You can't have it both ways

Jesus said, “Come, follow me...” Matthew 4:19

Chatting recently to a friend I hadn’t seen for a long time, the subject of vegetarianism came up. “Are you a vegetarian, then?” I asked. He hesitated for a moment, and then said, “Er, yes and no.”  

At which we both burst out laughing. He realised as well as me that his answer was ridiculous: either you’re a vegetarian or you’re not. It has to be either Yes or No; it can’t be Yes and No.

Some things demand decisions. You can’t go to a football match and support both Manchester City and Manchester United. You have to make a choice. You can’t go into a polling station and vote for both Conservative and Labour. You have to make a choice. You can’t turn up on your wedding day and marry both Mary and Jane, or both Harry and Joe. You have to make a choice.

And Jesus calls us to make a choice.

In the Gospels, again and again he calls people to respond to his words and deeds. He calls the first disciples to leave their fishing-nets and follow him (Mark 1:17). He calls Zacchaeus to come down from the fig-tree and welcome him into his home (Luke 19:1-10). He tells the rich young ruler to give away his wealth and follow him (Mark 10:17-21). 

When people met Jesus they were called to do something as a result; it wasn’t enough to go away just thinking about him - even if their thoughts were good thoughts: “What a wonderful man!” or “How interesting his words are!” or “That really is challenging!” No. The question was “What must I do?”

Perhaps the most extreme demand Jesus made was one based on the age-old pages of the Old Testament: that his hearers should “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). That’s some ask! - and you can’t say yes to it without making a clear, thought-through decision. It’s not something you can vaguely drift into. 

Put it another way: with Jesus it’s either all or nothing at all. You may be whole-heartedly for him or whole-heartedly against him; but the one thing you can’t be is indifferent towards him.

Go back to my not-quite-vegetarian friend. What he said was absurd, but I think we both knew what he meant. He was convinced by the case for vegetarianism, and abstained from meat most of the time. But he couldn’t quite carry it through, and so, particularly on special occasions, he allowed himself to lapse. A half-vegetarian - except that that’s impossible.

Many of us, I fear, are half-Christians. Except that that’s impossible too. 

We admire Jesus. We are moved by his life, death and resurrection. We find that his words drill right down into our hearts and play havoc with our consciences. Here, we sense, is life, truth, love, purity, power. Here is God!

We know that we should follow and obey him. As his friend Simon Peter put it to him, when Jesus suggested that the twelve might be tempted to leave him, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” To whom indeed? Who else is there? Can you think of anyone? He went on: “You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Exactly!

But somehow we hold back. And we don’t realise that in doing so we are not only failing him, but also being, as they say, our own worst enemy. 

Suppose those first fishermen had turned down Jesus’ request to become “fishers of men”, and just carried on doing their routine job. Nothing wrong with being a fishermen of course; but think what they would have missed.

Suppose Zacchaeus had stayed up that tree till the crowds dispersed, refusing to come down and eat humble pie - and be remade as a new man. His petty, mean, cramped little life might have continued till the day he died.

And suppose that rich young man hadn’t rejected the request Jesus made of him. Yes, it would have been hard - but he wouldn’t, surely, have “gone away sad”. I think that sadness must only have deepened as his life - really, a wasted life - went on.

The message is simple: if we are going to be Christians, well, let’s be Christians.

As we look into our own hearts, are any of us, in truth, fence-sitting, wanting the name and comfort of being a follower of Jesus, but failing to give him our all? Make no mistake, the day will come when we will be sorry.

Is it decision-day for you?

Lord God, help me not to waste my precious life on earth by being a half-follower of Jesus. Amen.