a·ban·don [uh-ban-duh-n] 4. to yield (oneself) without restraint or moderation
Jesus spoke a lot about the economy of the Kingdom of God, most of it is along the lines of if you want to find, you’ve got to lose. Lose what? Your life, your hard “earned” social identity (i.e. popularity, reputation), your comfort…most in a humanistic American culture will say different (thanks a lot gnosticism and doctrines of cheap grace).
More and more this equation is always morphing in my life. Joel + Jesus=? What does this look like? Well, I know what the answer to the equation must be, but what must happen to find the answer? The equation must have some more integers, surely. But the question is: are those integers something that can be notated? It almost seems that abandon for me is 1+whatever my threshold is. I’m always being pushed beyond comfort and beyond my idea of piety…showing me that this is not about piety but about a relationship. In this equation the answer must be Jesus. Always Jesus. Joel+Jesus=Jesus. But in order for that to happen there must be a death of Joel.
In the Hebrew culture of Jesus’ day there was a certain significance of the disciples (Talmidim) that would follow Jesus. Usually talmidim cannidates would approach a rabbi and request to follow him, then the rabbi would decide yes or encourage them to pursue something else. The thing with Jesus is that he chose his own talmidim showing that he believed in them from the get go. The talmidim would do everything with their rabbi as not to miss any opportune learning experiences. Really when you followed a rabbi you would leave all to do so.
So what does it mean to follow Jesus? Un-spiritualized and frank, I believe it means saying yes to abandoning all to the person of Jesus Christ. I admit this is hard to do in our Western culture (Christian or not). We live in a very consumerist driven society that is more set on getting instead of giving up. I know this is not a popular idea in the western Church. Maybe that’s why God chose the Jews, and it’s their promise that we are grafted into…instead of the other way around. Praise God.