to come to earth, to be ridiculed, spit upon, scourged, left friendless and alone on the cross, even the Father for a moment withdrew from Him, and thus in his agony crying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46 And finally to die. His whole life was dedicated to us. It was a gift in so many ways. To show us the way, and to ultimately do for us what we can not do for ourselves, atone for our sins. I love Him, I know He loves us and all He does is invites us to follow Him because His way is the way of happiness. He is real!
