Someone Worth Losing Everything For (Part 2)

Platt had the chance to visit underground house churches in Asia shortly before beginning his first Sunday as a pastor of a large church in Alabama. With images of the tears and earnest prayers still fresh in his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder about the stark contrast between the two pictures. Chances are that none of the members of his church had to risk anything to be there. There wasn’t much at stake. For most of them, it was their normal routine. Coming weekly in millions of dollars worth of vehicles to a multi-million dollar church campus. Living as though they aren’t aware of the suffering and need elsewhere in the body of Christ. “I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.”

I’m not bringing money into the picture just for the added effect, but because it really does have a strong influence in living out our faith. People place their money into what they value. Now that doesn’t mean having expensive possessions is wrong. We just ought to seek to use our money in the best way that God intends for it. Not for our comfort or security. Although those might not be mutually exclusive. It’s hard, because as I’m writing this, I’m kind of rationalizing and picking my words carefully to soften the blow (primarily for myself). But really, all that we have received is a blessing from God, and ought to be used for God’s heart, for HIS kingdom, not our own agenda. EVERY penny. Because He is worth it all. He is that treasure in the field worth selling everything for. Because really, when you think about it, you aren’t losing anything but gaining everything. For those who like money analogies… think of investments. If there was an investment that we knew without a doubt would end in a significant net gain (actually an infinite net gain), wouldn’t we put everything we have into it? And knowing that we’ll gain in the end, won’t we gladly put up with all the bad times?

We must see the worth of knowing Jesus. If we truly get a glimpse of that, then all else in the this world will “grow strangely dim” in comparison. Paul says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…” (Phil 3:8-9)

In Luke 9:57, Jesus’ demands were too difficult for some potential followers (cost of homelessness and leaving family). Even turning back for a moment before following Jesus to say goodbye to family or bury a father was not complete obedience. And there are more examples in Luke 14:26-33 and Mark 10:17-21 where Jesus says things that sound extreme. We have to be careful, or else we’ll find ourselves rationalizing those statements away. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a great chapter about those passages in Ch. 3 of The Cost of Discipleship. I’m going to include a big section of it here, just because it articulates so well one of the overarching themes of Platt’s book.

When he was challenged by Jesus to accept a life of voluntary poverty, the rich young man (Mark 10:17) knew he was faced with the simple alternative of obedience or disobedience. When Levi was called from the receipt of custom and Peter from his nets, there was no doubt that Jesus meant business. Both of them were to leave everything and follow. Again, when Peter was called to walk on the rolling sea, he had to get up and risk his life. Only one thing was required in each case – to rely on Christ’s word, and cling to it as offering greater security than all the securities in the world. The forces which tried to interpose themselves between the word of Jesus and the response of obedience were as formidable then as they are today. Reason and conscience, responsibility and piety all stood in the way, and even the law and “scriptural authority” itself were obstacles which pretended to defend them from going to the extremes of antinomianism and “enthusiasms.” But the call of Jesus made short work of all these barriers, and created obedience. That call was the Word of God himself, and all that it required was single-minded obedience.

If, as we read our Bibles, we heard Jesus speaking to us in this way today we should probably try to argue ourselves out of it like this: “It is true that the demand of Jesus is definite enough, but I have to remember that he never expects us to take his commands legalistically. What he really wants me to have is faith. But my faith is not necessarily tied up with riches or poverty or anything of the kind. We may be both poor and rich in the spirit. It is not important that I should have no possessions, but if I do I must keep them as though I had them not, in other words I must cultivate a spirit of inward detachment, so that my heart is not in my possessions.” Jesus may have said: “Sell thy goods,” but he meant: “Do not let it be a matter of consequence to you that you have outward prosperity; rather keep your goods quietly, having them as if you had them not. Let not your heart be in your goods.” – We are excusing ourselves from single-minded obedience to the word of Jesus on the pretext of legalism and a supposed preference for an obedience “in faith.” The difference between ourselves and the rich young man is that he was not allowed to solace his regrets by saying: “Never mind what Jesus says, I can still hold on to my riches, but in a spirit of inner detachment. Despite my inadequacy I can take comfort in the thought that God has forgiven me my sins and can have fellowship with Christ in faith.” But no, he went away sorrowful. Because he would not obey, he could not believe…

He goes on to explain the importance of faith. It’s not what man does that matters; it’s his faith in Jesus. But throughout the entire Bible, we see faith exhibited by man’s works (Abraham being one example). In the examples of Luke 9 and Mark 10, Jesus’ calls to these men put them in situations where they would require real faith to obey.

And while the cost of discipleship is certainly high, the cost of non-discipleship is even higher. Because when we shrink back from obedience in faith to Christ, the people around us who don’t know the worth of Christ continue to be left in the dark. “The price is certainly high for people who don’t know Christ and who live in a world where Christians shrink back from self-denying faith and settle into self-indulging faith. While Christians choose to spend their lives fulfilling the American dream instead of giving their lives to proclaiming the kingdom of God, literally billions in need of the gospel remain in the dark” (Platt 14).

The gospel should not just prompt reflection, but a response. We must commit to believe Jesus when he says that he is the greatest treasure and security. And we must commit to obey. Say yes to the words of Jesus before we even hear them.