So what's a proper response to following Jesus?
How you answer that question, I think, gets at the heart of what guys like me do when we preach, but it also gets to the heart of every person's response to Jesus' invitation to discipleship.
I have any number of atheist and agnostic friends who have trouble wrapping their heads around simple cognitive assent to Christian ideas and ideals -- what some folks like to call "faith". That, to such an extent, their doubt is seen as the opposite of following Jesus. (Let's leave aside, for now, that if that's true, lots of Jesus' own disciples in the Bible had to have been "agnostic" by modern standards.) Thing is, I don't think they're as far off from the Kingdom of God as they do.
Let me explain.
First, "following Jesus" isn't about taking the appropriate "Steps of Salvation" that lots of folks think. Rather, the gospel is the declaration that Jesus is Lord, that the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated in Jesus of Nazareth. This is why Jesus himself preached the gospel, well before his crucifixion. For example, after his baptism in the book of Mark Jesus is observed preaching the gospel: "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 'The time has come,' he said. 'The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!'" (Mark 1.14-15).
What is the gospel according to Jesus? It is the declaration that "the kingdom of God has come near". Similarly, when Jesus sends out his disciples in Luke 10.8-11, they proclaim the same message:
When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.'As I often tell my atheist and agnostic friends -- most of whom care deeply about issues of economic justice and hospitality -- maybe we need to rethink what "following Jesus" (and what "proclaiming the gospel") means. Specifically, the soterian gospel has tended to emphasize a response of faith. Cognitive assent. But when we come to see the gospel as the declaration that the "kingdom of God has come near" the issue is less about belief than repentance. Jesus declares in Mark "Repent and believe the good news". The primacy of repentance is even more clear in the gospel of Matthew: "From that time on Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near'" (4.17).
The role this repentance plays, in fact, is highlighted starkly from John's own message in Mark 1.1-5. Prior to Jesus's entrance John is "preparing the way for the Lord" by "preaching a baptism of repentance". To be sure, faith is a prerequisite for all this. Obviously, you'd have to believe John's message before undergoing his baptism of repentance. But this is banal. Such a faith doesn't, in itself, constitute a full and proper response to the gospel. Rather, the response we see is a repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is how the heart is properly prepared for responding to the kingdom coming.
This makes sense if we recognize that the gospel is less about us than it is about Jesus. More specifically, Jesus is King. Kings don't demand belief or faith. You don't believe in kings. No, you obey kings. You give a king allegiance. So when the kingdom comes the proper response is behavioral, a reconfiguration of loyalties. A new apocalyptic reality has been revealed and we are called upon to readjust our lives to this new reality. This is why the ministry of John the Baptist was necessary.
Why has the role of repentance been deemphasized in many sectors of Christianity? One answer, I think, has to do with a fundamental mistake modern Christians have made: We've reduced the gospel to salvation. Thus, the crux of Christian life becomes cognitive assent (i.e., faith) rather than readjusting our lives in the face of the gospel -- that Jesus is Lord and the rule/kingdom of God has broken upon us. As I described above, it's so much easier to believe that Jesus is King than to obey him as King. The point being, for great swaths of Christianity the message and ministry of John the Baptist has no place. We don't tell people that, to accept the gospel, they need to prepare themselves. All you need to do is believe in Jesus and say the Sinner's Prayer. (This is why I think Christians love to skip over Advent and Lent and head straight to Christmas and Easter.)
For lots of Christians, saying that Sinner's Prayer is enough. But, as I often point out, when we contrast that with John's message in Luke 3.10-14, our view is anemic. Even (as Bonhoeffer characterized it) "cheap".
The crowd asks: "What should we do then?"
To which, John responds: "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same".
Even tax collectors came and asked: "What should we do?"
John responds: "Don't collect any more than you are required to".
Finally, soldiers come to ask the same question. And John responds: "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely -- be content with your pay".
When people ask "What must I do to be saved?", Christians don't, as a rule, say things like "If you have two shirts give one to the poor". We don't see that action -- giving away excess possessions -- as an example of responding to the gospel. But it is. It's readjusting your life to the new rule of God.
A second -- and related -- reason for the eclipse of repentance is that repentance has become a morbid concept. Christians are ashamed of repentance because it doesn't sell well with the public. And this is understandable. If you've grown up with toxic, guilt-driven fundamentalism, the word repentance conjures up notions of shame, self-loathing, and a wrathful, judgmental God. When we hear "Repent!" many of us hear "You're going to hell, ya damned sinner!"
But this is where I think the ideas of preparation and allegiance come in handy. Repentance is preparing for the reign of God. It's not about getting down on yourself. It's about clearing out the rubbish and clutter of our lives. Sort of like spring cleaning. (Literally, at times, a spring cleaning. To the point of going through your stuff and giving it away.) What's more, repentance is about loyalty and allegiance. It's about hearing the declaration of the gospel and switching sides. It has less to do with guilt than about joining up with a new team.
This is why I often characterize discipleship more in terms of being a student-athlete. It's hitching yourself to a Master who is conditioning you for a whole different life. It's not about checking your brain at the door. It's about training your mind to think and your eyes to see in a whole new way.