To Follow Christ Is the Fundamental Christian Experience
A Proposal for the Christian Life
Why do you think they went out on mission? These seventy-two disciples whom Christ appoints in Luke’s Gospel. Why do you think they went out? And why do you think they returned? We can’t know for sure. Maybe – like us at times – some of them wanted to experience something new; maybe life had become boring and tedious and had ceased to inspire them. Maybe – like us at times – some of these disciples deeply desired meaning and purpose in their lives and found it in their mission; maybe life for them had become empty and lacked the kind of significance that assures us that our lives matter. Maybe – like us at times – these disciples were motivated by the success of their labor. Maybe some of these seventy-two experienced the joy that comes from having accomplished something – the satisfaction that comes from having done good work and having done it well – and so return to Christ wanting more.
We can’t know for sure the motivations of these seventy-two whom Christ appoints in Luke’s Gospel. But we do know the logic of the Gospel . . . and we do know the reality of conversion for what it is. The Christian reality holds true in all times and in all places just as the Christian reality applies to all peoples and to all nations. We know the Christian reality for what it is. So we know for certain that these seventy-two had met Christ, had recognized in his teaching and his way of life the source of authentic hope and the promise of salvation, and so had made a choice to follow him. These seventy-two made a choice to follow Christ. And so life for them would never be the same.
To follow Christ – to meet the revealed Word of God and to make a choice to allow your life to be changed forever – to follow Christ is the fundamental Christian experience. Christians are Christ-followers; following Christ is what Christians do. And we know this, of course. We know that Christians follow Christ; there is no new truth here. And no convicted Christian would deny their desire to follow Christ. But I imagine that most convicted Christians would also admit that to follow Christ is a hard thing to do. Following Christ isn’t always easy; we know this also. And one of the reasons why following Christ is hard for us is found in a single word: obedience.
Obedience. There, I think, is the hard truth about following Christ. And there, I think, is the motivation that drives the movements of these seventy-two in the Gospel. They had met Christ and had made the choice to follow him. And now these disciples accepted for themselves what following Christ really demands of any Christian. The disciples in Luke’s Gospel were appointed, they were sent out, and they were told to return. More than that: these seventy-two were told how to travel, how to live in relationship with one another, and how to do the work of leading others to Christ. An entire pattern of life; a complete mode of existence. The initial choice to follow Christ determines everything about the Christian life. For the Christian, the whole of our lives is a response to the Christ-event. There is no part of us that remains untouched by having met our savior; there is no aspect of our lives that is not claimed by Christ. The Christian makes a choice to follow Christ and to follow Christ demands a radical openness to where Christ leads and to how Christ tells us to live. The Christian life is a life of obedience.
And yet we know that Christian obedience is hard. Getting serious about what following Christ demands of us . . . here we often struggle. And why? Well, there are any number of reasons we might give but I am going to focus on one of these reasons: there is a tension in our lives between our desire for control and the life of the Church that Christ has given us. Within this tension two realities come into conflict. The first reality is our desire to determine what is true or false, what is good or evil, what is right for us to do or wrong for us to do. We like to be in control and – importantly – to live well demands that we take responsibility for ourselves: for the decisions that we make and for the values that we uphold. And there is much here that is good. But the tension arises in our lives because of that second reality: the fact that Christ has given us a Church and that there are elements of the Church’s life that challenge us. Teachings come from the Church that we don’t agree with; or decisions are made by the Church that we want to reject or critique; or scandal within the life of the Church leads us to conclude that the responsible course of action is to make decisions for ourselves that conflict with what the Church asks of us. Here is where the Christian life gets hard. To follow Christ means obedience to the Church that Christ has given us but sometimes we just don’t want to do what the Church asks of us and sometimes we think we know better.
We see this tension revealed in our lives and in the life of the Church with so much regularity today. Sometimes we see the tension revealed when Christians invoke the language of conscience to justify their own preferences. Almost 150 years ago, St. John Henry Newman warned that in our modern age conscience has been reduced to nothing more than self-will: permission to believe as we wish and to act as we choose.1 Sometimes we see the tension revealed when Christians select some part of the life of the Church and establish it as the standard for the whole life of the Church. And so, we see Christians today claim that one part of our Roman Catholic tradition is better or more important than others, or that the way Christians lived or worshipped in one time in the Church’s history is “better” or “truer” than how we live or worship today, or that one element of the Church’s life today must become the operative norm for every member of our Church. Our own desire for control comes into conflict with the Church that Christ has given us and the consequence is the risk of disobedience: the failure to follow the Christ whom we have identified as our savior.
And you know . . . what bothers me is that the life of Christian obedience should be easier now than it was 2,000 years ago. Imagine the lives of these seventy-two in Luke’s Gospel. In no way did these disciples know where Christ was leading them. In no way did they know how the drama of their salvation would unfold. These disciples followed the commands of Christ when there was still so much that had yet to be revealed. And yet these disciples followed Christ. We Christians today are the inheritors of a divine privilege: to us has been revealed the designs of providence. We know how God has accomplished the work of salvation through Christ and we know how God is working through the Church in the world today to continue that saving work. We know more about God’s design for the world now than the Christians who have come before us. But is the truth of our Christian privilege reflected in how we lives our lives?
Christians talk about surrender all of the time: a surrender of our lives to the will of God. And the language of surrender is about as good of a description of the life of obedience as you will find. Christ is the model of obedience, and his life is one of a complete surrender to the will of the Father. So for those who choose to follow Christ the Christian life is one of obedience and surrender. But precisely here, I think, is a question: if the life of Christian obedience is one of surrender, then on whose terms are we surrendering? There is always the temptation for the Christian to surrender not on the terms of Christ but on terms that we articulate for ourselves. Our desire for control – our confidence in what we think we know and in what we believe is good – reverses the order that stands at the beating heart of the Christian life. We make our preferences into the substance of our faith. And suddenly we are no longer following Christ, but rather asking Christ to follow us.
And here is why we need the Church. No single reality challenges our desire for control and self-will more than the life of the Church. To belong to the Church is to belong to the body of Christ, and through the Church the whole of our lives becomes response to the Christ-event. Through the Church we surrender on Christ’s terms because the life of the Church is the standard that Christ has given us. We find Christ in the Church, we follow Christ through the Church, and in the Church we are formed by Christ.
These seventy-two disciples in Luke’s Gospel knew nothing of the Church. These disciples also knew nothing of Christ’s passion, death, or resurrection. So much remained unknown to them. And yet still they followed Christ. And why? Because they had met the God-man who – though he had yet to reveal himself as God – spoke to them the words of eternal life. And so these disciples followed; these disciples surrendered; these disciples obeyed. These disciples went out on mission and returned to the one who called them . . . and we are called to do the same.
John Henry Newman, A Letter Addressed to the Duke of Norfolk on Occasion of Mr. Gladstone's Recent Expostulation (1875), chapter 5.
Originally given as a homily at the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore, on the 14th Sunday of the Year. Lightly edited for publication.