“Admirers or Followers?
The Choice is Ours”
Matthew 10: 34-39; Joshua 24: 14-15
Is this what we have come to after some 2000 years? The cause and person of Jesus Christ has been so distorted and abused that some of his most ardent followers refuse to allow this adjective to be applied to them. Why? What is causing this?
Part of the problem is the misuse and abuse of the word “Christian.” We apply this to businesses, nations, and institutions — which is patently false. They may have individuals who are Christians, and they may have principles and values which are central to Christianity, but an institution cannot have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship is only possible for persons, for individuals who have responded with a commitment to Christ as Lord and Savior.
Central to this issue is the reality that the church has promulgated a false faith, a pseudo-understanding of what it means to follow Christ. We have urged people to accept Christ as their Savior and be baptized so that they can go to heaven when they die. That is all well and good as far as it goes...but it does not go near far enough. We have given them salvation on their terms, without any inkling at all of the commitment and transformation needed to genuinely follow Christ with their lives. In the words of Soren Kierkegaard we have made people into admirers rather than followers of Christ:
The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, and songs he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength, with all his will to be what he admires. And then, remarkably enough, even though he is living amongst a “Christian people,” the same danger results for him as was once the case when it was dangerous to openly confess Christ. And because of the follower’s life, it will become evident who the admirers are, for the admirers will become agitated with him. Even that these words are presented as they are here will disturb many – but then they must likewise belong to the admirers.1
Followers of Christ are not afraid to “take up their cross and follow him,” for they have already surrendered their lives to Christ, totally and completely. For followers of Christ the questions in any given situation are simple: What does Christ need? What would Christ do? How would Christ respond? The follower of Christ has already “taken up their cross,” so risking their fame, their fortune, and their very life for Christ is no big deal. That decision was made when they committed their life, wholly and completely, to Jesus Christ.
However, for admirers of Jesus the situation is a bit different. Their “acceptance of Christ” was about them, not Christ. It was about “going to heaven when they die,” not giving their life to Christ. Their Christian life is about what God can do for them, about how Jesus loves them and wants them to be happy, fulfilled and have every last want be met. Admirers of Jesus stand at a distance from any cross, from any realm of sacrifice — for they are not willing to risk their neck for Jesus or anyone.
These words of Jesus in Matthew 10 cause admirers problems, do they not? They even cause us to step back and reflect. Too often we think Jesus saved us so we can have nice little families, nice little homes, and nice little lives. Then we read a passage such as this and we are stunned, shaken to our core. Jesus says that he came not to bring peace to our families, but a sword...and that he would totally disrupt the family unit. Ouch...
Jesus does not idly state these words about taking up crosses...words which are repeated more than once by
Matthew, just in case we missed them the first time. Jews knew what taking up the cross was all about...Golgotha
(the place of the Skull) existed long before Jesus was crucified there. They had watched as the Romans had
crucified literally thousands of their country men and women. These words about losing and finding life are not
idle words to them. These words about commitment, sacrifice and experiencing loss and even death for the sake
of following Christ — they are sacred words that the early church held onto — for they knew what Jesus meant. For
us, these are words which go against the grain of our church culture of “niceness” and everything we hold near
and dear as we admire Christ.
VBS begins tonight, so I don’t want to rattle too many cages. But let’s just understand something: we are not trying to make “Jesus admirers” out of your children. We’re really not. We’re trying to make “Jesus followers” out of them. We want them to so love Jesus, to be so devoted to Jesus, that they grow up, leave home and go follow Jesus wherever that journey may take them. They may go to Archdale, Asheboro, Romania or even Zambia as they follow Jesus. We want them to be such devoted followers of Jesus that the entire world is open to them as their venue and calling to serve Christ. We want them to see no boundaries, to feel no restraints, and to hold back nothing in their desire to serve and follow Christ.
Most of all, we want them to see that for true followers of Jesus Christ, there are no cultural barriers that the gospel cannot transcend — and does not compel us to transcend. Jew, Greek, slave, free — all are one in Christ Jesus according to Paul. Democrat, Republican, wealthy, poor, straight, gay, NRA or ACLU — you pick the divide and Jesus compels us to follow him from one side to the other.
There are several persons whom I have admired through the years. Some of these preceded my lifetime and others I knew. One who preceded and died before I ever knew him personally was Clarence Jordan, the founder of the Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia. It was set up to be an interracial community before anyone knew what Civil Rights were all about. Jordan himself was a pacifist as well as an integrationist and thus was not a popular figure in Georgia, even though he came from a prominent family. In the early ’50s Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to represent legally the Koinonia Farm. They were having trouble getting LP gas delivered for heating during the winter even though it was against the law not to deliver gas. Clarence thought Robert could do much through a phone call. However, Robert responded to Clarence’s request:
“Clarence, I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”
“We might lose everything, too, Bob.” “It’s different for you.”
“Why is it different? I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church on the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ What did you say?”
“I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point.”
“Could that point by any chance be — the cross?”
“That’s right. I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”
“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple. You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer, not a disciple.”
“Well now, if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t have a church, would we?”
“The question,” Clarence said, “is, ‘Do you have a church now?’”2
VBS begins tonight, so I don’t want to rattle too many cages. But let’s just understand something: we are not trying to make “Jesus admirers” out of your children. We’re really not. We’re trying to make “Jesus followers” out of them. We want them to so love Jesus, to be so devoted to Jesus, that they grow up, leave home and go follow Jesus wherever that journey may take them. They may go to Archdale, Asheboro, Romania or even Zambia as they follow Jesus. We want them to be such devoted followers of Jesus that the entire world is open to them as their venue and calling to serve Christ. We want them to see no boundaries, to feel no restraints, and to hold back nothing in their desire to serve and follow Christ.
Most of all, we want them to see that for true followers of Jesus Christ, there are no cultural barriers that the gospel cannot transcend — and does not compel us to transcend. Jew, Greek, slave, free — all are one in Christ Jesus according to Paul. Democrat, Republican, wealthy, poor, straight, gay, NRA or ACLU — you pick the divide and Jesus compels us to follow him from one side to the other.
There are several persons whom I have admired through the years. Some of these preceded my lifetime and others I knew. One who preceded and died before I ever knew him personally was Clarence Jordan, the founder of the Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia. It was set up to be an interracial community before anyone knew what Civil Rights were all about. Jordan himself was a pacifist as well as an integrationist and thus was not a popular figure in Georgia, even though he came from a prominent family. In the early ’50s Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to represent legally the Koinonia Farm. They were having trouble getting LP gas delivered for heating during the winter even though it was against the law not to deliver gas. Clarence thought Robert could do much through a phone call. However, Robert responded to Clarence’s request:
“Clarence, I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”
“We might lose everything, too, Bob.” “It’s different for you.”
“Why is it different? I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church on the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ What did you say?”
“I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point.”
“Could that point by any chance be — the cross?”
“That’s right. I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”
“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple. You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer, not a disciple.”
“Well now, if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t have a church, would we?”
“The question,” Clarence said, “is, ‘Do you have a church now?’”2
Every day that we live we are presented with a choice: will we today be followers or admirers of Jesus?
“I would like to but $3.00 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation;
I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.4
“...and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”5
1 Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations
2Stanley Hauerwas, cited in “When we don’t ‘carry’ Jesus far enough,” June 21, 2004, Odyssey Web Site, odyssey.blogs.com 3 Overland Park Jewish community shooting, Wikipedia.
4 Wilbur Rees.
5 Matthew 10: 38-39
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