[AI translation] This single scene shows how Jesus is a very different person from anyone else in the world. For when a man seeks to gain followers for himself, to win adherents to his views, he certainly does not do as Jesus did, but by embellishing his plans, by making what he wants to achieve with his followers seem desirable, easy. He emphasises the benefits and speaks only quietly and in passing of the sacrifice and risk that following him entails. Jesus does the opposite. Behold, someone here offers himself to him with great enthusiasm: I will follow you, Lord, wherever you go... Jesus cools him down: be careful, he says, think carefully about what you are undertaking, it is not enough to be enthusiastic... He is almost discouraging you from following Him, almost making counter-propaganda for himself, almost making his own cause unpopular. It is astonishing when someone does the opposite of all the publicity and speaks so honestly. Yes, because Jesus does not want to gather an audience, not a devout audience, not an army of sympathisers, but followers! And here He makes it clear what His following is not for and what it is for. It would be good, then, if we too could now clarify what we are undertaking when we claim to be followers of Christ."The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests..." Well, what a den is to an animal, a den is to a human being, a refuge, a protection against the storms and failures of life. What a nest is to an animal is to a man the warmth and happiness of family life... Everyone strives to make life as comfortable, smooth and successful as possible for himself and his family. To escape from trouble, sickness, pain, in short: to make this life on earth as good as possible, as you want it to be, as you wish it to be. Well, this is a natural human aspiration and it is the right thing to do. But it is no longer right to use God to achieve these desires. It is not right for man to seek to set divine power in the defence of his own earthly interests. Many people have a primitive idea of religion as a kind of insurance fund in which I pay what is due to God: a few prayers, occasional visits to His house, a certain reverence and homage - and He helps me, protects me from harm, makes my endeavours successful. For if He does not, if He does not give me what I ask and expect of Him, then there is no point in believing in Him, no point in following Him. Once a young man of faith was very shocked when he failed his exam. 'I don't understand,' he said, 'though I prayed very earnestly before the exam and lived a very respectable life. So why did I have to fail? I lost my faith in God." Not long ago someone from this church said, "I don't pray anymore. When my mother was sick, all I ever asked for was God to heal her! I prayed for her day and night, and in vain, she died, and after so much suffering! Please leave me peace with God! He will not help me!"
Well, for once it would be very good to come to terms with the fact that Jesus never promised such things to His followers. He didn't promise to heal you of every sickness, nor did He promise to help you pass every test, nor did He promise that if you followed Him you would be happily married or married, nor did He promise that you would have a family house or a home - in short, He didn't promise that everything would work out well and you would be free from all trouble and suffering! No! Pain and suffering are a common fate for all of us. We are surrounded by nature, we are surrounded by other people, we are surrounded by our own physical bodies, and through all these channels we are surrounded by a lot of suffering and pain. And the fact that one is a follower of Jesus does not exempt anyone from this! If only because we are following Jesus, the One who has suffered the most that any human being has ever suffered on this earth. But, brethren, it would not be good if everything were to succeed, if everything were to happen as we imagine it in our own desires, if we were to remain free from all suffering. Where the sun is always shining and the sky is never shaded by clouds, where the landscape is never refreshed by storms, there is the barren desolation of the Sahara, the barren aridity of the Sahara. A German poet once said: 'I could imagine animals becoming men through suffering. Well, that is what happens through suffering: we go from being animals to being human beings. He who never suffers would never become a real man! We need suffering, we need it! If anyone would want to follow Jesus because he hopes to escape all troubles and trials through Him, Jesus will disappoint him, like this scribe: "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Following Christ is not meant to secure one good fortune and prosperity in this life on earth!
Then this saying of Jesus, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head," is also shocking, because one feels there is some great injustice here. Is it fair that even an animal can find a home on this earth, and that One who is better than all, truer than all, greater than all, greater than all: Jesus, should wander among men without a home?! Well, that is really unfair! But Jesus does not promise that this life will always be just. People are often so astonished that they ask, how can God allow this or that?! Well, my brethren: at the very heart of earth's history is this most egregious injustice: the cross of Calvary! Is it not an injustice that the only good, pure, innocent, perfect One who ever walked this earth should suffer for the sin of the whole world?! Is there any greater injustice than that the innocent should be punished instead of the guilty?! And yet God allowed it, and even willed it, because it was out of this greatest evil that He brought the greatest good: salvation for men. It was through this injustice that he poured out his love on this world. Look, we are talking about following Jesus, who had nowhere to lay his head in this world, who was spat upon, mocked, who allowed himself to be mocked, to be nailed hand and foot, who forgave his enemies, who suffered unheard of injury. This is the Jesus we follow. And what this means in practice is that it is not important that I should necessarily be proved right; it is not important that I should be acknowledged for my toil, my sacrifice, my suffering; it is not important that I should be loved and thanked by the one with whom I do good; it is not important that I should be forgiven by the one whom I have forgiven; it is not important that I should be rewarded for being faithful. Nothing will happen to me if I am hurt, if I am neglected, if I am wronged. Jesus does not promise that this life will always be just for those who follow Him!
If this is the case, it is no wonder that there are relatively few who truly commit to following Jesus. Well, it is also in this Word that Jesus does not promise crowds. He doesn't promise that His cause will be a popular cause on this earth, that His movement will grow into a mass movement that will conquer the vast majority of people. In fact, the great masses will soon turn away from Him even at the time when He walked the earth and only a handful of minorities remain around Him. And it is even more so today in our baptised age. Today many are discouraged that following Jesus is becoming an increasingly unpopular enterprise in the world. A single football match moves more people than all the Christian churches in Budapest on a Sunday. The army of Jesus followers is dwindling, and more and more are falling behind... What is Christianity? Is it really a slowly dying movement that has outlived its usefulness? - Well, no! Jesus did not promise that those who would follow Him would find themselves in large numbers. It will always be the minority that will truly belong to Him. And when Christianity became a mass movement, as it was in the Middle Ages - when there were advantages to belonging to it - when there was a conjuncture of the Christian name: then the cause of Christ on earth always flattened, always deteriorated. The one who truly follows Jesus may not be on the popular side, may be in the minority or even alone in certain situations - but perhaps that is when he is at his best with Him! Better alone with Him than in the crowd without Him!
Well, then, if you want to follow Jesus, remember that foxes have dens, etc. It is really not a question here, then, of idle contemplation, and not of securing one's own advantage, but of a determination to be very active. Jesus is Someone who can only be followed by devoting one's whole life to Him. Jesus is not the fulfiller of our desires, not the servant of our fortune, not the agent of our prosperity - but the Lord God our Saviour. It is a great privilege to belong to Him.
Whoever says yes to His call: is committed, committed body and soul, life and death, to His service! Because look, this is what is important, following Jesus is not only for man to find inner peace of mind, to resolve conflicts and problems in his life, to be cleansed of certain sins, to feel good inside, to see his salvation secured, so that he can get right with himself and his own problems, big or small. For this, of course, but beyond that, mainly so that man may become an instrument of God, so that God may use man in this world where He wills and sees fit. That is why it is so wrong for believers to be always fiddling with themselves, measuring the growth or decline of their spiritual life, always tormenting themselves. To follow Christ is to commit myself to Him, to give my whole life to Him, to be ready to serve Him. Do you know what Jesus wants for us? He wants to make us co-workers, beings who work with Him for the good of the world. To be instruments through whom God will make His love, His goodness, His help visible in this world. Jesus needs followers who will demonstrate by their lives and, if necessary, by their words, that there is forgiveness of sins, there is a pure life, there is deliverance from sins and bondage, there is consolation in sorrow, there is a heavenly resource, there is a resurrection triumphant over death and eternal life! Jesus needs followers who are not only devout hearers and eager readers of the Word, but also transmitters of it - through whom the purity, joy and peace of God's heart will be poured out to others. This is what the Apostle Paul recognised when he wrote to those who would follow Jesus: "Dedicate your members as instruments of righteousness to God". "Give your members: that is, your hands, your feet, your eyes, your mouth, your whole being, to the service of God. And you know, it is true that when one truly gives his hand to Jesus, He always gives him a job to do; his foot, when one truly gives it, He always shows the right way; his eye sees the opportunity to serve, his mouth gives the right words!
If a man is truly devoted, he will never be in doubt as to what he can do to serve people, because he will always know what Jesus' specific will for him is in that particular situation. Just be careful not to remain in passive, unproductive piety, always introverted piety, fruitless religiosity, because it is an abomination to the world, but especially to the Lord! It is precisely this that Jesus wants to shake His followers out of... Then His following will be beautiful, it will be joyful, it will be varied and adventurous, it will be useful. It will be a life-filling and blissful endeavor, worth every sacrifice!
Amen!
Date: 16 September 1962.