Hurray Jesus? How not to crash with your life.

It is easier to ask the doctor for a pill than changing your diet, stop smoking, and exercise. It is easier to have someone pay your bills than change your spending habits. It is easier to criticize than to help. It is easier to do a few nice things than change your character. It is easier to be a fan than a follower of Jesus.Jesus had a lot of fans, especially once he started healing and feeding people. But Jesus also preached and taught. In Luke 5 &6 Jesus amazes some fishermen, cleanses a leper, forgives and heals a paralytic, turns around a crooked tax-collector, attends a party with sinners, heals a multitude of people, changes the destinies of 11 ordinary men, and steps right over some ridiculous religious convention to restore someone’s use of his hand. That is a whole lot to be excited about. It is also a whole lot of evidence that Jesus Christ is completely extraordinary, the Son of God.Then toward the end of the sixth chapter, after laying out clear, profound, and demanding teaching, Jesus says “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” and follows it up with, “I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it.It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins” Luke 6:46-49 (NLT).Jesus still is hoping you and I will be more than just fans, he is interested in us being devoted followers. Fans do a lot of whooping and hollering, they know just when to break out in “Amens” and “Hallelujahs”. Fans are good at wearing the team merchandize, getting team or favorite player tattoos, love rallies, and tailgate it. Fans love fan forums, clichés and platitudes, and are often less than gracious to opposing fans. They are also fickle, at least many of them; most of the Jesus fans in the Gospels went on to root for somebody or something else or nothing at all.So what did Jesus say that dowsed the pep-rally? Well, he dared to bless the poor, the hungry, the grieving, and those who would follow him even if it meant persecution. Then he pronounced woes, to the rich, to the well-fed, to those who laugh, and to those who are acceptable to all. But Jesus didn’t stop there, he demanded that we love our enemies and those who mistreat us, to “turn the other cheek”, he insisted on real generosity, on becoming givers not takers, he asked his followers to treat others how they want to be treated, to not be judgmental, and to be merciful like God. Jesus started talking in black and white terms regarding being consistently good, every now and then does not cut it for those who are serious about following him (Luke 6:20-48).It wasn’t the first time Jesus threw cold water on fandom and demanded that people listen to and accept what he had to say. He refused to put on a show in hometown and instead read an important scripture they needed to understand. So they turned on him and were ready to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:16-30).Jesus isn’t looking for a cheering squad, he is looking for followers. He is not looking for spectators, he is looking for doers, for those who are willing to live out what he taught, which is very demanding. Jesus is deeply interested in you and I not crashing and that’s why he insists that we dare to do what he says. It separates the fans from the followers, the hoopla from the substance, the fluff from the real.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans