A Good Friday note as we approach the end of this discussion.
If you really look at the way Jesus is going, you might not want to join him. Along the way, here’s a short list of things you’ll have to do:
- Be nice to people that try to hurt you.
- Don’t worry about making money.
- Give all your stuff away. All of it.
- Invite homeless people to your parties.
- When someone forces a task upon you, you should do your best work.
- Forgive people, no matter what they did to you.
These are really bad ideas that will leave you vulnerable and impoverished. No one would want to live a life like this.
Here’s the nasty truth about following a Jesus way: If you do it, it means that your life is over. Everything you want, love and dream is contingent upon how it fits into the Jesus way. Everything considered you must die.
Jesus life led to his crucifixion. He told his followers they would have do the same. After his ascension, Jesus first followers asked the Apostles how to respond to Jesus. Their answer: Immersion.
Paul, an early follower of Jesus, explained that when we are immersed we join Jesus in his death. The entrance ritual into the Jesus way is a disturbing reenactment of a drowning. Disturbing, right?
The good news is, that’s not the end of things. Paul says if we die with him, we will also live with him. This means a Jesus way on this earth, and the promise of a resurrected body and an incomparable world to come. Death, and it’s little brothers like disease, famine, natural disasters, failed relationships, war, genocide, and tax season, are powerless over us.
We’ve already died, and have nothing to fear.
Tweets