“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24
Over the last several months I've really come to appreciate how candid Jesus was about the cost of following him. In a world full of false advertising, side effects and the hidden details in the fine print, Jesus' transparency is very refreshing. But if we're honest, we'd still prefer a more comfortable option that required less self-denial. After all, we're used to hearing messages that appeal to our self-centeredness and our desire for entertainment, instant gratification and the like.
"Where there's life, there's Bud" (Budweiser)
"Life's Short, Play More" (XBox 360)
"Have it your way" (Burger King)
"Just do it" (Nike)
"Because I'm worth it" (L'Oreal)
Quite the contrast with "In this world you will have trouble," "Deny yourself," "Count the cost," "Follow me." Regardless of how many potential followers were scared off or how many people were offended, Jesus never retracted any of his statements or tried to reinvent himself in order to be more appealing to the masses. Yet as the church in our culture we often give in to the temptation to try to make Jesus more marketable, more politically-correct, less offensive, more entertaining, less demanding of our own participation and action... And whenever we fall into that, we fail to be or make the kind of disciples Jesus explicitly told us he is looking for.
The sad truth, as Dallas Willard said, is that "It is now generally acknowledged...that one can be a professing Christian and a church member in good standing without being a disciple" (The Divine Conspiracy). I don't want to fit that description, do you? Jesus didn't say "whoever wants to be my disciple needs to pray the sinner's prayer and try to make it to church every week. Piece of cake." He said his disciples are those that make a choice each day to surrender their lives to the will of God, no matter the cost. In the weeks to come, I'll be sharing a song and devotional thought with this series of posts that will help us to meditate daily on surrender, devotion and obedience. By the grace of God we won't just sing these songs or think deeply about their implications- we'll actually live them out in everyday life. Be blessed.
2 comments:
Much-needed word, Jesse. To be a disciple in this culture, sometimes even in the church culture, requires more than just swimming against the current--it requires leaping over dams and waterfalls of resistance (from without and within). Who can do this?! I can't, but He in me can, and this remains my pursuit. Thanks for the spark.
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