Why Following Jesus is Counter-cultural

Conversion of Saint Matthew, woodcut by Jean Cousin

We’re familiar with the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s calling of the Twelve. It was not unusual for popular rabbis in Jesus’s day to attract a crowd wherever they went, and Jesus’s miracles drew extra attention, so in the Gospel accounts we often see Jesus, the rabbi from Nazareth, walking through a town, followed by a mixed crowd of people genuinely interested in His teaching along with curious onlookers.

Then we see Jesus stop and point to someone – Matthew the tax collector, collaborator with the hated Roman regime – and utter those simple and compelling words, “Follow me.” And to everyone’s astonishment, Matthew leaves his collection table and goes with Jesus. In one moment, Matthew has undergone a dramatic career change, from tax collector to disciple of Rabbi Jesus.

I’ve always wondered what prompted those men to so suddenly abandon their trade – Matthew left his table, Peter and John their nets – and convert instantly from one way of life to another. How had God prepared their hearts for that moment, that they would without hesitation become full-time students of this new rabbi? It had to be more than curiosity; they were giving up too much and staking everything on Jesus’s simple call to abandon everything and follow Him.

And we know the rest of the story. Those men followed Jesus around Galilee and into Jerusalem, where they witnessed the death and resurrection of their teacher. Then, in obedience to His departing instructions, they led the fledgling church as it turned the Roman world upside down. By the time the last of them had died (probably John, late in the first century), there were churches all across the Mediterranean basin and probably as far away as India (where Thomas is said to have established the church).

At Jesus’s invitation they each left one way of life and started another, and their lives were changed forever. One thing is clear from their story: each man or woman who followed Jesus saw their personal agenda and life trajectory changed. Nothing could be t
he same after Jesus called - and they responded.

Following Jesus was countercultural in first century Palestine. In an honor-shame culture that prized family and community connections, the decision to follow Jesus was a radical break with social conventions.

It still is, but for a different reason.

Thanks to the digital revolution, our lives have become infinitely customizable. Because of the myriad of options available to me, I can shape my environment to suit my whims.

As I write this, I am listening to my “quiet keyboards” playlist on my computer’s Windows Media Player app. The quiet and soothing selections, which I chose myself, form the perfect audio backdrop for writing. 

If I am in a different mood, I can choose other playlists, all of which I have compiled to suit my own tastes: “adagios,” “Christmas,” “hymns,” “string quartets,” even different variations on the same genre – “jazz piano,” “jazz-swing,” “quiet jazz piano.”

You get the idea. Thanks to the malleable capabilities of digital media, I can shape the soundtrack of my life according to the mood of the moment.

And it’s not just music. I grew up with television that limited my viewing options to three major networks. Now I can watch whichever videos I want from YouTube’s five billion choices (yes, you read that right, billion with a “b”). And thanks to the internet and streaming services, I can also binge-watch my favorite genres (my wife and I are on a British crime dramas kick right now).

And it’s not just entertainment. I can choose what news sources I want to hear, so that I can get the kind of spin on the day’s events that fits my preconceived notions of what it all means. I can avoid hearing news opinions I don’t like. I can choose the tribal perspective that suits my outlook and prejudices.

I can even manipulate the hardware that I use to access all this. I can customize all my devices to my particular needs and tastes. I can choose the images in the background on my phone, tablet or computer screen. I can select the apps that I will use most often to make my devices most useful for my purposes.

I am the master of my little slice of reality.

And I like it that way.

And that is why following Jesus is countercultural.

If I am a Christ-follower, I surrender all my options and resources to the will of someone else. I’m no longer the king of my little kingdom. Once I respond to Jesus’s call, I surrender to Him the right to reshape my habits, my outlook, my priorities.

This has, I think, two practical implications:

1. Being a Christ-follower will affect my daily habit patterns. I have surrendered to my Master and Lord the exclusive right to select the voices that influence my perspective. If I want God’s Word, not Facebook or Fox News, to shape my opinions, I will need to be selective about the voices that influence my outlook.

It is no exaggeration to say that social media is a force in spiritual formation. And it is no surprise that people – especially young adolescents – who live in that world of unfiltered personal opinion are wracked with anxiety and self-doubt.

And the same can be said for the effects of the 24-hour news cycle, which now freely mixes offering editorial opinion with reporting the facts. After all, outrage and dark speculation create ratings. So it is no surprise that people who feed on a steady diet of news opinions are tempted to be cynical and suspicious.

In other words, I cannot live in the world of Facebook and Fox News but only dabble in the Word of God and still expect my outlook to be Christ-centered.

But this goes way beyond entertainment and opinion; my mindset as a Christ-follower goes to the way I conceive of my own identity.

2.  Being a Christ-follower will affect the way I ally myself with causes and parties.

My tribal loyalties – conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat – all take a back seat to my identity as a follower of Jesus.

In a world that is increasingly polarized, it is not easy to stake your claim as a Christ-follower. People are quick to pigeon-hole one another, and labels carry incendiary connotations:

•         “conservative” = “fascist”

•         “liberal” = “Marxist”

•         “evangelical” = “racist”

This means that I must be very careful with the language that I use to express my opinions, but it also means that I’ll always be something of an outsider in my own group. I will often find myself at odds with the ideals that define my tribe.

If I follow Jesus’s cues on the issues, I’ll be too soft for the Right and too much of an absolutist for the Left. I may in fact find myself politically homeless, wondering why there are only two choices in our political system.

When Jesus called the Twelve, they and those close to them may have seen nothing unusual in the invitation. Jesus was a rabbi, and He called young men to follow Him and learn His teachings. This was not unusual in the first century Palestinian world.

But Jesus’s invitation then, as now, means so much more. Jesus was calling them not only to follow Him and learn His teachings, but also to die to their old way of life and begin a new life with a new Master. From the moment they responded to His call, they embarked on a life that would relegate their family and community ties to a secondary tier (no small sacrifice in that world). Even more, Jesus was calling them to a life of service that would lead eventually to their death.

So it is with us. Christ calls us to lay aside the self-absorbed ways that have marked our culture. If I want to follow Jesus, I don’t have the option of living my life the way everyone else does, creating my own little kingdom according to my tastes and preferences. Being a Christ-follower means that I have already decided to let His priorities shape mine.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who stood up the Nazis and paid with his life, had it right: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

From the moment He calls and I answer, I must constantly be about the business of bringing every aspect of my life into obedience to Christ.

That is the countercultural way of the Christ-follower.