Self-Denial….No Thanks

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." — Jesus in Luke 14:25-35

I am really pondering Schaeffer's idea that our reluctance to embrace self denial is the explanation for the lack of Christlikeness amongst us. This appears to be what Jesus is saying in Luke 14. We tend to think that being a disciple of Jesus is about our choice to follow Him, so it becomes our identity when we "are saved." But what if being a disciple means being like Jesus? Where there is a failure to be like Jesus, something is preventing us from being disciples. In this passage, Jesus is saying that self denial is essential for us to be his disciples.

We can have the desire to be His disciples, just like someone has the desire to build a tower or a king has a desire to win a war. But we will not be able to fulfill that desire if we lack self denial. Self denial is so essential to discipleship that without it, discipleship is like salt that has lost its saltiness.

The thought that comes to my mind is…. are we trying to be disciples of Jesus without embracing self denial? As 21st century people of the West, we possess more power to pursue self fulfillment in terms of security and material goods than any people in history, largely due to technological advances. This environment feeds our commitment to our own welfare. Schaeffer writes, "We are surrounded by a world that says no to nothing. When we are surrounded with this sort of mentality, in which everything is judged by binges and by success, then suddenly to be told that in the Christian life there is to be this strong negative aspect of saying no to things and no to self, it must seem hard."

It doesn't just seem hard, it seems wrong to us. We are so committed to our own welfare that being denied something that is good for us is anathema to our sense of what is right and just. God could not possibly be opposed to it because a loving God is equally committed to our welfare. But to the first century Jew, there was nothing of higher value or more necessary for security and provision than their family. When Jesus tells people they need to hate their family in order to be his disciple, that is the ultimate in self denial in that culture.

More to come on this topic, that is very difficult to get a handle on. For this week I will leave you with a provocative question from Schaeffer, "Is it not true that our thoughts, our prayers for ourselves and those we love, and our conversations are almost entirely aimed at getting rid of the negative at any cost—rather than praying that the negatives might be faced in the proper attitude?" I would say that popular Christianity in our day is almost entirely aimed at getting rid of the negative and God is primarily viewed as a valuable ally in our pursuit of self fulfillment. But doesn't Jesus tell us that we have to learn what it means to embrace self denial if we want to become like Him?