Are you a fan or follower ?

We are living in times, where entertainment is one of the lucrative fields such as movies, sports, social networks, etc and celebrities are considered as icons of our society. We celebrate, admire and even try to imitate their looks and costumes of the celebrities, whom we admire the most. We love to have a pic with them or spend some time with them. But we cannot have a personal relationship with them. We can have personal relationship only with the ones with whom we can share our lives and love their presence even if we don't get benefits from them. When Jesus was in this world, he was also considered as a public figure, who was popular among the crowds. When he was ministering people, many people went after him, some for miracles and signs, some for healings, some for accusing him, etc. But unfortunately, only a few recognized and followed him by completely surrendering themselves.

In our present times, we can see that christianity has spread all over the world but unfortunately the sacrifice on the cross has been diluted and most of the christians today have become mere admirers of Jesus looking at him only for benefits but not for Himself. Most of our churches have become stadiums full of fans, who are enthusiastic admirers cheering and being entertained but leave Jesus when they leave the church failing to enrich their lives. In chapter 6 of John gospel, we can see the picture of huge crowd following him. But when Jesus offered himself and invited them to follow Him, fans went home and the crowd thinned out. Jesus was not interested in fans looking only for benefits but he is looking for ardent and committed followers. Jesus did not try to stop them from leaving him, in fact he looked at the left out disciples and asked them whether they also want to leave Him. He says in Luke 9 : 23 "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." He sets up the prerequisites of two qualities to follow Him, one is dying to self and other is to carry the cross. Dying to self refers to dying to our own plans and desires and obey to His plans completely. Cross represents the symbol of suffering and sacrifice. Until and unless sacrifice is demanded, true commitment does not come out. Relationships are often tested only during the trials and crises. As long as things goes the way they expect it to be, everyone love to be in their relationships. But when things does not happen the way they want it to be, relationships starts to fall apart if it does not have deeper commitment. Even the left out disciples have also been tested from time to time to see whether they have the deeper commitment to follow Jesus.

We can have a deeper commitment to Jesus only when we can have complete surrenderance to Him. He does not want us to keep him off the limits in certain areas and complete surrenderance only in few areas. When he started to preach in the sermon on the mount, he talks about every area of our lives : our anxieties, finance, relationships, work, etc. he does not want us to surrender keys only in a few areas but to surrender the master key to him with complete obedience, because he is not interested to merely change our lives but to turn your life upside down with a brand new life. He is not interested to settle in our lives in a small box of religion or ritual of few minutes of prayer whispers in morning and evening and few hours of christian meetings. He expects us to love him with all our heart, because he first loved us unconditionally when we are still sinners and sacrificed himself on the cross to redeem us from our bondage of sins. C T Studd rightly said that

"Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last."

Jesus loves to have an intimate relationship with us, the way Jesus had with the father. But are we willing to love him not for benefits but just to be in His presence. If we look at the history of christianity since the ascension of christ, we can clearly see that disciples are the ones, who are game changers of the world. They are the ones who have created a difference among the lives of the people and effectively shared the love of Jesus through their lives not just by mere words. Are a fan or follower of Jesus ?

- Inspired from external sources