Why not follow Jesus?
19 Then a scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will
follow You wherever You go." 20 Jesus said to him, "The foxes have
holes and the birds of the air [have] nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay His head." 21 Another of the disciples said to Him, "Lord, permit
me first to go and bury my father." 22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow
Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead." 23 When He got into the
boat, His disciples followed Him.
[Mat 8:19-23 NASB]
61 Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord; but
first permit me to say good-bye to those at home." 62 But Jesus said to
him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit
for the kingdom of God." [Luke 9:61-62 NASB]
It hard to really find people who will openly just admit
that they don’t follow Jesus. Most of
the time we don't ask the question like that and simply ask people if they
believe in HIM.
It is reported that
92% of American believe Jesus was a real person
56% of Americans believe Jesus was God in the flesh
31% of Americans believe that Jesus lived a sinless life
62% of Americans say they have a personal commitment to
Jesus that is important to them[1]
But it is unclear how many of these folks would say they
follow Jesus as the resurrected Messiah who died for their sins as their
Hero/King.
How many have as their ultimate concern to become like Jesus
in their character and lifestyle?
That is a much harder question to figure out.
It is even harder to deal with this question in our own
hearts, regardless of what the statistics say.
Why would we want to make Jesus the ultimate concern of our
lives?
Can’t we use Jesus as fire insurance and live in a way that
we believe will make us happy?
Why would anyone want to follow Jesus?
Those who think they have successful lives without following
Jesus have little motivation to consider following HIM.
26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not
many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God
has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has
chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, [1Co
1:26-27 NASB]
Why follow Jesus when you are winning at life without
HIM? That does not make sense does it.
19 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many
goods laid up for many years [to come;] take your ease, eat, drink [and] be
merry."' 20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This [very] night your
soul is required of you; and [now] who will own what you have prepared?' 21
"So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward
God." [Luke 12:19-21 NASB]
21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go
[and] sell your possessions and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure
in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard this
statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. 23 And
Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 "Again I say to you, it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God." 25 When the disciples heard [this,] they were very
astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" 26 And looking at
[them] Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible." [Mat 19:21-26 NASB]
This type of intensity about spiritual matters is not something
that seems very normal in the 21st century in Western Culture. Some faith, some devotion, some religion, is
acceptable. It is seen as frosting on a
cake, nice but not really essential.
Faith is not understood as a core ingredient to life.
The Messiah Jesus seems so fanatical and wild as HE speaks
these things.
Most of us do not agree that it would be hard for anyone to
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, since we think that only if you are some type
of serial killer or moral pervert would you not have a place in heaven by just living
a fairly normal life and doing nothing radically bad. A mediocre righteousness would be all that
would be required.
So most of us don’t think much about if we are “rich toward
God.”
But Messiah Jesus says “You must be perfect in love, even as
the Heavenly Father is perfect in love. “
(Matthew 5:48)
Once we understand this then we like the disciples would say
“Then who can be saved?” And the Lord’s
answer would be the same “with human beings this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible.”
C.S. Lewis sees that only when we really experience that we
cannot be “good enough” will we really turn to the Messiah Jesus to be our
righteousness by HIS dying for our sins, declaring us righteous based on HIS
life alone, and coming to us in his resurrection power to put HIS life inside
of us.
“The sense in which a Christian leaves it to God is that he
puts all his trust in Christ: trusts that Christ will somehow share with him
the perfect human obedience which He carried out from His birth to His
crucifixion: that Christ will make the man more like Himself and, in a sense,
make good his deficiencies. ….. If you
like to put it that way, Christ offers something for nothing: He even offers
everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian life consists in
accepting that very remarkable offer. But the difficulty is to reach the point
of recognizing that all we have done and can do is nothing.
What we should have liked would be for God to count our good
points and ignore our bad ones. Again, in a sense, you may say that no
temptation is ever overcome until we stop trying to overcome it—throw up the
sponge. But then you could not ‘stop trying’ in the right way and for the right
reason until you had tried your very hardest.
And, in yet another sense, handing everything over to Christ
does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course,
trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a
person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed
yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him.
But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these
things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not
hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to
act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside
you.[2]”
So only those who have come to see that they really could
not earn or deserve entry into the Kingdom of heaven would be interested in
following Jesus. One only follows if one needs a leader. A self-sufficient person follows no one. That
is why the prostitutes and sinners were more likely to follow Jesus than the
rich or religious.
Hopeless people know they need a Savior.
Have you experienced the reality that in yourself you are
hopeless? If so then you should consider
following Jesus.
[2] Lewis,
C. S.. How to Be a Christian: Reflections and Essays (Kindle Locations 95-108).
HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
