When I was young, all I wanted to do was grow up. I remember being ten or eleven and desperately wanting braces—because every teenager I knew had them. When we’re young, we’re naïve about how good we have it. So we rush. We assume maturity means freedom.

At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus gently dismantles that myth. After restoring Peter and commissioning him as a shepherd, Jesus says: “When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

When we’re young, we assume aging equals expanding freedom. Jesus reframes it. Maturity brings increasing responsibility.

“Stretching out your hands” points toward crucifixion and the call to sacrificial leadership. Life becomes less self-directed and more other-directed. You don’t always choose what you wear, sometimes literally a uniform, but metaphorically it means you are clothe yourself for the task at hand.

When you were young, you got to roam where-ever you wanted. Work and family means that you have been increasingly constrained by the needs of others. Any parent who has sat through middle-school musicals, piano recitals, and endless doctor’s appointments knows this truth. This is the cost of discipleship. This is servant leadership.

That is why Jesus ends John’s gospel with the same Great Invitation, He started with: Follow me.

Are we willing to follow him on the road that transforms us into servant leaders?