HOW MUCH IS JESUS WORTH TO YOU?

This is a question Luke Geraty asks in a recent article in which he summarizes the main points in Craig Keener's book Suffering. To answer this question, he turns to Scripture and comes up with the following things which Jesus should be valued above:

Job Security (Matthew 4:18-22)

This is the passage in which Jesus tells some of the apostles to leave their nets to follow him, which they do. However, to be fair they did not at all abandon their job security permanently. Remember that at the end of the Gospel story we find them again with their boats and nets, which had probably been left with a trusted party to take charge of for whatever time they happened to be gone.

Contrast this story with the earlier story of Elisha's call by Elijah to follow him (see I Kings 19:19-21). In that case, Elisha actually butchered his yoke of oxen and roasted them on a fire made from his wooden yokes and plow. Now that was a case of someone truly following God's calling unconditionally by burning his bridges (or oxen and plow) behind him.

Residential Security (Luke 9:57-58)

I am acquainted with several missionaries who moved from one place to another during their lives in order to serve God wherever He might lead them. And when they finally retired, and some haven't done so yet, they realized that they had neither built up any equity on a house nor have enough savings to let them retire in relative comfort except in a group setting of some sort. I thoroughly admire such dedicated Christians, and they deserve any financial support the rest of us are able give them, even after they have officially retired.

Financial Security (Matthew 19:21)

Overman says regarding this passage, “This hard word provides a glimpse into the difficult and austere life of the first followers of Jesus (6.24; 10.8-11).” As such, one could ask if the same hard conditions apply to believers today. Certainly in some countries it does, whereas in others like our own it may actually be to one's financial advantage to proclaim yourself as a believer. I know in my own case it happened to pose no barrier at all to my advancement in a company. That changed situation is actually somewhat unfortunate since it gives rise to those claiming to be Christians merely as a pretense to making more financial contacts. I have attended two congregations where that was clearly demonstrated to be the case.

At one evening gathering of a home Bible study group I was visiting for the first time, I tried to break into a circle of men who were each discussing their various grandiose business opportunities. When one of the men at last turned to me and asked me what I did for a career, I answered that I was a research chemist. That man (who later became an elder in the church) loudly pronounced sarcastically to the group, “Great, a chemist! Just what we needed!” And the circle closed promptly closed me out.

And while in another congregation, one of the elders there showed up on our doorstep on a Saturday morning and introduced himself. I will admit that I was at first impressed that the elders actually took the time to do house visits. However, very soon it became obvious that all he wanted to do was sell me some life insurance. He left not long afterward when I told him I was not interested.

Family Ties (Matthew 10:37; Luke 9:61-62;14:26)

Matthew's version has Jesus condemning anyone who loves his earthly family more than they do God. Luke in 14:26 expresses this same idea in a more powerful way by saying one must hate his family, but that is usually explained as being a Hebraic way of saying the same thing as in Matthew's wording.

Luke 9:61-62 has Jesus saying in effect to the second prospective disciple 'I expect more from you than Elijah asked of Elisha (I Kings 19:19-21)'.” We know this is in Jesus' mind by the coupling of references to a plow in the context of a calling by God. Thus, we see two different usages of the same Elisha story, one in which Elisha goes further than expected of the Apostles and one in which Elisha does not go far enough.

Craddock has an interesting insight regarding this general teaching of Jesus. He states, “The radicality of Jesus' words lies in his claim to priority over the best, not the worst, of human relationships. Jesus never said to choose him over the devil but to choose him over the family. And the remarkable thing is that those who have done so have been freed from possession and worship of family and have found the distance necessary to love them.”

Social Obligations (Luke 9:59)

On the surface this word of Jesus to a man who expressed an interest in following Him appears to be rather harsh since He won't even give the man enough time to bury his father. But that is not the whole story, as commentators such as Soards explain: “From the statement that follows (v. 60), the man's father was almost certainly not yet dead; rather, the man used this responsibility to procrastinate complete commitment to discipleship.”

One fellow chemist of my acquaintance I knew years ago began pontificating on the various stages in every man's life. As I recall his analysis, it included first an overwhelming interest in sex followed by a preoccupation with sports. Then when one was too old for much involvement in either, one turned finally to religion. I often wondered if he ever arrived at that final stage before his death or whether he had added to his list several more items before getting around to it.

Life Itself (Matthew 10:38)

In this passage, Jesus tells the Apostles that they should take up their cross and follow him. One thing Hendricksen is at pains to point out is that it certainly cannot be used in any way to equate Jesus' unique sacrifice of his very life with any cross that we may be called to bear. Then he goes on to explain more fully what Jesus' words really imply: “In the light of full biblical revelation cross-bearing, applied to the believer, can have only one meaning, namely, submissively and in a sense even joyfully 'bearing his [Christ's] reproach' (Heb. 13:13; cf. Acts 5:4). This is true of those who, come what may, follow where he leads, trust in his redeeming blood, reflect his mind (John 13:15; II Cor. 8:7, 9; Eph. 4:32-5:41; Phil. 2:5; I Peter 2:21); and proclaim him.”

My one major additional caveat to Keener's analysis, at least as summarized by Geraty, is that it may be argued that it is not fair to apply the above teachings of Jesus to all believers today since in their original contexts these words were addressed only to (a) the Twelve Apostles, who had a unique mission to carry out or (b) a few individuals whom Jesus knew were not yet ready to meet the harsh conditions of such a mission themselves and needed a powerful reality check.