That’s quite a question you’re asking me and I’m going to do my best to answer it in a way that doesn’t leave it hazy (sadly, this is all too common with questions like this in this sickeningly post-modern ethos). I’m going to refer you to Jesus’ own words given to us in Holy Scripture in Matthew 16:24: Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Let’s examine what Jesus is saying and there we will find the answer you need. It’s clearly divided into 3 parts: “Deny yourself” Discipleship involves a renunciation and with it a surrender. We obey the first commandment (“You shall have no other gods before my face”) and renounce our arrogant claim to being #1. We must let God be God and take His rightful position. This also involves surrender: we must give up our self-centeredness and our selfish ambitions, goals and even dreams for ourselves. The reality is that it’s a total surrender. We must say “no” to me so that God can say “yes” to us. The joy of our surrender is that we forsake the ugliness inside us and move toward the pure beauty of His intense love for us. We are given a security that can be found nowhere else. Our self-denial also results in gifts: the indwelling Holy Spirit who empowers us toward self-denial and submission to God, the gift of forgiveness to cover our many moments of slipping back into self-centeredness, special gifts that can be used to worship God, do the work of the kingdom, focus us toward helping others and make us more Christ-like. In short we forsake our futile and hopeless attempt to control our lives and build our petty little kingdom for the guaranteed promise of being a child and heir forever in the eternal kingdom. “Take up your cross” This brings us to another verse that applies “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” Galatians 6:2. Once we have denied ourselves Jesus next tells us that discipleship involves recognizing that there is work to be done. There are human souls in need and just as he carried their burden all the way to sacrificing Himself for them on the cross, so we too are called to this same work and to self-sacrifice. A disciple is by definition a follower and following Jesus means following His example and being like Him. We are not given a pass to skip that part and Jesus makes that clear. Bearing burdens is not easy and Jesus doesn’t say that (how could he of all people say it?) but being He nowhere says being His disciple is easy or trouble free. In fact He usually says the opposite and often. We must not only accept but embrace this. We are called into service and we must heed the call and respond not only in love toward Him but with that same love He has for all of humanity and even creation. We have no right nor should we ever have the expectation that we will be given a comfortable life. Jesus is too wise to let us be comfortable because He knows the intense spiritual danger that involves—comfortable Christians become lazy, sheltered, arrogant, pick-and-choose maggots infesting the corpse they are making of His body---they are some of the greatest destroyers of the Church. Taking up our cross will keep us safe from this and move us forward spiritually (but granted uncomfortably) to the heavenly joy of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb and we will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and the work we have done in His kingdom (through the Holy Spirit’s power) will not burn, but endure and glow. The cross now leads to the glory to come (that’s the deal—a nod to C.S Lewis here). “Follow me” A disciple is a follower and following Christ is unsafe…yes, I admit that. So unsafe, in fact, that it often involves a lot of hard sacrifice…it may even be required of you to sacrifice your life (something the “noble army of martyrs” knows so well). There is a very real truth that following Jesus also means following Him into death. I will also go so far as to say that any theology that says otherwise is false and dangerous. An old camp-meeting hymn sums it up in this way “where He leads me, I will follow” and He may lead us into some very dark places, desperate situations, lonely years, hardships we can hardly even imagine at the moment and miseries we would shudder and recoil from if we knew they were coming. “In this world you will have tribulation.” But we are given one immense comfort along the path we’re lead onto. “That peace that passes understanding” gives us an anchor amidst all the storms and heartache. We are also promised that He “will never leave us or forsake us.” We may feel very alone—I certainly have so often but we never are. He “is with us always.” There is another very important theological truth which makes following Jesus more than worth it. We may be led through the vale of tears by Him but He also is leading us somewhere else and if we keep following Him we’ll get there. He is also leading us home. Not just any home, either. It’s a home prepared especially for us…where all of our sacrificed hopes, dreams, ambitions, aspirations will find more fulfillment and fullness than they ever could have here. Having denied ourselves we will become more ourselves than we could have ever imagined. Another old hymn says it well “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus” and it will. We will have followed Him through the vale, into death, and emerged (as He did) into eternal life. Not just any life but glorious life, super-abundant life, transcendent life. We will be home free. Jesus knows exactly what He’s doing and by trusting Him we will come to know He never steered us wrong even once. Now that we’ve reviewed what Jesus said and how He defines discipleship we can with great confidence dismiss this absurd nonsense being spouted that discipleship is meant to be a big party or a life of blessing and ease. That definition is false, dangerous, and even blasphemous. I know it’s popular right now and the prosperity gospel apostates have been deceiving people into this false view for decades. This era of “celebrity” evangelists and ministers, mega-churches, “feel good” spirituality and just plain greed is an affront and an offense to the Jesus who, long ago, denied their self-aggrandizing definition of discipleship and told us the truth. Vince Capman December 2008
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 21:52:16 +0000
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