Jesus entertains no competitors
Soul Snack 129/10 ... The uncomfortable Christ
There is nothing comfortable about a cross. There is nothing vague or compromised in -
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Lk 9:23)
There is nothing sanitary about my salvation. It was a brutalising of God and an attempted destruction of the Divine.
This man Jesus, who has no place to lay His head, who calls for parental hatred and who will divide siblings is not a man given to the acceptance or approval of the lukewarm.
This man Jesus who retained no self-protection, denied all self-promotion and refused to resist His enemies does not invite followers from a cushioned cross or rope-held limbs.
The cry for no-compromise and the pattern for self-removal does not beckon, it commands!
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Lk 9:23)
It is an absolute and sheer lunacy to build a faith upon non-indulgence, an absent self and an insecure, even unseen future. Yet this is Jesus' recruitment strategy -- nailed, indeed suspended, visible to all who would take the time to look up.
There is no cajoling from Calvary. Jesus brooks no competitors. To claim the honor of Christian is to claim the discomfort of your loved name-sake.