21.4.2002amlbc
True Discipleship is Total Surrender
Mark 10:13-31
1. Tom in Philippines
Greg’s trip report last week – We arrived and we were overwhelmed by the place. His first session with us ‘you must do whatever I say – if you are on fast break and I say get in the jeep you don’t even finish the lay up – you just get out of there’.
There was no question that we would obey – disobedience was not an issue we would even consider – his word was law to us.
It was a dangerous place 15 years ago
– team that was shot at
– team in Zamboanga
– NPA threats – I was 21 and was finding this exciting!
I think we would have stripped naked and turned cartwheels if that was the order of the day. And that would have been hard because I’m not good at cartwheels!
But we knew that during that time we were under his command – we were his servants – we did whatever he said – and we were also his responsibility – he was caring for us. We knew that he would have taken a bullet for us.
He was completely devoted to us and our wellbeing. So we would do whatever he asked.
2. At the prayer meetings a couple of weeks back we felt God was saying something similar things to us as a church. As the time came to an end we felt God calling us to be totally surrendered to him – to let go of control of our own lives and to give that to him. And at the same time he was saying there is no need to fear. That there was no need to be afraid of what he might ask of us or where he might take us. Because he loves us. He is devoted to us.
Simple stuff really, but maybe stuff we need to hear again and again and again- because we receive other messages again and again and again.
As we prayed we felt God saying he wants all of our hearts and all of our lives and all of our dreams and he’s saying you can trust me – there is no need to be afraid. I want the best for you. In some ways it’s a call back to basics – or forward to basics.
This morning as we consider this kind of following of Jesus – and what God is saying to us, let me take you back to a very familiar story in the book of Mark where Jesus has an encounter with a man who wants eternal life. Its in Mk ch 10.
As we read Mark’s story the man isn’t given a name – all we are told is that he was very wealthy, he was still young and he was powerful – he was a ‘ruler’. It is likely he had heard that Jesus had this thing available – this eternal life – and he wanted to get in on it. He had everything else so why not this? I wonder if he came to Jesus seeking what his money couldn’t buy and his power couldn’t get him. He was used to getting what he wanted.
As we read the gospels its always important to keep in mind that the writer is telling a complete story so as we read this short account Jesus meeting with this man, we need to put it back in its context and see what surrounds it. I think that story that precedes it is important to what Mark is trying to say to us.
Back a few verses in v.13 Mark tells of how people were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. He writes {14} When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. {15} I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." {16} And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
Jesus says to his disciples that the kids are a living picture of the kind of trust and acceptance that is needed to be one of his followers. He says the kingdom of God belongs to people like these – people who respond like children. As we read on I think we will see that there is a connection between this incident and what happens next. In fact it’s a stark contrast.
Here there is the uncluttered simplicity of a child’s heart – the kind of following Jesus is seeking – and then in the story we’re about to read we will see the complications and tangles that are part of the adult experience. The obstacles to faith that we face but that kids wouldn’t know of.
Mark writes {17} As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
That’s his request – a simple question – and it seems that this incident happened in public view – this wealthy powerful man pleads on his knees with Jesus for this eternal life he is offering.
And the public setting is important to remember – people were all around watching and listening – crowds followed Jesus everywhere – always seeking the miracle or the free feed or the clever words – but he wasn’t chasing crowds. He was ok with them being around but what he really wanted to do was to figure out who was playing the main game – who were the disciples – the genuine followers.
Jesus was very popular amongst ordinary people for much of his ministry – but only a small minority actually finished up as true followers. This man before him now – what was he likely to become?
He comes to Jesus asking for eternal life. It seems like a fairly self centred kind of a request. Jesus asks the man a few questions
{18} "Why do you call me good? No one is good--except God alone.”
I think here Jesus is making a thinly veiled statement that maybe you are face to face with God here. He goes on:
{19} You know the commandments: ’Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’"
And the man’s going ‘yes yes…’ A good Jew would be familiar with these – he’s saying – yes well I haven’t really done anything wrong – I’m a good bloke.
And I don’t know about you but as I read this account I find myself wondering if the man didn’t cut him off. If he didn’t interrupt and try to short circuit the process – he’s busy & wanted to cut to the chase – the bottom line. Just tell me and let me get on. What have I got to do!! Give me the goods and let me get on with MY life. (Now that might not have happened but sometimes as you read the stories you get different images. This time I saw a busy self obsessed yuppie who just wanted to cut a deal – who wanted this thing that his money couldn’t buy)
So maybe he interrupts and says {20} "Teacher all these I have kept since I was a boy." Can we just get on with it?!!
Jesus has to be thinking – ‘Really?!! You’ve kept them all!??’ Not an uncommon thought I’d reckon. At our Alpha group the other night we went thru all ten commandments and I came the conclusion that I think I have broken every one at some point or other – and I think all of us had – so this is either an amazing person – or – he’s a bit naïve.
Now notice this next statement.
{21} Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus loved this man – in his desperate self centred seeking for this thing called eternal life Jesus loved him. He didn’t get angry with him because he was coming with wrong motives or because he was being pushy or difficult. He loved him. And if you are here today grappling with what it means for you to follow Jesus then I wonder if you don’t need to hear that. However you come to him – whatever is going on in your life that is not healthy, no matter how ugly – Jesus loves you. Even if right now you have no concept of God’s love for you – it doesn’t change the fact that he does love you.
It is out of that love for the man Jesus makes his next statement:
"There is just one thing you lack, Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
What a thing to ask!!! To someone who just wanted to sign off on the eternity deal Jesus says this is a bit bigger than that.
I don’t know how many times you have read this story – but for me I’ve seen it hundreds and this week the significance and the impact of that call hit me. Allow yourself to consider that for a minute. Allow yourself to be that man.
You come to Jesus – you want what he’s offering – eternal life, peace, purpose, hope and his call to you is to sell everything you own and not to put the money in the bank but to give it to the poor. That meant all his property all his possessions all his shares – Jesus was telling him to get rid of them. How would you feel – to sell the house/s, the cars, to empty the bank account, to have only the bare necessities for life. Would you do it if you were him? (And as we read this story and interpret it into our context I know it is true that Jesus does not say to all of us to sell everything we own.)
But what if he did say that to us?… How would we respond? WAIT…
Do you think Jesus would have let him follow thru on it? Do you think Jesus would have sent him off and then said ‘nah – just testing?’ Would Jesus really allow someone to give away everything? Isn’t that downright irresponsible?
I think Jesus would have let him do it. I think Jesus was asking him to do it’
Because then this rich, powerful totally self sufficient young man would be completely dependent on him – then he would have discovered that Jesus really is his security and his hope – that Jesus is the source of life here and now and life eternal. Jesus was calling him to be a disciple. To completely rework his life and his values.
Mother Theresa once said ‘you will never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have’. Many of us will never make that discovery.
But – I wonder – How many of us call Jesus our hope and our security when really he’s not? What does that do to our relationship with him? What does it say about this Christian faith we are a part of?
In v. 22 Mark writes ‘The man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.’ He knew the consequences of his choice and he saw that Jesus wasn’t negotiating – so he chose the money over Jesus.
You know – sometimes I think we’re too hard on this guy and too soft on ourselves. I think many of us have read this and thought – ‘what a mug – he just didn’t get it – its all about trusting Jesus and he can’t trust’. Dumbo!!!
And yet I feel like we get it at a cognitive level – but do we really get it? We’re told that we genuinely believe something if we act on it – if it changes our behaviour – not if it sits in our minds as a good idea.
Would we do it? Would we be prepared to follow Jesus like he called this man to? To surrender the things we had been banking on for happiness and security? (And yours may not be money). In essence Jesus is calling him to trust him completely – to let go of anything that could stand in the way and lure him away from the life of a disciple – to be single minded in his devotion. For this man – money and wealth and status is his God and Jesus is saying that he will not ride shotgun in that deal.
This is actually really hard to preach this AM because personally – as I put myself in the man’s place, I wish I could say yes to that – because I believe that’s what Jesus is seeking – unconditional devotion – but honestly I don’t know that I could do that today. And that scares me (my reticence to do it). I would like to – but I am afraid of what it might mean. I am very attached to my stuff. And that disturbs me – why am I attached to material things? This is a very disturbing – challenging – and yet potentially a life giving story.
Why does Jesus do this? Because he is seeking followers – not fans. He wants people to be converted not convinced.
Kierkegaard once said “To become an ‘admirer of Jesus’ is much easier than to become a follower.” You can admire from a distance and be relatively unaffected – but followers have their lives turned upside down. If the gospel doesn’t turn our live upside down then we need to ask why?
An article I read this week said ‘It is possible today for a person to come into the cultural pattern of the church without having met the Head of the church. This is disastrous beyond description. We have been so afraid we might lose potential members that we have been willing to take them on their own terms. Then we wonder why the church is relatively impotent and doesn’t have the power to transform human life, to shake society to its very roots.”
I love that image of the church shaking society to its very roots – which is what it is capable of if it is full of disciples of Jesus Christ – and its what the church is supposed to do! It happened in the first century and it could happen again – if God’s agenda became more important that our own. If we followed with simple childlike trust rather than convoluted adult reasoning, scepticism and fear. If people were converted to Jesus rather than a cultural pattern.
Jesus would not take the rich young man on his own terms – he allowed him to walk away. That same article said “We – as the church – must come to the place where we can do what Jesus did, where we can watch the rich young ruler walk away and, with sorrow and an ache in our hearts, let him go until he can come back on the terms of Jesus Christ.”
I think maybe we need to admit that the man in the story is more like us than we’d like him to be. And the question he is faced with is the same one we face day after day. Let me reframe it for us.
If I were to say ‘don’t come back next week if you couldn’t respond positively to that request from Jesus’ I wonder how many of us there would be? My guess is very few. I’m not being over the top there – I just think that what God has been saying to me this week is that I easily overestimate my commitment to discipleship. And yet the truth only emerges when it gets tested. This man was tested. And he made his choice.
Part of me actually wants to say ‘well done’ – part of me wants to applaud the man’s integrity in not saying yes and then doing ‘no’. He counted the cost and said I’m not ready for that. Maybe he came back – maybe he didn’t – but either way he knew the score.
And I guess for Jesus to watch him walk away must have been hard. He loved this man – he wanted him to be a disciple – he wanted his loyalty – but he made his choice.
Jesus called disciples – followers – not admirers.
In speaking to church leaders Dallas Willard says “The leading assumption in the American church today – and the Australian one I’ll add – is that you can be a Christian but not a disciple. That has placed a tremendous burden on a mass of Christians who are not disciples. We tell them to come to church, participate in our programs and give money. But we see a church that knows nothing of commitment. We have settled for the marginal, and so we carry this awful burden of trying to motivate people to do what they don’t want to do. We can’t think about church the way we have been.”
His argument is that we must call people back to discipleship even if it thins the ranks. Even if it sees a whole bunch of people saying ‘I’m staying home on a Sunday’. He is saying none of us as church leaders want to place that burden on people – we don’t want to motivate people to do what they don’t want to do. He is saying let them go.
I have a friend who recently spent 4 weeks looking at what it means to be a disciple rather than an admirer and his church attendance went from 120 – 70 on a good day. If that happened here would we accept that or would we rather have the façade of a crowd making us look good?
In a world that worships bigger and better, Jesus seemed to be a crowd thinner rather than a crowd builder. Jesus allowed the crowds to hang around – but he wasn’t after them. He wanted disciples. Not perfect people – just people who were willing to follow him and face up the issues that go with that – people who are teachable, open and willing to what he asks?
When the man had walked away Mark writes, that Jesus taught them about the struggle wealthy people have to enter the kingdom of God – but he says that it is possible.
Then in v.28 Peter pipes up and says to him, "Lord we have left everything to follow you!" Don’t miss that – because its crucial. Peter thinks out loud ‘We have already done what you asked of him.’ What if Jesus had set a different bar for the rich guy? Would Peter have still wanted to follow him?
What Jesus was asking was normal practice for a disciple. When Jesus called people he called them to that kind of an existence. Not of abject poverty but to complete faith and trust in him – to a surrender of their lives to him. To a trusting childlike faith. That’s why the story that precedes this one is important to connect in.
And in case you think this is a one off event just listen to some of the other things Jesus said as he called people to follow him.
See how seriously he took discipleship.
Luke says 14:25-27 NIV) When large crowds were travelling with Jesus, he turned to them and said: {26} "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. {27} And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
That would thin the ranks
He went on to say (Luke 14:33 NIV) In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
Jesus was not ambiguous on this topic – you don’t need to ask ‘what he means’ by that!
In John 12:24-26 Jesus said ‘I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. {25} The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
In Matthew 16:24-28 NIV) Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. {25} For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. {26} What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
The rich guy needed to grasp this.
(Luke 9:57-62 NIV) As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." {58} Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." {59} He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." {60} Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." {61} Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." {62} Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
(Mat 7:13-14 NIV) "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. {14} But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Jesus made some big asks of people and he knew that many would not respond – the narrow gate tells us that disciples will be a minority – the parable of the soils tells us that disciples – the good soil – will be hard to find – and yet its disciples Jesus calls.
Carl Engels has written a book entitled “what’s gone wrong with the harvest.” Where he asks that question – how come discipleship seems to have been undervalued by the church and attendance seems to have been overvalued. How come there are so many admirers and so few followers?
And disciples aren’t rocket scientists – they are simply people who will do as they are
told – they are surrendered to him. Peter, James John – they weren’t the cream of the crop in any way – but they were open to growing and learning. That’s where we can take hope. A disciple is a learner – not one who has it all together.
As Jesus finished he went on to teach them about God’s economy – the way things work in God’s kingdom.
He says {29} "I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel {30} will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. {31} But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
The first will be last and the last will be first. When we all line up on that day whereabouts will you be – first or last – top end or bottom end? If all the churches lined up where would LBC be?
It’s a confronting story isn’t it. I’ve been studying it all week! You’ve just copped it this morning!
I think we would love to live in surrender to Jesus but we do fear – we do baulk – maybe we even buck at it. And yet something in us knows that this is where life is really found – its where faith really cuts it. Standing back from the edge and holding onto the stuff that makes us feel secure is such a lame substitute for jumping over the edge and seeing God catch us.
Maybe before we speak of evangelising the world we need to re-evangelise the church – we still need to call ourselves back to that first love and that surrender that we struggle with.
As we have prayed for vision and direction over the last few weeks all that has come to me personally has been the words of that song – “Jesus be the centre – Jesus be my vision” – perhaps its because some of us don’t really know who Jesus is and what he is like – or maybe he isn’t the centre. Perhaps right now God is calling us to get back to focussing on Jesus and what he is on about. Perhaps it’s a really simple call to surrender to him – knowing that he is devoted to us – knowing that he loves us – knowing that we don’t have to fear.
It’s the paradox of life to the full thru self denial. But it’s the only way discipleship works.
