“The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Today is going to be just a little bit different than our normal Friday conversations usually go. There are several reasons for this including the priority I endeavor to give to life and ministry (in that order) over writing these. The reason for this particular post as well as next week’s post at this time, Lord willing, is that the adult Bible study I teach on Wednesday nights has been having some powerful and challenging conversations as we have been working our way through Matthew’s Gospel. Our most recent conversation struck me as important enough that I wanted to share a glimpse of it with you. I’m going to keep this pretty short and to-the-point, but it’s worth your time to begin reflecting on the idea because it is a life-changing one. The idea is this: Are you worthy of Jesus?
Now, there are two ways a person might react to that question at first thought. Which one you have depends on a variety of factors including personality and the kind of church environment you have been exposed to (and no church counts as an environment). The first reaction is to affirm that, no, I’m not. No one is really worthy of Jesus. He is the righteous and holy second person of the Trinity. His life on earth was lived in total sinless perfection. No one lives up to His standard. The second reaction, by contrast, is a more encouraging one. It is for someone to quickly offer all kinds of reasons the questioner has worth generally. This is more of the I’m-okay-you’re-okay approach our culture tends to take to questions of value.
This morning, though, we are going to leave aside those two responses to reflect briefly on something Jesus said. This saying comes in the context of His preparing to send the disciples out in pairs to proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God in the villages and towns around Galilee. Matthew recorded for us when He gave them their marching orders in chapter 10. He told them what they were going to be doing, but then went on to tell them what their experience was likely to include. It’s a pretty bruising monologue. It’s also a monologue that still bears much worth and relevance for us as the kinds of reactions we can expect from the world when we are faithfully advancing the message and mission of Jesus today haven’t changed much since then.
After talking about all the challenges they – and we – were likely to face, though, Jesus shifted gears to talking about how we as His followers need to be prepared to respond to these challenges. We should greet them fearlessly, Jesus said. He then gave two reasons for this. The first reason is encouraging: God has our backs, and there’s nothing the world is going to be able to do to us that will remove His care. The second reason – and the one we are focused on this morning – is a little more challenging. If we back down in the face of these challenges and give in to their pressure to deny our association with Him, then we’re not worthy of Him.
Toward the end of this challenge, Jesus gets very specific. He says that we need to be willing to acknowledge Him – that is, to live like we know who He really is – before our families and before our own wants and desires. There are two places we are most tempted to set aside our following Jesus in favor of something else. One is in our own hearts when we want something other than Jesus wants. That one tends to get a lot of attention and you can probably come up with examples rather quickly of times you have attempted to square a sinful decision with following Jesus. The other is in front of people whose favor we seek or whose love we desire. These people primarily take the form of our family members. It is frightfully easy for us to put following Jesus to the side when we have a parent who is not doing that and is pressuring us to make a decision that deviates from our commitment to Christ. It is frightfully easy for Jesus-following parents with children who are not doing so to come up with all kinds of excuses why a string of decisions that in no way reflects a commitment to Christ doesn’t really mean they’re not following Him.
In both of these situations Jesus makes something very clear: If you’re putting them or even you ahead of me, you are not worthy of me.
Now, that’s really uncomfortable language. If Jesus Himself is declaring us unworthy, what hope do we have? And yet, we’re hearing that through the lens of our culture and not as He would have meant it in the minds of His original audience. That doesn’t mean He didn’t really mean it, but how He meant it matters.
What Jesus is not saying is that we somehow don’t have as much value if we aren’t following Him. God doesn’t love some people more than other depending on their behavioral choices. His love is consistent (and profound). He doesn’t value some people more than others. He made all of us and loves us just the same whether we are following Him or not.
What Jesus is talking about is whether or not a person is reflecting Him; whether or not a person is following Him. We consider value today to be something inherent. In the first century, this wasn’t the case. A person’s value was connected not to who he was, but to whose he was. This brings us to the point of the challenge Jesus was making and the one I want to leave you to reflect on this weekend. When it comes to following Jesus, there are only two possibilities. As much as we don’t like this kind of thinking today, the options here are intensely binary. Either we are following Jesus…or we’re not. Period. That’s it. There aren’t other options. There isn’t sort of following Jesus. We can’t follow Him and something else as well. We don’t get to pick and choose depending on how we feel on a given day. If we are following Jesus, then we are following Jesus. If we are not following Jesus, then we are not following Jesus. End of discussion.
The reason for this is that Jesus is going in the direction of the kingdom of God. Anything else to which we might give priority in our hearts and minds is not. Now, Jesus is an astoundingly humble God, and so He doesn’t demand the allegiance of someone who does not want to give it to Him, but He is also a fundamentally honest God and expects us to be the same. If we are giving priority to something or someone else in our lives, allowing it or them to have the final say on the decisions we make and the directions we go, we have the freedom to do that. But in that case, we aren’t following Jesus. We aren’t going in His direction. Our lives aren’t going to be marked by His character in any meaningful way. To use the language Jesus used and which made sense to His audience but which we struggle with hearing today: We aren’t worthy of Him.
What Jesus is doing here is not shaming us into making any particular decision. He is inviting us to be honest. Are we following Him, or are we following something else? Following Him is better, of course, but it’s not mandatory in this life. We won’t be forced to it. But neither is He willing or interested in letting us claim it when it’s not the truth. That hurts us because leaving us with the delusion that we’re okay when we’re not. It hurts others by giving them leave to think following Jesus looks other than it really does.
What Jesus is doing here is inviting us to be honest. So, be honest today. Are you following Jesus? Or are you following something or someone else? The choice is yours. But only one path will lead to life. “Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it.” I hope you’ll find life.
The Nexus 
Hi ,
(Matthew 10 : 37) says:’Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me & whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.’
This verse is propounded nicely in this article.
This is one way of explanation about, How to love God.
(John 14 : 21) state :Jesus said, ‘ Whoever has my commandments & keeps them ,he it is who loves me.’
Jesus ‘ commandments means His teaching. He confirmed that the Ten Commandments are still in force.
This is the teaching of Jesus’ _:
1)’ Seek God’s kingdom first of all.’ (Matthew. 6: 33)
2)“You must be born again.”(John 3 : 7)
Take sin very seriously.'(Matthew 5 : 29)
‘ Repent,for the kingdom of heaven is near.'(Matthew 4:1)
3) ‘Deny yourself’.(Luke. 8: 21)
‘Take My yoke upon you & learn from me.’ (Matthew. 11: 28 )
‘Come & follow Me’.(Matthew. 4:19)
4)“Judge not, that ye be not judged.’
( Matthew .7:1)
5)’Keep your word.'(Matthew. 5 : 37)
6) ‘Give to those who can’t reciprocate .'(Luke 14:12–14)
7) ‘Deal nicely with offenders.’
(Matthew. 18 :15)
8)’ Be reconciled to one another.’ (Matthew . 5 : 23)
9)’Go above & beyond, if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.'(Matthew. 5: 41)
10) ‘Resist not evil.'(Matthew . 5 : 39)
11) ‘Practice forgiveness.’ (Matt 18: 21,22)
12) “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law.'(Matthew 7:12 )
13) ‘ Let your light shine before all people.'(Matthew .5:16)
14) ‘Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.'(Matthew 20: 27)
15)’Do not despise the little ones. ‘(Matthew. 18:10)
16) ‘ Ask, seek & knock.’ (Matthew 7: 7)
17).’Be ye wise as serpents, & harmless as doves.'(Matthew . 10:16)
18) “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.’ (Matt.7: 6)
19) ‘Watch out for greed.’
(Luke 12 :15)
20) ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.’ (Matthew. 6: 20)
21)’Do not worry about tomorrow.’
(Matthew 6: 34)
22)’Focus on spiritual disciplines for the right reasons.'( Matthew .6 : 1–18)
23) ‘ Fear not the which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.’ (Matt. 10 : 28)
24)‘Render unto God the things that are God’s.’( Matthew 22 : 21)
25) ‘Choose the narrow path to life’. (Matthew 7:13)
26) ‘Receive Gods power.’
( Acts 1 : 8)
27) ‘Make disciples of all the nations.’ (Matthew 28 : 18)
28)’ Look out for false prophets.’ (Matthew 7: 20)
29) ‘ Stay alert & keep watch on Lord’s coming.’ (Matthew. 24: 44)
30)’Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ (Matthew 5 : 48)
The disciples of Jesus were loving Him. He said to them,” The Father Himself loves you because you have loved me.’ (John 16 : 27)
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That’s a pretty good list of the teachings of Jesus, Usha. I applaud you for your dedication to seek and search to understand and apply His Word. You indicate there at the beginning that Jesus confirmed the Ten Commandments are still in force? Where did He do this?
Here is perhaps another view. Jesus did indeed come to fulfill the Law. He came to fulfill the old covenant in order to replace it with a new covenant. As the writer of Hebrews notes, the new covenant did not merely fulfill the old covenant, but replaced it. The need for the old covenant is gone, as is our duty to keep it. He said that the old covenant of law (which includes the Ten Commandments) is obsolete and ready to disappear (Hebrews 8:13). We are not to worry with keeping the old covenant any longer as followers of Jesus. Paul and James both note that those believers who try to use the old covenant to establish their righteousness are beholden to keep every part of it, and to fail at any point is to fail at every point. Paul railed against those who followed after him, telling the believers in the churches he had planted that they needed to first keep the old covenant before they could enter the new one. We can use the old covenant to achieve righteousness or we can place our faith in Jesus and have His righteousness imputed to us, but we can’t have both. The new is better as the writer of Hebrews establishes with emphasis.
While Jesus gave many commands, there is one command that summarizes all of them. If we keep this one command successfully (which we can only do with His help), we will by this be keeping all the rest. This command comes in John 13:34-35. We are to love one another after the pattern of His love for us. If we do that, we will be known as His disciples. This is the only command Jesus said whose keeping would successfully identify us as His disciples. We should not forget that.
The Christian life is not easy, but it is far simpler than Jesus’ followers have often made it out to be. We add all sorts of rules and regulations to it in addition to Jesus’ one command for us to keep so that we will be known as His followers, but we do this often to the harm of those who would follow Him. We discourage them by loading them up with loads we ourselves don’t bear well. Jesus called the Pharisees out on the carpet for doing as much. We dare not retread the ground they were judged for walking.
You are seeking well to follow Jesus. Don’t get so wrapped up in commands and laws and rules and regulations. Focus your efforts and energies on studying the Scriptures as you do so well and loving your neighbor as a reflection of Jesus’ love for you. The rest will fall into place nicely. Blessings to you!
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Hi, Pastor,
Jesus fulfilled * the law: *
He explained that he * *came to fulfill the law, * *bringing it to its ultimate * *purpose and meaning, * *which he revealed to be * *love for God and love for * your neighbor. *
He upheld * *the command *ments: *
Jesus consistently upheld * the commandments, even* * in direct conversations. * For example, when a rich * young man asked how to * gain eternal life, Jesus * listed several of the commandments, showing* * their continuing relevance. * The reference is found in * the New Testament : Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22,& Luke 18:18-23 *. In this account, a rich * young man asks Jesus * what he must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus * responds by telling him * to “keep the command *ments” & then specifies a * *set of them, which includes * *the commands to not * *murder, commit adultery, * *steal, or bear false witness, * *and to honor his father & * *mother. *
*He intensified * *the law: *
Rather than discarding * them, Jesus intensified * the meaning of the commandments by * emphasizing the * *importance of the spirit * behind the law, not just * the letter of the law. For instance, he taught that* * murder begins in the heart, * &adultery begins in the * mind. *
He made them * a central part * of his teachings:
The 10 commandments * remain a part of the * *foundation of Jesus’ * *teachings, & he summ arized them into the two * *great commandments: * to love God with all your * heart and to love your * *neighbor as yourself. *
The 1st command in 10 * is,,#You shall have no * other God.#
If the 10 commandments * are not in force, then the * *people will nicely worship * the other Gods.
As how some lsraelly * *people are worshipping * *Bal now ? Though they * *know the commands.
*Usha Borde. *
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You are right that He did not cancel them. Nor did I say as much. You are right that He did not abolish them. He fulfilled the old covenant and replaced it with a new one. And under the new covenant, if we keep His command to love one another after the pattern of His love for us, we will succeed in keeping the entire rest of the law. The old covenant is fulfilled in the new. Thus, we don’t have to worry about keeping the old. We can focus on loving Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. The rest will fall into place from there. Keep up the good work!
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Hi,
Thanks for the mail and clarification, raising Jesus high above.
l praise Him, too.
Stay tuned.
Usha Borde
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