“Let’s cut to the chase. After nearly two decades of studying Christian churches in America, I’m convinced that the typical church as we know it today has a rapidly expiring shelf life.” This dire assessment of the state of the church begins George Barna’s 1998 book, The Second Coming of The Church. He continued:
“Americans today are more devoted to seeking spiritual enlightenment today than at any previous time during the twentieth century. Yet, at this moment of optimum opportunity, Christianity is having less impact on people’s perspectives and behaviors than ever. Why is that? Because a growing majority of people have dismissed the Christian faith as weak, outdated, and irrelevant.
“Interestingly, the stumbling block for the Church is not its theology but its failure to apply what is believes in compelling ways. The downfall of the Church has not been the content of the message but its failure to practice those truths. Christians have been their own worst enemies when it comes to showing the world what authentic, biblical Christianity looks like – and why it represents a viable alternative to materialism, existentialism, and mysticism, and the other doctrines of popular culture.”
Here is the heart of what Barna concluded: “Most Christians – not those who merely call themselves Christians but those who have confessed their sinfulness and have asked Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior – have fallen pray to the same disease as their worldly counterparts. We think and behave no differently from anyone else.”
Those are some pretty strong statements. What do you think of them? Agree or disagree? Take the next minute and a half to gather in groups of three, and each person take 30 seconds to share why you agree or disagree with Barna’s assessment of the state of the Church.
Increasingly, those who are studying Christianity are becoming more concerned about the viability of Christianity in America. In most churches it is as if discipleship, living a life that is continuously becoming morphed into the likeness of Christ is purely optional. We liberally drink in God’s grace, but kindly pass on the parts of Christianity that would radically transform the way we live.
It is as if Christians have forgotten that there is a cost to following Christ. And in our malaise, we have gotten too comfortable, not only in our pew, but far too comfortable in our world. Our faith has become as casual as the clothes we have begun to wear on Sunday morning.
Discipleship is not a casual affair to Jesus. In a series of three encounters, in Luke 9:57-62, Jesus shows the high priority he places on discipleship. In three statements, directed at three would-be followers, Jesus establishes the high cost of following him.
If you have your Bibles please take them out, and turn to Luke 9, and keep it open there during the message. We will keep coming back to this passage.
Interestingly, Luke does not provide many scenic details for either of these encounters. He tells us astonishingly little about any of those Jesus encountered. The reason is that any of these three people could be you and I.
1. Rejecting your personal comfort …
The first incident involves a volunteer who confidently states a commitment to follow Jesus wherever he may go. Look at verse 57: “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’” Interestingly, nothing is told about this man or how he came to this decision.
Students of Judaism lived with their teachers in order to learn the Torah. In Matthew parallel account the man addresses Jesus as “Teacher”, demonstrating that the man probably has in view the example of students following a rabbi, where they lived and learned from the teacher.
But following Jesus means a different form of discipleship. It is a reorientation of life, involving suffering and perhaps death. If one is to go wherever Jesus goes, one must be ready for the rejection that he experienced (9:51-56). It is no accident that this text follows a passage that centered on rejection. Part of what makes discipleship so demanding is the fact that some type of rejection is a given for the believer.
Jesus is no mere rabbi. To follow him is more like following a prophet. The prophet was an itinerant teacher, often excluded, treated as an outsider by the rest of the community.
Jesus describes what disciples can expect when he is their example. His situation is worse than that of beasts: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Darrell Bock paraphrased Jesus response as: “foxes and birds have places to say, but the Son of Man has no [place to call] home.”
Christians will always be out of place. The world can never be so comfortable for a Christian that we can call it home. If we are serious about following after Christ, we will never fit in with those who have not made the same commitment. The disciple must realize that the choice to follow Jesus is not an easy one. Salvation is not a road paved with ease, for true spirituality takes discipline.
What is Jesus’ message to us, as would-be disciples – Costly discipleship involves rejecting our personal comfort. A disciple of Jesus must realize that following him means living as a stranger in the world, because a choice for Jesus is a choice to be rejected by many in the world. Many will not follow Jesus and will reject his disciples.
Tony Evans describes nicely the church that Jesus was warning against: “Rather than being the church in the world, we have allowed the world and its agenda to invade the church and help shape our thinking and our actions. The result has been what I call drive-through ‘McChristian’ spirituality. This has lead to weak Christians leading weak families bringing about weak churches resulting in a weak nation.”
Let me have everyone stand for a moment. Here is what I would like to do. We are going to show a few key cultural indicators on the screen up here, and I would like to do a quick opinion poll. Here is how this will work – as each indicator is projected I would like you to sit down if you think that Christians are statistically less likely than non-Christians to participate in that activity. If you think Christians and non-Christians would be statistically the similar, simply remain standing. If you think that Christians are more likely to participate than non-Christians, please raise your hand.
Watched rated PG-13/R movies in the past 3 months N-Christian
Visited a chat-room on the Internet Even
Bought a lottery ticket in the past week Even
Been divorced Christian
Subscribe to cable/satellite TV Even
Visit pornographic Internet sites Even
Pastors visiting porn sites. Christian
I don’t know about you, but those indicators tell me that as Christians we have become far too comfortable with the world. When there begins to be no distinguishable difference between the lives and choices of Christians and those outside of God’s family, we have made ourselves too much at home.
How at home are you in this world? How comfortable have you become in the place where you live your life? Use the scale of the screen to pinpoint your comfort level in the world.
That’s the point. We don’t belong. It is more than a line from an old hymn – “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through …” That is the reality of the Christian life… we are not home. When we forget that fact, and become personally comfortable living in and among the world, we have lost the significance of following Christ.
2. Rearranging your personal priorities …
In the second encounter, Jesus invites the man, “Follow me.” Unlike Levi, who earlier in Luke 5 immediately left all to follow Christ, this man comes up with a reason not to follow, at least initially: he wants to take time to bury his father.
Look at his reply: “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Notice the first word of this man’s reply. What is it? … “LORD.” Right off the would-be follower places Christ’s authority in his life in the emphatic position. He acknowledges that Jesus is in charge… He is the boss.
And what is the second work … “FIRST.” That is a word of priority. It ranks what is important against those things that are less important. It establishes the ranking of our personal priorities. The “first” always pushes other priorities aside.
In essence, this request is not only reasonable, it is the ‘best’ excuse for postponing discipleship. The request seems reasonable; as the responsibility of burial was one of the highest priorities a family member could perform.
Sirach, a writer of Jewish Scripture prior to Christ’s arrival, expressed the sentiment of this would-be disciple: “My child, let your tears fall for the dead …/ Lay out the body with due ceremony,/ and do not neglect the burial.” (Sirach 38:16)
The case seems to be that the man is asking to wait until his father has passed away – whenever that may be – thus delaying indefinitely his call to discipleship. The son wants to postpone devoting himself to Jesus until basic familial duties are behind him, putting commitment to family ahead of the priority of the kingdom.
Now look at Jesus’ reply: “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (vs. 60)
That’s pretty harsh isn’t it?
Obviously, Jesus wasn’t suggesting some sort of living dead funeral service. He was saying, “Let those who are spiritually dead take care of their own. You make participation in my priorities your priority.”
The seemingly harsh reply makes the point that discipleship and one’s commitment to the kingdom take priority even over family considerations. This saying is similar to other texts from Jesus that speak of hating mother and father – which means that if a choice is to be made, God must have first place. Taking care of funeral rites for a family member is a lower priority. More important than caring for the dead is taking part in God’s kingdom activities.
In your bulletin, could I have you quickly write out the five things that are most important to you, your top-five priorities? Be honest. No one is going to see your list.
Now look them over. How would you rank those priorities from greatest to least? Again, be completely honest.
Costly discipleship involves rearranging our personal priorities. Jesus’ statement is a particularly forceful way to demonstrate that discipleship requires a radical shift in priorities. Christ will not accept any position, but first place. Jesus must be “first.” He will not accept second place to anyone or anything. Even a good thing, such as honoring one’s parents by seeing that they receive proper burial, cannot usurp the pace of the best thing, which is to love Jesus with all one’s heart, strength, and mind.
Following Jesus is not a task that is added to others like working a second job… It is everything. It is a solemn commitment that forces the disciples-to-be to reorder all their other duties.
Many a would-be follower of Jesus has pleaded the requirements of social obligation or prior business demands as an excuse for not meeting the imperative of obedience. “When the preaching gets better then I’ll get serious about serving Jesus... When my schedule clears up… When the children are grown… When I have caught up on my bills… When, when, when, when, when.”
What is it for you? Which priority that you listed do you have the biggest struggle keeping in second place? Which priority puts the squeeze on your emphatically following after Christ? Jesus rejects such excuses.
On August 24, Timothy will be leaving for the Navy. In the military, as the soldier trains for service, they are required to leave home for a long time. Whether in boot camp or on call somewhere in the world, there is no time to stop and bury the dead or have contact with the family. Like a commitment to serve one’s nation, discipleship is a call to serve God. Personal agendas end up suspended in the face of national realities.
Tom Landry, long-time coach of the Dallas Cowboys, died in 2000. Winner of 2 Super Bowls, five NFC Championships, and number 3 all-time in coaching victories, Landry accomplished another feat that has never been matched, coaching the Dallas Cowboys to 20 consecutive winning seasons. When asked why he had been so successful, he responded to a crowd of more than 2000 students at Baylor University: “In 1958, I did something everyone who has been successful must do. I determined my priorities for my life – God, family, and then football.”
3. Reinforcing your personal dedication …
This passage closes with a third figure, who also volunteers to follow Jesus. He also asks for a proviso before starting. Look at his offer to follow in verse 61: “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.”
This man’s offer for following is much the same as the previous person’s response to Jesus’ call … an affirmation of Lordship, a statement of priority.
It parallels Elisha’s response to Elijah’s call in 1 Kings 19. Elisha, an OT ‘disciple’, asked to kiss his mother and father before joining the prophet, and Elijah granted the request.
Here, though, Jesus’ response is different. Instead of calling this person to realign his personal priorities, Jesus offers a farming metaphor: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
The picture of looking back while plowing is apt, since in Palestine the terrain is rugged. To look back while plowing was asking to make mistakes in preparing the field. The task required a focused eye on what lay ahead. So discipleship demands attention to the rough road before us. To look back risks being knocked off course.
A contemporary example can be found in gaper’s delays on the interstate. Many of us have seen someone who has passed a wreck on the interstate create greater chaos, looking back in their rearview mirror at the previous accident only to run into the tail-end of the car in front of them.
Jesus’ remarks have Old Testament precedent. Lot’s wife preferred Sodom and looked back. The Israelites longed for Egypt and complained because God brought them deliverance and a journey through the desert.
Given the term ‘fit’, “getting saved” is not the point here. Rather, the issue is how one serves and follows Jesus effectively.
Jesus’ reply is really a warning, since he sees a danger in the request. We may follow him initially, only to long for the old life later. Such looking back does not promote spiritual health. If we is going to follow Jesus, we need we need to understand that costly discipleship involves reinforcing our personal dedication.
Perhaps in the desire to bid farewell, the heart never leaves the attachment to old values and the old way of life. It is this lack of a clean break that Jesus warns against here.
The path to following Jesus is not a part-time job; it is a perpetual assignment. Those who wish to pursue spirituality as a hobby will not discover its blessing. God does not issue his call for a season, but for a lifetime. Service for the kingdom begins at the moment we receive Jesus and continues until the Father calls us home.
Some people follow Christ with a something better dedication. “I’ll follow Christ until something better comes along. I’ll follow Him as long as He doesn’t interfere too much. I’ll follow Him until that door I’ve been waiting for opens.”
And in the end our spiritual condition resembles that of Demas. Once a trusted companion of Paul’s, the last that we hear of him is in 2 Timothy: “… Demas, because he loved the world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.”
When Spanish explorer Cortez landed at Vera Cruz in 1519 to begin his conquest of Mexico with a small force of 700 men, legend has it that he purposely set fire to his fleet of eleven ships. Presumably, his men on the shore watched their only means of retreat sink to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. There was now only one direction to move – forward into the Mexican interior to meet whatever might come their way.
Some, here this morning, have left your ships anchored on shore prepared for an occasional jaunt into old waters. You don’t wander too far into the kingdom… your old life is always in sight. Retreat is always an option.
As part of our dedication as Christ’s disciples, we must purposefully destroy all avenues of retreat. We must resolve that whatever price is required for being his follower we will pay it. We must dedication ourselves with renewed determination that we will stay the course.
Many here began strong as disciples. You dedicated yourself to following as serving Christ. But after a season the resolve wore thin. You have asked yourself if following Jesus is really worth it, or if you should just give it up.
Grab hold of those reigns. Lean into that plow. Look to the horizon – and drive it on home.
