Some people say that being a Christian is easy. Others say it is difficult. They have a variety of reasons for their perspective. It seems to me that it depends. But let’s evaluate the ease and difficulty of following Jesus from his own words.
In Matthew 16:21-26 there’s an interesting story in which Jesus says the same thing we heard him say in the previous post about how growing faith together means following him out of our comfort zones. In the previous post, Jesus mentioned that his disciples will “take up your cross and following me,” but notice what brings him to that point is this new story:
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?’”
When Jesus explains to his disciples that he will need to die, Peter is not having it. No, no, no, Jesus. Peter is essentially saying, “Jesus, you don’t need to go that far out of your comfort zone. Death? That’s crazy talk, Jesus. Let’s rethink this. You must have other options.”
Jesus boldly looks Peter in the eye and says, “Peter, following me means getting way out of your comfort zone. There are no two ways about it.” And soon after that, Jesus has an encounter with a man, with his disciples watching, that gives Jesus a chance to illustrate what he means about how following him equals getting out of your comfort zone. We read about that encounter in Matthew 19:16-30.
In verse 16, the story begins, “Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ ‘Why do you ask me about what is good?’ Jesus replied. ‘There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.’ ‘Which ones?’ he inquired. Jesus replied, ‘”You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”’ ‘All these I have kept,’ the young man said. ‘What do I still lack?’ Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’ Peter answered him, ‘We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.’”
This is a story that we really want to turn into metaphor, symbolism or figurative speech. Jesus could not possibly have meant that this guy needs to sell his possessions, give them to the poor, and then and only then could that guy follow Jesus. Right? I want to say, “Come on, Jesus, this guy asked you an awesome question. It’s the question we are dying people to ask us. How to have eternal life? Why in the world did you tell him he had to sell his possessions? That’s not how people get eternal life. Why didn’t you tell him that he just needs to believe in you and follow you? I don’t get you. Why are you making it so hard on the guy? Why are you telling him he needs to get way, way, way out of his comfort zone?”
Later in the story Peter is basically asking Jesus those very questions I just asked. Peter is tracking with the implications of what Jesus is suggesting to the rich man. Peter knows that the disciples left everything and followed Jesus. By this point in Matthew 19, they are a good two and a half years into following Jesus. Maybe even close to three years. Unlike the rich man, the disciples did leave everything to follow Jesus. Makes you wonder how their wives and kids felt about it. How were their families making ends meet?
We can speculate lots of answers to those questions, but the larger point remains. Peter says to Jesus, “We left all to follow you. Are we going to be okay?” Talk about going out of your comfort zone. Peter is saying, “We gave up our livelihood to follow you. We could have been padding out 401K. We could have been setting our families up for long-term financial health. But, no, we chose to follow you. We are way, way, way out of our comfort zones here. Are you going to take care of us?”
Jesus says, “Trust me. Place your faith in me by stepping out of your comfort zone, die to yourself, take up your cross, follow me, and you will see how I care for you.”
Photo by Pablo Arroyo on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 