Where to draw the line

I’ve always had this issue, as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with some of the tensions between Gospel values and Western Christian values. For the purpose of clarification, in many instances they are two different things, lets be honest here. For this reason we always struggle to respond to and live out with integrity, the things Jesus asks of his followers. We question and try to rationalize the things the Gospel writers record Jesus saying because it doesn’t suit our agenda. I will include myself in the group of people who constantly fail to follow Jesus because I have a problem with some of his teachings.
I was profoundly impacted, disturbed and liberated by last weekend’s Surrender conference. Two speakers captured my attention and said things that fused in my mind and helped shape my response as a follower of Jesus. They were Mick Duncan and Tony Campolo.
Tony said many profound things but for the sake of this reflection I want to highlight one of his favourite sayings. He was talking about the general Western approach to Christianity which put simply is, I’ll give part of my life but not all of it. He played on the tithing rhetoric mixed with that famous hymn, ‘I Surrender All’. He said that after putting our tithe in the offering plate we need to start singing, ‘One tenth to Jesus I surrender…I surrender one tenth, one tenth to Jesus I surrender, I surrender one tenth’, because in reality that best summarizes what we are prepared to give of our lives rather than the I surrender all fib we sometimes sing.
However Mick Duncan helped me grapple with this issue the best. He explained it far better than I’ve ever heard anyone explain. Upon reflection of the hard hitting sayings of the Gospel such as; ‘denying yourself, taking up your cross…’ (Matt 16:21-28; Mk 8:31-38; Lk 9:22-27); ‘Sell everything, give to the poor and follow me’ (Matt 19:16-30; Mk 10:17-30; Lk 18:18-30); ‘If anyone comes and does not hate mother and father…cannot be my disciple’ (Lk 14:25-35); Mick then said this: Whatever we place above the line we live for and worship, whatever we place below the line we love and nurture.
We all draw the line somewhere as to how far we are prepared to commit to something, including following Jesus. We place things in our lives above the line that shouldn’t be there; this was the problem the rich young ruler faced with Jesus. He walked away from that encounter very distressed. We place family, work and possessions above the line all the time when Jesus is saying they don’t belong there, we are not to live for and worship those things. The only entity we should have above the line is God. Everything else we place below the line in their rightful place. We love and nurture our family, friends, etc but we don’t live for them. If this is the case we face the same dilemma as the rich young ruler.
Jesus is consistent with this message many times throughout four Gospels yet we try to skim past it, reinterpret it, or make excuses over it. I don’t know about you but frankly, I’m sick of hearing my own voice making excuses.
The greatest commandment, Jesus affirms, is to love the Lord you God with all your heart, mind and soul, and to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Nothing else has the right to be placed above the line, if it is it is an obstacle that distracts you from surrendering all to Jesus.
To live for, love and worship God, is also to have the same attitude towards your neighbour. Another consistency throughout scripture is you can’t say you love God yet have no love for your neighbour. It is a lie, if you do not love your neighbour you do not love God. Tony said that you cannot have a relationship with God without also having a relationship with a poor person, a person in need, your ‘neighbour’.
There is nothing meek or mild about Jesus or his message. This is confronting, it must cause us to re-evaluate our relationships, our lives, our very being, if we are to be authentic disciples of the way of Christ.

Shalom
Mark