In Luke 9:57 a man came up to Jesus and said he will follow him wherever he goes. And Jesus replies "Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nest, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head". Then he asked the man to come follow Him. Jesus was giving this man a full picture of what following Him looks like. If you go a few verses down the man says but before I follow you I need to go bury my father. Jesus responds in verse 60, "Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God". Then the man says but first let me go say goodbye to my family. Jesus replies "anyone who puts their hand on the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God". What Jesus is saying is that when you follow me you can't hold onto anything in your life. When you follow me you could loose your job, relationships, reputation, and comfort. You can't hold onto the things of this world because you are called in complete surrenderance to spread the news of the Kingdom of God. That is what Jesus calls for his followers.
According to statistics, 70% of Americans claim to be Christians. That number seems to be extremely high because that means 226,100,000 Americans claim to follow Jesus. If that is true then why is our government corrupt on so many different levels, why is social media and television so sexualized, why were there 1.3 million violent crimes last year, why did we only send 127,000 missionaries in 2010 then? It all comes down to people making this place their home which is the opposite of what Jesus did. We as a society have become so comfortable in our bubble of America that we would like to ignore that 4.5 billion people are worshipping false gods. If we took the message of the cross seriously, then we would send more than just 127,000 missionaries. If the statistics of 70% of American-Christians were actually followers of Jesus then more than half our country would be giving everything we have to share the Good News of the Gospel to everyone in the world. There has to be a disconnection between what Jesus originally said and what most "Christians" today believe a follower of Christ looks like. I think it can comes down to people selling a cropped image of the Gospel. As followers of Christ we should give people the whole picture of the Gospel not just the "happy don't show your insecurities gospel". If you do that then why do you need a Savior at all? Then what's the point of Jesus? I can just go throughout my life being a "good person" and be alright with God right? In Revelation 3:16 it says, "But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!". Do you really want to risk your eternity with God for a few years of comfort on Earth? If you claim to follow Jesus then I encourage you to read what he actually taught in the bible.
