No, there’s absolutely nothing to admire in Jesus, unless you want to admire poverty, misery and contempt. -Søren Kierkegaard
I don’t know about you, but Pastor Dave’s sermon last Sunday really struck a chord deep within myself. For those of you who weren’t present, it was an examination of Jesus’ words said in Matthew 16, that we had to take up our own cross in order to follow him and that we had to lose our life in order to find it.
It made me uneasy when Pastor Dave started quoting from Søren Kierkegaard, a 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian. In his writings, Kierkegaard makes the sharp observation that to truly follow Jesus is to pitch whatever you’ve been doing away and literally follow his words and commands without exception. Anything else is empty platitudes coming from a person that admires what Jesus said, did and stood for, but nothing else. We don’t allow him to change our lives.
I felt uneasy because God illuminated in me the hard truth that I am oftentimes an admirer. I find it easy to, like Pastor Dave said, “be familiar with him. We know what he did; what he said. We understand he’s the son of God; that he’s our Savior.” This part is easy for me. It’s not hard for me to accept and digest that Jesus was who he said he was.
However, accepting Jesus’ words is not the end of it. We must act upon them. There is no choice. Kierkegaard writes, “[Jesus’] whole life on earth, from beginning to end, was destined solely to have followers and to make admirers impossible.” Either we act on Jesus’ words or we don’t.
It is as simple as that.
If we don’t act on Jesus’ words, we are an admirer. From Kierkegaard: “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, 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.”
Pastor Dave asked us on Sunday, “Are we doing the things that will change us in ways that will make us like [Jesus]?” It is my hope that today we answer Dave’s question with a resounding affirmative. As we move closer to Easter, to the bloody cross and to the open tomb, let’s all start taking serious steps towards Jesus and leave our admiring behind and actually follow him.
The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. -Søren Kierkegaard
-Matt
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Followers vs. Admirers
March 20, 2014
Calvary
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Matt
No, there’s absolutely nothing to admire in Jesus, unless you want to admire poverty, misery and contempt. -Søren Kierkegaard
I don’t know about you, but Pastor Dave’s sermon last Sunday really struck a chord deep within myself. For those of you who weren’t present, it was an examination of Jesus’ words said in Matthew 16, that we had to take up our own cross in order to follow him and that we had to lose our life in order to find it.
It made me uneasy when Pastor Dave started quoting from Søren Kierkegaard, a 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian. In his writings, Kierkegaard makes the sharp observation that to truly follow Jesus is to pitch whatever you’ve been doing away and literally follow his words and commands without exception. Anything else is empty platitudes coming from a person that admires what Jesus said, did and stood for, but nothing else. We don’t allow him to change our lives.
I felt uneasy because God illuminated in me the hard truth that I am oftentimes an admirer. I find it easy to, like Pastor Dave said, “be familiar with him. We know what he did; what he said. We understand he’s the son of God; that he’s our Savior.” This part is easy for me. It’s not hard for me to accept and digest that Jesus was who he said he was.
However, accepting Jesus’ words is not the end of it. We must act upon them. There is no choice. Kierkegaard writes, “[Jesus’] whole life on earth, from beginning to end, was destined solely to have followers and to make admirers impossible.” Either we act on Jesus’ words or we don’t.
It is as simple as that.
If we don’t act on Jesus’ words, we are an admirer. From Kierkegaard: “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, 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.”
Pastor Dave asked us on Sunday, “Are we doing the things that will change us in ways that will make us like [Jesus]?” It is my hope that today we answer Dave’s question with a resounding affirmative. As we move closer to Easter, to the bloody cross and to the open tomb, let’s all start taking serious steps towards Jesus and leave our admiring behind and actually follow him.
The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. -Søren Kierkegaard
-Matt
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