"Somewhere along the way, we have missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves."
Think this statement is a bit extreme? So did I the first time I read it. Then I read the following excerpts and I understood what the author meant . . .Check it out for yourselves :
Read Luke 9:57-62 (click the link) The heading is called "The Cost of Following Jesus." It is the story of three men who approach Jesus and are eager to follow Him. However, instead of welcoming them, Jesus tries to talk them out of doing so :
"To the first man, He says: "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." In other words, expect homelessness. Followers of Christ are not guaranteed that even their basic need of shelter will be met.
To the second man who wants to go back and bury his father first, Jesus says: "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Basically, Jesus is saying "Don't even go to your dad's funeral. There are more important things to do."
To the third man who wanted to first say good-bye to his family, Jesus says: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Plainly put, a relationship with Jesus requires total, superior, and exclusive devotion.
Become homeless.
Let someone else bury your dad.
Don't even say good-bye to your family.
Is it surprising that, from all we can tell in Luke 9, Jesus was successful in persuading these men not to follow Him?" Which way are we persuaded?
"This was not some sort of reverse-psychology gimmick to get people to follow Him. Jesus was simply and boldly making it clear from the start that if you follow Him, you abandon everything--your needs, your desires, even your family.
Think this was just an extreme case on Jesus' part? He doesn't mean that for everyone, does He?
Read Luke 14:25-27 Again, the heading is called "The Cost of Being a Disciple." According to these verses, if we want to be Jesus' disciple, plain and simple, we must: Give up everything we have, carry a cross,(Yes, a cross--an instrument of torture.This isn't just a metaphor. Imagine a leader coming on the scene today and inviting all who would come after him to puck up an electric chair and become his disciple. Any takers?) and hate our family. This sounds a lot different than, "Admit, believe, confess, and pray after me."
Need another example? Check out Mark 10:17-31 with the story of the rich, young ruler.
What About Us?
"Let's put ourselves in the shoes of these eager followers of Jesus in the first century. What if I were the potential disciple being told to drop my nets? What if you were the man whom Jesus told to not even say good-bye to his family? What if we were told to hate our families and give up everything we had in order to follow Jesus?
This is where we come face to face with a dangerous reality. We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love Him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate. And it is entirely possible that He will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor.
But we don't want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away. "Jesus wouldn't really tell us not to bury our father or say good-bye to our family. Jesus didn't literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor. What Jesus really meant was..."
And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving into the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with.
A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that He receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, He loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants to avoid danger all together. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.
But do you and I realize what we are doing at this point? We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves." (whoa.)
If any part of this post convicted you, you need to read this book.
If any part of this post did not convict you, seriously ask yourself why not. And then you need to read this book.
I cannot say it anymore plainly.
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