To be honest with you, I don’t know if that word ‘cull’ was ever a part of my vocabulary or on my radar until I moved up here to NE Texas and got to spend a lot of time around ranchers. It means to ‘select from a group’.
It seems that Jesus had a really good thing going once His ministry kicked in to full gear. I mean, multiplying food to feed the multitudes, healing sick folks, raising young people from the dead, casting demons out of people left and right. And on His days off, he walked on water and calmed fierce storms. It did not take long before the word got out and large crowds began to follow him. And I don’t need to remind you this was long before the days of Twitter and social media.
Word of mouth spread fast. And people wanted to know more. So they came to listen and watch.
I have always had it in my head that life back then had to be rather dull and un-entertaining. I mean, with no electricity or technology, what did folks do from day to day in their mundane existence? You’d think they would wake up with the sun, feed a few chickens and goats, go draw some water from a local well and just sit around and wait for the crops to harvest while they baked a daily loaf of bread to snack on. Then when the sun went down, they went to bed.
No wonder they seemed open to the gospel and following Jesus given there was nothing else to do that compared with all the exciting things He had to offer. Imagine how hard Jesus would have had it trying to make an impact on people’s lives today with all that we have to offer to occupy our minds and capture our hearts.
Yet, when you read through the gospels and the letters of the NT, you begin to realize that not much has really changed. Oh, we have more ‘toys’ and some impressive ways of existing whether God wants to get involved or not with our lives. You know, we have mass food production capabilities, hospitals and doctors and medicines, and water treatment plants to name a few. And how could anyone ever get bored and feel empty with all the TV channel options we have and a plethora of sporting events and leagues to devote our time and energy to and to steer our children into to help...(you know), keep them out of trouble and learn good life principals.
I mean....really...’We got this!’ Do we really need God? Seems we have learned to manage quite well without Him -here in America, at least. Maybe that is why when we think of sending out missionaries, we always send them to those poor third-world countries where they don’t have much...you know, kind of like bible times. Those folks got more time to hear about Jesus.
Yet as we read through our bibles, we read where Jesus spoke repeatedly as to how people worried and fretted over the same things that many of us do today. In His exhortation to not ‘worry about what you will eat or drink or wear”.(Matt. 6:25-33) He made it a point to tell people that our ‘Father in heaven knew we had need of these things’ and that if we made it a point to pursue Him first...and seek this Kingdom He came preaching about, that all these other things would be provided to us. (6:33)
Jesus warned how the cares of this life, the desires for other things and the deceitfulness of riches would come in and ‘choke’ that very seed of new life that He came to sow into our hearts and that because of this, no fruit would ever come to maturity. (Luke 8:14) He spoke a parable in two places talking about this great wedding feast or banquet that was being prepared, comparing it to the Kingdom of heaven, and how all those who were invited began to ...make excuses as to why they could not come. Some had new oxen to attend to, dinner was waiting, others had recent land purchases that need their attention. New families and wives were demanding their time. Others simply were not ‘willing’ to come and some ‘even made light’ of the invite. (Matt. 22:1-14; Luke 14:16-24)
We would read later where Paul talked of how some close followers turned and ‘having loved the present world more’, no longer were a part of what God was doing. (2 Tim. 4:10). In his same writings to Timothy, Paul in one place uses an example about how being a ‘good soldier of Jesus Christ’ does not let himself become entangled with the affairs of this life’. (2 Tim. 2:2-3). This, coming off the heels of his first letter to Timothy where he warns about the ‘love of money’ and people being ‘pierced with sorrows’ because they ‘strayed from the faith in their greediness’. (1 Tim. 6:10)
I have often entertained in my thoughts the scenario as to how a congregation here in America would respond if someone got up behind their church pulpit and read this one passage for all to hear, then sat down and let everyone give thought as to what on earth Paul could have meant by this: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” (1 Tim. 6:6-8)
I can promise you, back in the ‘80’s when all those ‘prosperity’ messages were indoctrinating people, you sure didn’t hear much expounding on passages like these. And if you have ever read the words of warnings to the seven churches in the book of Revelations...and wondered if any of those seven might be a ‘picture’ of the modern day church here in America, I need only to point you to the church at Laodicea. You might glance at that in 3:14-22.
But back to the part about ‘culling a crowd’. (Ha...you thought I got sidetracked I bet)
We read there in Luke 14:25 that ‘Now Great multitudes went with Him (Jesus)”. If ever there was a time to pass the offering plates and lay out plans to build a huge conference church center...all for the glory of God, this would have been the time. Imagine all the great things that those crowds could have done for the kingdom of God. May I take a moment here to remind us all of a statement that God spoke through Isaiah when He basically tells us that ‘His ways are not like our ways nor does He think the way we do.” (Isa.55:8-9). We tend to forget that often. It’s like we think we have better ideas than God. I always did like that quote that said ‘if you want to make God laugh, tell Him Your plans’.
So after we read about this huge crowd that had gathered, that any savvy politician or ‘preacher’ would have taken advantage of and capitalized on, it says that Jesus turned and gave a rather short sermon that would have been akin to throwing a wet blanket on a good party or dousing a flame with a bucket of water.
In a nutshell, He laid out these ‘deal breakers’. If you were not willing to check off these contractual points, then you did not make the cut of being a disciple:
- You cannot love your own family more than Him. - As in dear old Mom, Dad, Grannie, your spouse, your kids, and even your grandkids. They cannot take precedence in your life. (Don’t let that word ‘hate’ confuse you).
- If you are not willing to ‘bear your cross and come to Him with your whole heart’, you cannot be His disciple. (He was not talking about colorful tattoos of crosses or shiny gold ones we wear around our necks). He was speaking about the manner in which you have to be willing to ‘die’...to everything that is not aligned with God’s nature, character, and likeness.
-And just in case there was still any lingering confusion or misunderstanding...thinking He might have been speaking in figurative or poetic language, here comes the line that would kill an altar call invitation in just about any church today: “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33)
His words, Not mine.
Have you ever watched a politician make some blundering statement that raised eyebrows across the landscape and immediately, the ‘spin doctors’ come out and try to repair and polish up what ‘he really meant to say’? Yeah...that’s where the ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ come out and try to tell us that Jesus was not talking about who is ‘saved or not saved’, but was speaking to those who might want to be a super-saint and really...devote themselves to God. But all those good people warming the church pews...they are fine...don’t let dramatic language like this unnerve you.
Jesus did not come to build a following nor to attract big crowds and build some successful program or ministry. He came to rescue us from the darkness and deception of sin and its hold on us. He did not come to make you feel bad about yourself or to shame you nor condemn you. He came that you might experience true, genuine, abundant life. But you have to come to Him on HIS terms & conditions. (John 3:17; 10:10; 5:40). And He never shielded laying out what that involved. In that passage in Luke we were looking at, He spoke about the foolishness of not ‘counting the full cost’ of whatever one might be endeavoring to take on...be it a building project or going to war.” (14:28-32)
Is it no wonder we read in places like John 6:66 -“From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” Or in Matt. 19:22 “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.”
Like I said, Jesus knew how to ‘cull a crowd’.
This next statement might hit some as rather arrogant or presumptuous, but I will share it anyway: If what you just read here...while maybe a tad uncomfortable and difficult to digest, still...deep inside resonated with you...and you found yourself nodding in agreement even though it was tough reading...let me tell you that you are in a good place. But PLEASE...do not take this as a message to go quit your job, sell your home and begin taking vows of poverty. This is NOT what this is about. See you tomorrow?
(If you find some time today, please read through Deut. 4-11 and just make note of anything that might stand out to you. ;- )
Comments
Post a Comment