Being Like Jesus: Calling vs.Sent Away

The other day I was in a coffee shop and one of the workers approached my table wearing a WWJD bracelet. I had not seen one in a while.  I guess you can still buy them.  Or maybe they get handed down now like a family relic from your grandfather. Or perhaps from Toby Mac.  You just don't see them like you used to. 

In a Bible Study last night our crew engaged in a conversation about the meaning of being Christ-like.  There were some interesting points raised.  I spent most of my time listening and not speaking. But since I did all of that listening my brain has been doing a lot of speaking to itself.  We also read John 2 at the Bible study, which includes the story of Jesus driving vendors out of the temple.

Here is my encouragement to all of you believers attempting to be Christ-like: Walk into your favorite Christian bookstore.  Buy yourself a WWJD bracelet.  Sit down in the corner and forge yourself a whip out of whatever supplies you can find.  Use your whip to drive the people that sold you the WWJD bracelet out of the store. Do this while wearing the WWJD bracelet.  If the workers at the Christian bookstore protest, merely tell them that you wanted to do what Jesus did.  Show them the bracelet to prove your case.

My point is simply this:  Most of us do not really want to do what Jesus did.  There are certain things that we want to do.  But we are pretty selective about it.  For example, generally speaking, we as Christians don't want to walk up to a total stranger and pray for their lame foot to be healed.  This is something that the gospel writers seem intent on telling us that Jesus did quite a lot.  However, we as Christians really like the idea that we should share Jesus with our friends around the workplace on occasion, something that the gospel writers never  mentioned Jesus doing.  Now I'm a smart enough guy to know that is somewhat circumstantial.  Jesus can't just go around telling people about himself right?  But there is another occasion when he sent the twelve disciples out for the afternoon to work without him. And what did he send them to do?  He sent them to heal and cast out demons, not to go out and tell people about him.  So when you're sitting around guilting yourself about not living up to your Christian duties, add that to your list; "how much time today did I spend healing people and casting out demons?"  And then despair.

My lovely fiance', Emily, raised this point last night in our discussion. There is a lot of conversational potential in this topic.  And I'm just the guy to raise it for you.  Are we really called to be like Jesus?  Think about it. Why do you feel like you need to be like Jesus?  Who told you to be like Jesus?  I'm honestly asking. Did you read it in scripture? Did a Bible verse tell you that you should act like Jesus? Or was it a preacher? A Christian friend? A bracelet? A song by Toby Mac?  Who told you?

I have a handful of blogs to write about this topic because there are a few sub-topics that would make this piece way too long.  But I wanted to poke the issue.  I like poking. Those who know me know this.  I may as well have titled this blog website ADeadManPoking.

I went to seminary. You wouldn't know it now unless you hang out in my kitchen where my Master of Divinity degree hangs above my kitchen sink.  Seminary is a weird place because everybody is "called" to something.  We are all there because we were called.  If you weren't called then someone who IS called will probably approach you at some point telling you that they were called to tell you that you shouldn't be in seminary anymore.  Calling is a big deal in our Christian culture today, and yes I use the word culture deliberately.  If we do manage to "share Christ" with our friends, we usually will say that we felt called to do it.  We definitely had better use the words when choosing a job or a career, God-forbid (literally) that we should accidentally take a job that we were not called to do. It would probably be doomed to utter failure. At least so the culture tells us.

But how many people in scripture were called? Calling was pretty common among the prophets of the Old Testament. They were rogues. They lived these weird lives of wandering around like hermits.  People must have been kind of uncomfortable around them because they would only go find them when they needed someone to tell them that God was telling them to do something.  Weird. It's a confusing sentence I just typed because it is kind of a confusing system.  In the New Testament Jesus called twelve people.  He did actually call them.  For example, the most familiar is Peter and Andrew. They are fishing. Jesus hollers at them from the shore, "Hey guys! Come follow me!"  They were called.  I think this was deliberate on Jesus' part.  He needed twelve apostles, twelve patriarchs to re-launch the kingdom of the Old Testament into the new kingdom that he was bringing.  This would have been a powerful metaphor for the Jews;  Twelve disciples to revive a kingdom that was begun by twelve patriarchs who started twelve tribes.  In other words, Jesus called twelve people because he needed twelve people.  Later on, after Jesus died and then rose again,  people like Paul and Stephen were called to be replacement apostles, so to speak.  Both of them had pretty supernatural callings. Paul was on his way to get a little rowdy killing some Christians, and Jesus shows up as a beam of light that blinds him.  After such an experience he probably felt pretty certain that he was called, because he was either called or he was in need of a brain scan.

So, we talk about being called a lot as believers. Why? I'm not sure, but I think part of it is because we all want to be like Paul. Well, I mean we want to be like Jesus too, but mostly we want to be like Paul.  He is, after all, the most popular idol in our churches today.

But here is another story of which you may have some familiarity.  A rich guy, who is also somewhat young, approaches Jesus.  He approaches Jesus because he wants to become a disciple.  Sound familiar?  Do you also have feelings of wanting to be what Jesus seems to want you to be?  He asks about the qualifications. Sound familiar?  Even though we are told that Jesus' gift of salvation was free, we are also told that we have to say this prayer and do some repenting, and then there may be some stuff asked of us after the deal too. But let's not talk about that right now because then you might not say the prayer.  Jesus tells him an interesting answer. The qualification has nothing to do with a prayer or repentance. His qualification has to do with obeying the basic Old Testament laws.  In other words, doing the right thing. The young seeker says that he has met these qualifications.  But then Jesus does something very interesting...very interesting. He sends the man away.  He tells him, "GO, give all that you have to the poor."  The guy winds up going away, but he isn't happy.  Why? Because when it came down to it, he did not really want to do what Jesus was doing.

I wound up not ever becoming a career minister.  The reasons are humbling.  I had too many screwed up things in my life to really be much good at ministry.  Because of sin, I would have most likely really injured some people and caused a lot of unnecessary hurt.  But I do not regret that path now.  I am very grateful that I was saved from the path of career ministry.  I know very few happy career ministers. And those that seem happy only seem happy in the same way that a gigolo seems happy.  Only most pastors aren't addicted to sex (although many are), but rather to themselves and their own importance.  It is not completely their fault.  They belong to a system that puts them on a stage like the main event, the headlining act, and treats them like the super star of the show.  That would be rough for any human being.  I'm just glad it didn't go that way for me, because I really like that kind of attention. I don't think I could have handled it.

But for those of us Christians who struggle with our sense of calling, I challenge you with these considerations.  Are you really called?  Do you really need to be called? Do you really want to be called?  Or is it simply okay that you have accepted the fact that you need Jesus to heal you, and a Heavenly Father to provide for you?  This is going to stem into my next blog; a thought piece about how we compartmentalize God's will from our will on a daily basis. When in fact they are often the same thing, at least they should be.  And I also challenge you with this thought: It is okay to be sent away.  The rich young guy went away sad. That is a good thing, not a bad thing!  Sadness is the appropriate feeling.  Jesus immediately told his disciples that, because of God, saving that man's life was very possible.  I would contend that being sent away was exactly the salvation that the man needed.  Oh what a different church we would have today if more of us accepted being sent away!  But these days, our churches are all too eager to hire and recruit rich young rulers.  They are the qualified in our non-Christ-like understanding.

A very few of us are called.  Many of us are sent away, we just don't know it. Most of us are sent to go deal with something in our lives that is blocking the way to grace.  We are sent so that we can be saved.  But our churches tell us to just come on in. Don't worry about what needs to be dealt with.  Don't worry about all of the misguided priority in your heart.  Just say the prayer, close the deal, seal the salvation.  Is it any wonder that most people who "say the prayer" never find any change in their lives?  How do you know if you are being sent away?  One indicator may be that you feel really strongly about being called.  It is that type of ambition and drive that seemed to cause Jesus some concern in this guy's case.  Should we be concerned?

Was I called to write this post?  No, I don't believe so. But God made me with a desire to write. And God gave me a desire to share.  And God gave me at least a little bit of brains. So, in a way, I wasn't called to write this post, but rather made to write this post.   See, scriptures doesn't need me to be a good listener in order to be called. I don't need to be silent, spiritual, righteous, smart, skilled, or any other qualifier.  God has a voice, and He can use it if He wants to.  I don't have to pretend that I heard Him.  Scripture teaches me that, if God wants my attention, He knows how to get it.  He is not incompetent in getting attention.  So I will let God be God, and I will just write this blog.