For followers of Jesus, there will come moments in our lives where what he wants for us and what we want for us part ways. Perhaps you’ve been there. These are crucial times, when we are forced to answer an uncomfortable question: Am I really a follower of Jesus, or am I just a consumer?
We aren’t the first people to struggle with this tension. Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Peter did, too—and at first, he failed rather miserably. In Mark 8:27–38, we see Jesus expose the 3 elements of consumer faith:
1. You have consumer faith if you expect Christ to remove all hardship from your life.
Mark 8 should have been one of Peter’s finest moments. Jesus had offered the disciples a pop quiz, and Peter got a perfect score. “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked, to which Peter alone replied, “You are the Christ, the Messiah.” That may be the most important question a person can ever answer, and on his first try, Peter nailed it.
But then Jesus started talking about how he, the Messiah, would have to suffer and die. Never one to lack in boldness, Peter took Jesus aside to correct him. (It takes some chutzpah to give Jesus on-the-spot sermon critique!) And Jesus responds by calling Peter Satan. Ouch.
Why was Jesus so opposed to what Peter was saying? It’s not that Jesus had an ego-complex, and just didn’t want anyone correcting him. It’s that Peter assumed that the Messiah would come to remove all hardship from his life. That’s a sentiment that many immature Christians share: Jesus Christ came so I wouldn’t have to suffer.
But Jesus said, “No, Peter, I’m not going to save you from suffering; I’m going to save you through suffering.” Jesus came to bear a cross, and whoever wants to follow him had better expect a cross as well.
You will come to a point like this in your walk with God. When you find out that God may not remove every problem from your life—when the cancer doesn’t go into remission, when the son or daughter doesn’t come back, when the marriage isn’t healed—in these moments, God is asking you, “Why are you following me? Is it for the benefits I can give, or because I’m more valuable than life itself?”
2. You have consumer faith if you think of discipleship in terms of self-fulfillment instead of sacrifice.
Peter, like most of us, thought of the Messiah as someone who would make his life better. He was looking for someone to overthrow Rome and give his country freedom. Most of us don’t dream of war with Rome, but we have expectations of Jesus. We think of him as part genie in a bottle, part therapist, part life coach, part cheerleader, part financial advisor. We expect Jesus to do certain things for us. And he responds with, “I’m going to a cross to be tortured to death. Who’s with me?”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, reflecting on this passage, said it best: “When Jesus bids a man to follow him, he bids him come and die.”
Have you ever stopped to think about what Jesus’ purpose was in saving you? It wasn’t to clean up your life and send you to heaven. As a friend of mine says, Jesus didn’t save us to disinfect us and put us on the shelf. He saved us to put us into service. He offered up his life as a sacrifice and called us to follow him. Have you offered yourself to Jesus…like that?
3. You have consumer faith if your obedience to Christ has limits.
Peter had been excited about following Jesus when it meant healing and power and popularity. After all, he had left his entire livelihood for Jesus. But with all this talk of suffering, sacrifice, and service, Peter’s coming to a realization: following Jesus is going to cost me.
At some point, obedience to Jesus is going to take you 180 degrees away from what you want. He tells you to forgive someone you don’t want to. He nudges you to make a financial sacrifice. He prompts you to speak the gospel to a certain person. He calls you to follow him somewhere in mission. At that point you’re going to have to decide how valuable he is to you. Did you come to Jesus to get something from him, or to offer yourself to him? Do you want something from Jesus, or do you just want Jesus?
Jesus doesn’t come to be part of our lives. He comes to be the new center of our lives. And as long as our obedience to him has a limit, we’re still standing in the center. What Jesus demands is a Copernican revolution of the soul—not adding Jesus into orbit in our lives, but aligning our lives in orbit around him. So we come to him with open hands, saying, “All that I am, all that I have, all that I ever hope to be…it all belongs to you.”
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.
