More Than Just Giving Money, We Are Called To Follow Christ

Have you seen The Chosen yet?

There is one very powerful and extremely convicting scene in season 1 episode 7 where Jesus and his disciples are all preparing to move on to the next town. In a previous scene, Jesus invites Nicodemus, a powerful and wealthy pharisee to come and follow him. Instead of accepting the call, Nicodemus leaves a bag of money for Jesus and the disciples. Jesus is disappointed that Nicodemus couldn’t give up his comfortable position in the synagogue to follow him, and it has clearly affected Nicodemus a lot too because in this scene he begins weeping. 

Nicodemus seems to have been overtaken by his comfortable life of wealth, as well as fear of what others may think of him. 

One thing I do find particularly interesting about this scene is that it is a really good representation of how many of us “participate” in the mission of Christ here on earth. Instead of boldly saying “Yes” to Jesus’ call, we simply give some money to the mission and call it good. 

Don’t get me wrong.. Churches, ministries, and nonprofits NEED our financial support, but more than that Jesus is calling us to get up from our comfortable spots on the sidelines and to actually participate! 

We are called to first and foremost, pursue the Kingdom of God before everything else. This can be found in verses like Matthew 6:33 or passages like Luke 9:57-62 when Jesus shares the cost of following him. 

The message we receive from passages like this, is that nothing, literally nothing, matters more than following Jesus. It’s not to say that nothing matters, rather that the most important thing is to be able to leave everything behind and follow Him. 

This is why building wealth is so tricky… Because nothing is inherently wrong with building wealth. But when we focus so much on accumulating money, assets, investments, and stuff, we get used to a certain lifestyle that comes along with all of that. If Jesus were to come knocking on your door and say “Hey, follow me!” could you leave it all behind? Or would your response be more like Nicodemus from that scene in The Chosen – giving some money, and going back to your comfortable life? 

I think you and I would both love to say that we would readily take our spot next to Jesus. But then we start to think about how He says, to “take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt” (Luke 9:3), and we get a bit fearful. 

Your Friend in Christ,
Katie Jones