Much of our society has low expectations. Let me nuance this a bit: our society is filled with individuals who have low expectations for themselves but very high ones for others. To illustrate, several weeks ago I went to Chipotle with my newly minted son-in-law. When we came to the cash register, the customer ahead of us was attempting to explain to the cashier what she needed to do to give him the correct change. After several attempts at following the customer’s directions, she gave up and huffed, “Whatever. Just take this,” and she shoved a few bills into his hands. The cashier clearly did not care and had very low expectations of succeeding at dolling out the accurate change; the customer expected quite a bit more.
Take another example: For some time, my wife and I have been trying to sell our house. We have now gone through three different buyers (each contract falling through), each demanding increasingly high expectations of us as sellers. The last interested buyer demanded that we have specialized professional inspectors to inspect all the plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roof, and much more. They demanded that we, more or less, replace most of these items, none of which were broken or had any issues whatsoever. In fact, we had replaced the entire HVAC a year ago! The buyer’s expectations of us were very demanding. Expectations for herself? None. She did not want to do anything. She just wanted a perfect house with no wear and tear.
Sometimes I wonder if this is how many Christians, especially in America, approach their relationship with Christ. How many have been sold and bought the idea that the Christian life is a breeze with low expectations? Accept Christ into your heart. Get baptized. Live life to the fullest. All done. Go to heaven. This seems how many Christians in a low expectation society live. Christ, however, paints an entirely different picture.
Jesus begins by telling others who desire to follow him that they have to count the cost. “For which one of you,” asks Jesus, “when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28; NASB). If this does not convey how we need to count the cost of discipleship, Jesus goes on to say, “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?” (Luke 14:31). At every turn, Jesus warns his followers to take note what it will cost to be his disciple. “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” he once taught, and if he does not, it is quite possible that his disciples will not either (Luke 9:58). Being a disciple of Jesus is going to be difficult, and our expectations of being a Christian ought to line up with the challenges Jesus foretold.
Moreover, we need to realize (or be reminded of) the fact that Jesus expects a lot from his disciples. Jesus never intended for his followers merely to accept him, get baptized, live life, and then die and go to heaven. Not at all. He expected them to work. The parable of the master who put a steward in charge of his servants tells us this. “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time?” Jesus asked (Luke 12:42). “Blessed is that slave,” retorts Jesus, “whom his master finds so doing when he comes. . . . From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more” (Luke 12:43, 48b). In other words, Jesus’ expectation is that we are working for him until he returns, and many of us have received much–in way of talents, gifts, and so much more–and so expects much from us. Being a Christian is not about mere conversion to a belief in Jesus. It is about continually being changed and working for him.
There are expectations when we become Christians. There are demands. So count the cost before signing up. Will you be able to handle it?
The Christian way is different: harder and easier. Christ says, “Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.” ~C.S. Lewis
Pastor Pete