Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. Luke 14.33
Seems like a pretty clear requirement to me, but per my usual way, I’ll be talking about this in four parts.
No, really.
Jesus didn’t just speak this message one time; it was a central message of His whole ministry.
He also said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” This is shared in Matthew 16, Mark 9 and Luke 9. The writers of the gospels must have thought it pretty important.
Look at the language – “cannot be my disciple.” And “if ANYONE DESIRES to come after Me …” Do you want Him at all? The answer is clear, deny yourself, forsake all you ahve, pick up your cross, and then you can follow Him.
The idea of the cross, for the Jews, was one of shame and great offense, a constant reminder that they were, as the chosen nation of the only true God, a subjugated people. To carry the cross to your own death was a humiliating experience, forced to walk through populated areas as an example of someone with no rights. To willfully embrace this was a challenge indeed.
What does Jesus say just following this? “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
The message should be clear: following Jesus entails a constant testimony that you are giving up your whole life for His sake.
In regards to “forsaking all,” Jesus focuses His teachings in the gospels on three main areas.
First, forsaking your family: “Anyone who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” and of course “if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” There’s that “cannot” word over and over again.
Second, a denial of yourself unto death. These are all related, but a dead man doesn’t need to bother with family, possessions, etc. He can give stuff away. A dead man doesn’t need it.
Third, and the main thing I’ll talk about today, is your possessions.
Everytime someone speaks about the Rich Young Ruler, you always get the qualifier: “That was for him alone, okay. Not for everyone.”
You’re not gonna hear or read that from me.
In Luke 12.33, Jesus speaks publicly: “Sell what you have and give alms; provide for yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no theif approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
(To give alms means to give to the poor)
Look at the clear message. In summary, if you place your treasure in heaven by selling what you have and giving to the poor, then your heart will be on your treasure in heaven, and that treasure won’t fail you. Obviously, worldly treasures will. The implication of the opposite is that if you don’t sell your stuff and give it to the poor, your treasure remains on earth and so does your heart. Your heart follows your treasure.
So Jesus’ message to the Rich Young Ruler was a common theme in His ministry. After the young ruler was unwilling to part with his stuff, Jesus says, “It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of the needle.”
Looking at other passages: the merchant “sold all he had” to get the pearl; the abundant farmer was called a “fool” by God Himself for saving his stuff and building new barns to do so.
You can’t have your stuff and Jesus, too.
You can’t have two masters; you can’t serve God and money.
And it is no coincidence to me that in America, the wealthiest and fattest nation in the world, we refuse to give up our stuff and explain away a very clear requirement for what it takes to follow Jesus at all. And we’re smart enough to come up with great excuses and doctrines as to why God would never ask us to do such a crazy thing.
Yes, crazy like willfully picking up a cross and carrying it.
There’s a reason “forsaking all” is necessary to follow Jesus. It is what He did to come to us. If we want to be His disciple, i.e., learn to be like Him, we must begin where he did.
Philipians 2: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God [did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or retained/as something to be used for His own advantage], but made Himself of no reputation [literally emptied Himself of His priveleges], taking on the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
(also read 1 Peter 3:13-4:2)
You want to be a Christian, a little Jesus? You do this.
Jesus, being God, gave it up while on the earth, “emptied Himself of His priveleges”, took on the form of a man, a servant, while in the flesh, and even still humbled Himself further to die on the cross.
Jesus wasn’t only willing to do it. He didn’t do it in theory or “in His heart.” He didn’t make excuses as to why He couldn’t do it or why God wouldn’t ask Him to. He actually gave up His stuff and gave up His life, living as a servant unto His death.
Let that mind be in you.
You’ll find plenty of churches and Christians that will tell you I’m wrong and you can live your life and fight for your rights and keep your stuff and have Jesus too. A lot of people believe in a gospel that tells you that you can have the pearl of great price without selling all that you have to get Him.
But if you want to really follow Him, to have Jesus at all, to be His disciple, you’ll do it. Yes, the world won’t understand and neither will most Christians you know, but God will look down and say, “Hey, there’s my Son.”
more in part (b)
Peace.
Good word man. My take on the Rich Young Ruler has always been that God calls you to give up anything that stands in the way of following Him. Which, I suppose is everything anyway.