Total Commitment

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace…   I have come to set man against his father… a daughter against her mother…  Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me… 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 lives for my sake will find it.”  - Matthew 10:34-39

This is undoubtedly one of the most difficult things Jesus ever spoke. I do not think there is anything he said that “cuts to the quick “quite like these intense and puzzling words.  These words appear hard to reconcile with other things Jesus said.  In a day and age of a plethora of rhetoric about “family values,” these words appear to undermine much that we hold sacred.  How are we to take them, and how are we to understand and apply them?

In Matthew 10, like in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6 & 7), Jesus is speaking to the inner circle of disciples. Jesus pulls his inner circle of disciples away from the crowds and speaks directly to them.  Jesus delivers his teachings to the people he thinks have the potential to be totally committed to his mission.  He speaks to them about discipleship.

His message to them can be summed up in two words: Total Commitment! - not sometimes commitment, but total commitment; not half-hearted commitment, but total commitment; not commitment when it’s convenient, but total commitment; not just enough commitment, but total commitment. 

One of the things we must note at this point is that Jesus frequently used hyperbole in his teachings. The definition of hyperbole is “a figure of speech that greatly exaggerates to make a point.”  For example, Jesus used hyperbole in Mark 9 when he said, “if you hand causes you to sin, cut it off… and if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off… and if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.”   I don’t know of anybody who has taken him literally on that one. At least I haven’t seen many folks walking around without hands, feet and eyes from self-inflicted amputations because of sin.

I believe Jesus’ words in Matthew 10 are very much the same kind of thing.  Jesus used hyperbole to drive home a point, and so that we would take Him seriously – very seriously indeed! 

So let us talk about what it means to give our total commitment to Jesus Christ? What does that mean in this twenty-first century when terrorists give their total commitment blowing themselves up and murdering for their cause?   What does it mean to love Jesus Christ and be committed to Jesus Christ and his mission more than even our commitment to our families? What does that mean for us in today’s real world?

Jesus’ words are a call to radical discipleship, a call to total commitment, an invitation to revolutionary Christianity. This is not a watered-down and diluted kind of Christian faith, but a full-bodied Christian faith.  This is not an impotent Christianity, but potent Christianity.

Since Jesus refers to domestic relationships, I will speak about family commitment for a moment.  Marcia and I marked our 36^th anniversary last Tuesday. When I think back at what has kept us together, in love and vital over these decades it is certainly not that we haven’t had our struggles, troubles and issues.  God knows we have had our share.  Over the years there have been all sorts of things that would have eroded our marriage.  But the one thing that we mutually have returned to time and again, and reaffirmed time and again is our commitment.  By the grace of God we have always come back to that the commitment we made, and as a result we have each had to look deep within ourselves and ask, “Will I be true to my commitment.”  Up to now the answer has always been mutually “yes.”  And when commitment has been mutually reaffirmed it has taken tangible shape in our everyday lives in countless ways: forgiveness asked for and forgiveness given; putting ones own agenda secondary for the sake of the other; listening and responding to the needs of the other; being willing to change for the sake of the other; going the second mile for the other; relating as equal partners – on I could go. 

When I reflect upon all that it has taken to get us to the place we are 36 years after we made our first commitment, and then when I hear Jesus say that the commitment he demands even supersedes that commitment, my mind is boggled and blown away. 

Let me take it just a little further.  When Marcia sacrifices for me, it changes me and makes me desire to make a sacrifice for her – and vice versa.  When one takes the sacrificial initiative for the other, it opens up the possibility for a loving, committed response.  If I take her sacrifices for me seriously, it at least creates the possibility that I will reaffirm my commitment to her and sacrifice for her.  Her sacrifices for me empower me from within.  When you get two people doing this and not keeping score, it makes for a very good thing that has a lasting and loving quality. 

These difficult words in Matthew 10 are an invitation and challenge from Jesus to enter into that kind of relationship with him.   In verse 39 he says, “...whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  What cross is Jesus talking about?  He is talking about His cross, the one he took up for you and me and the world; the cross upon which your sins and mine were taken and forgiven; the cross that broke through all the sinful, self-indulgent and selfish barriers that we erect to keep God out of our lives; the cross of Jesus Christ who paid the supreme price and made the greatest sacrifice of all for your sake, mine and the world’s; the cross upon which he made an unconditional commitment to you; the cross that sets divine love into motion and directed toward you personally; the cross that opens up the possibility for your empowerment and response. 

The question is, “Will you?”  Will you prioritize relationship with Jesus Christ ahead of every other relationship in your life?  Will you allow relationship with Jesus Christ to inform all of your other relationships: relationship with loved ones; relationship with friends; relationship with community; relationship with nation; relationship with possessions and wealth? 

The great temptation of Christianity is always to have sugar coated Christianity with a sugar coated gospel, with a sugar coated cross, and to eliminate this awesome call to discipleship. Our greatest temptation is that the cares, riches, pleasures, desires and passions of this life become more important than the call of Jesus Christ. And so the comfort of family, spouse, friends, jobs, homes, vacations, investments become more important to us than Christ and his mission. The result is watered down wine, complacent and comfortable Christianity. Come and sit in the soft padded pews and worship Jesus Christ with your personal style of music and comfort.

The Bible says that the Lord our God is a jealous God. If you love your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, your way of life, your home, your job, your fireplace, your lifestyle, your community, your nation more than God, it is the sin of idolatry. We need to remember that our God is a jealous God for he wants you to love him more than any thing else on this earth.

Do you remember the in the Gospel of John, Chapter 21, where Jesus persistently asked Peter three times if he loved him? At the crucifixion Peter had denied Jesus three times. The resurrected Christ appeared to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee and the Risen Christ looked Simon Peter directly in the eyes of Peter and asked, “Do you love me more than these?” And what were the “these?” Do you love me more than your fishing boat, your fishing nets, your fish, your friends, your family, and all that other stuff there on the seashore? “Do you love me more than these?” Three times Jesus persistently asked that question of Peter, “Do you love me more than all of this?” That same issue from John 21 is the same issue in Matthew 10.  Jesus wants to know: “Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than all of this stuff?”  If you do, then what tangible shape does it take in your everyday life? 

Our gospel concludes today with Jesus saying, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

We are surrounded by a million and one voices that say the way to real life is to be comfortable and secure, not be terribly inconvenienced or put at risk, self-indulgent and self-focused. 

Jesus is not saying that family, loved ones, friends, job, community, nation, possessions are bad things – of course not. That’s not at all the sense I get from his words. All of these things are rich blessings that come from God’s gracious hand.   But what I do get is that if I name myself his disciple then commitment to Jesus Christ stands ahead of every other commitment and relationship with Jesus Christ informs and shapes all of my other relationships and my attitudes about them. 

“Take up the cross and follow,” says Jesus.  Take forgiveness, love, grace, compassion, sacrificial love into your home, to your spouse, to your children and live it.

“Take up the cross and follow,” says Jesus.  Take compassion for the poor into the community and world and work and advocate for programs and ministries that alleviate suffering, hunger and disease on the planet.

“Take up the cross and follow,” says Jesus.  Take the cross even to enemies and adversaries and, at least, struggle with what Jesus said in his words, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

“Take up the cross and follow,” says Jesus.  Take the cross and apply it to your possessions and direct a significant portion of them away from self and toward the empowerment of God’s kingdom.

One last thing:  Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace…”   Commitment to Jesus Christ and his selfless, sacrificial love will inevitably put you at odds and in conflict with a self-indulgent world.  This conflict is never something that the disciple of Jesus Christ initiates, seeks out, or desires, but it will inevitably come for the world doesn’t understand this kind of love.  The world is threatened by this kind of love.  The world often crucifies this kind of love.    

When you put total commitment to Jesus Christ first, the conflict might come from anywhere: family, friends, job, community, nation, world, or even from within yourself.   But at those times, have courage and resolve, and trust the awesome promise of Jesus, “those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their lives for my sake will find it.”   Amen.