What If Jesus Meant Everything He Said?

You’ve heard from your mother, your father, your professor, the teenager at work, all the best wisdom man can give you. And it makes sense—if there is no life after this one. However, I am a disciple of Christ. I look for a city not built by the wisdom of man. Sometimes in that search Christ leads me to things that don’t make sense. So then is that to be rejected? Because it’s not logical, because it doesn’t make sense? What Christ said about self-denial, giving up everything to the poor, hating your family, not worry about the basic needs of life . . . was that really hyperbole? My question is, What if Jesus meant everything He said?

Thinking. Always thinking.
But ever getting closer?
I wonder.
Though I feel the loser,
I wonder
if it is not simply a difference
in values and what is
valuable. Make sense?

My life: nothing but His.
All this world’s gloss
I’m counting it loss,
Losing the dross,
Seeking the kingdom first,
Seeking for better or worse
That fount to quench all thirst.

And I wonder,
Did Jesus really mean
everything He said?

The riches, pleasures, and comforts of this earth are something to be laughed at, not clung to.

If our great God (with Whom nothing is impossible) leads a husband to a "comfortable", established life in a civilized culture where the family can rely on his job or church support and the local health facilities and where they'll have a set routine everyday where the husband won't have to travel much either alone or with the family . . . then he’d be reasonable. Then you could understand. Then that man would be “responsible.”

But if He leads a husband to a ministry where from day to day, year to year he is completely trusting God for his financial income, where there is no hospital or even clinic just down the road, where you have to boil your drinking water, shake out your shoes every morning and bleach your eating dishes (such as they might be). Where the family might move to a new home every three years, where the persecution is vicious and your enemies are everywhere. Where each day you awake and place the protection and provision of your family completely in your God's hands-- and you know that you have no other choice because there's too much against you for you to take care of them in your own power. Where you believe in and see miracles as God's normal working . . . then, that’s hyper-radical, unreasonable, irresponsible, because there's no way to raise a family in a lifestyle like that.

He should have, of course, done the Apostle Paul thing. Only single males can follow Jesus like that. I mean Jesus couldn’t really have meant for the principles and outright commands He gave in Luke 9:23, 24, 57-62; 12:4-7, 22-34; 14:26-33; 18:18-30; 21:1-4 to be applied to ALL Christians-- even wives and children!

But that quiet, firm voice will not leave us alone: What if Jesus really meant everything He said?

Matthew 5:38-48-- “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 16:24-27-- “Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done.' "

Luke 14:25-33-- "Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,
'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, "This man began to build and was not able to finish." Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.' "

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In private silence now sit I and think
and in oceans of questions softly sink.
To find some peace, a quiet search
and thus my heart ever yearns.

Head held in hands
to listen to the distant lands
cry out for hope, a desperate cry.
And I-- where am I?

Clinging, ever clinging
to this sinking
earth and treasures held in Fine land's bosom.
But what will I give to the King of heaven?
Shall I give all?
Yes, I must give all
and gladly, for my life is not my own
but his and ever shall be so.

So what future then awaits me
as in darkness now I strain to see
the path so far ahead?
It is not mine to know-- I must be led
and that by One more wise
more loving than my mind's
imaginations can surmise.

And can I fear when led by
such a kind and faithful Eye?
Though fulfilled be darkest fears
of life alone and lonely tears,
though I be despised
and seen as fool in man's full eyes
of earthly wisdom,
though life be lived in
separation, lived alone and my heart wrenched
away from a human love, unfulfilled yet unquenched,
still I will love Him,
still I will praise Him,
still I will seek His kingdom first
with a desperate hunger, unquenchable thirst.

And when my life is at an end,
my head once more held in my hand
my thoughts will wander back across
the years of joy through painful loss.

And then I'll lift my hands
and praise the great I AM
and rush to meet my Husband Christ
who made worthwhile a dying life.

He'll bid me enter to His rest,
"Fear not, for naught but gain is found in death."
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And yet, I am the worse, for I am a hypocrite living a life which bears no semblance to the message I preach. Jesus, save me from myself.