In Luke 18:18-23 Jesus comes across a rich ruler who wants to obtain eternal life but is not willing to give up his earthly wealth to follow Christ. Jesus told him to sell everything and give it to the poor and to “come, follow me.” Instead of following Christ, this young man walks away sorrowful.
What is Jesus saying about what it means to follow him? What must we leave in order to follow Christ? It would seem to me that the answer is everything. We must leave everything in order to make Jesus everything. If Jesus is to be our Savior, he cannot take second place to our earthly ambitions and desires.
This seems to be the case every time that Jesus calls someone to follow him. Let’s consider some of these instances.
Matthew 4:19 – “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”
Peter and Andrew were hoping for a catch that provided for their families. When Jesus walked past these two men, he didn’t ask them to consider how they might fit him in around fishing. He told them to follow him then and there. They immediately left their nets and followed him. The family business was not to be greater priority than Christ.
Matthew 8:22 – “And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’”
In Matthew 8:18-22 we see two negative examples of people who are not willing to be followers of Jesus. One man asks to go wherever Jesus goes, but Jesus’ answer to him implies that he was not willing to give up his comforts to be with Jesus, a man who had nowhere to lay his head. A second man wanted to follow Jesus but wanted Jesus to wait to allow him to bury his father. This may have even meant that he needed to wait until the day his father died. Life can only be found in Jesus and without Christ even the living in this world are already dead. You cannot receive life in Christ and be more concerned about the worldly dead, even if it is your own father.
Matthew 9:9 – “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him.”
Matthew was a tax collector. He earned his money, and likely lots of it, from collecting tax for the Romans. In such a role, he would already have been more concerned with making money than being loyal to his own people (at least how they saw it). Matthew left his secure income under Roman rule to immediately follow Jesus.
Matthew 10:38 – “‘And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.’”
Matthew 16:24 – “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’”
Jesus simply says to us that we must be willing to die to self and all that drives us in this world to follow him. He is to be our only hope and source of life.
When Jesus says “follow me” to the rich young ruler, he is saying to give up everything to put all his faith and hope in Jesus, to follow him despite all his desires, ambitions, and affections in and for this world. Jesus must be first and there must be an infinite distance between him and whatever is in second place. When the Scriptures speak of Jesus as Lord, we must realize that when we follow Christ, we are following our Lord. We cannot have two kings. That is the intensity of following Jesus.
Matthew 6:22-24 – “‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.’”
That may seem intense to you, but that is normal Christianity. The normal intensity of following Jesus.