Salvation Is
Free, But . . .
Imagine a politician addressing a crowd: “If you’re going
to vote for me,” he says, “you’re voting to lose your homes and families;
you’re asking for higher taxes and lower wages; you’re deciding in favor of
losing all you love best! So come on –
who’s on my side?” The crowd wouldn’t
even bother shouting insults or throwing shoes at him. They would just be puzzled. Why on earth would anyone try to advertise
himself in that way?
But isn’t that what Jesus is doing in this astonishing
passage? “Want to be my disciple, do
you? Well, in that case you have to
learn to hate your family, give up your possessions, and get ready for a painful
death!” Hardly the way to “win friends and influence people.”
On the other hand, suppose instead of a politician, we
think of the leader of a great expedition, forging a way through a high and
dangerous mountain pass to bring urgent medical aid to villagers cut off from
the rest of the world. “If you want to
come any further,” the leader says, “you’ll have to leave your packs
behind. From here on the path is too
steep to carry all that stuff. You
probably won’t find it again. And you’d
better send your last postcards home; this is a dangerous route and it’s very
likely that several of us won’t make it back.”
We can understand that leader’s message.
We may not like the sound of it, but we can see why it makes sense.
Jesus
is more like the second leader than the first.
When there is an urgent
task to be done, then everything else, including one’s own life, must be put at
risk for the sake of the task. Family relationships
cannot lead us to neglect the task. Comfort,
safety, and security with the powers that be must not determine how we will
engage in the task. We are called to be
on guard against any form of acquiring more possessions for ourselves, to
treasure what matters to God, and to use possessions to bless others who need
such blessing. If we want to follow
Jesus, we are called to play by his economics.
To work for justice, not “just
us.”
Looking
at these two versions of leadership, one cannot help but realize that the predominant
message of the American Christian church is more like “How to win friends and influence people.” than “How to lose one’s life in order to find it.” And so the
church is no longer the salt that seasons society, the yeast that leavens our
world. The church no longer defines what
is of value in today’s world. The
question is, how do we respond to this?
The
problem is: there’s a basic paradox at the heart of the Christian faith. “Salvation
is free, but the cost of discipleship is enormous.” (Bishop Reuben Job, A Guide to Prayer for All
Who Seek God, pg. 145.) We can do
nothing to earn our salvation. Our
redemption is a pure gift of grace, a gift offered to us without qualification
or reservation. We are God’s children
and nothing or no one can change that fact.
Jesus Christ lived, died, and lives again to bring this gift of
salvation to us in all of its fullness.
Our faith can claim this gift, but even our greatest doubts cannot
change its reality. We are God’s
beloved, embraced in God’s love for now and eternity. Words are inadequate to describe the
extravagance of the gift of salvation.
We simply and humbly offer all that we are to the One who offers us the
option of becoming more than we are.
In
offering ourselves as fully as we can, we discover the cost of
discipleship. For to bind our lives to
Jesus Christ requires that we try to walk with him into the sorrows and
suffering of the world. Being bound to
Jesus Christ we are committed to breaking down barriers – barriers between the
races, barriers between religions, barriers between business and labor, rich
and poor. We are led to places we have
never been before and to carry loads we have not seen before.
The
cost of salvation? It is completely free
and without cost. The cost of
discipleship? Only our lives—nothing
more and nothing less. Christ says,
“Give me ALL. I don’t want only so much
of your time, only so much of your money, only so much of your work. I want you.
I want you to become my eyes, ears, voice and hands in the world and in
the church. I want you to walk in this
world as I would walk in this world. I
want you to proclaim:
·
“Yes, I want to
create jobs and job training for the unemployed, even if it means higher taxes.”
·
“Yes, I want the
minimum wage raised above the poverty level even if it means higher prices for
food.
·
“Yes, I want to
ensure everyone has adequate medical care, even if it means I have to pay more
for my health insurance.
·
“Yes, I want to
protect our environment and transition our economy away from fossil fuels, even
if it means higher energy costs.”
This message is just as unappealing as Jesus’ original
message to his disciples. (Whoever
comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers
and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Luke
14:26.) But today, as then, the situation is urgent! Now as then Jesus declares: The
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news. (Mark
1:15)
Jesus wants disciples who are ready to
follow him wherever he may lead. Radical allegiance is necessary. Now, as then, Jesus is calling us to dedicate
our energy to righting what is wrong, fixing what is broken, and restoring what
has been destroyed. Jesus wants disciples
ready to reform the world; to make it better; to bring the kingdom of God to
this earth.
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