Go all in!

The coming of Jesus is the most important and the most wonderful thing that has ever happened in human history. How does a human being respond to a thing like that? Consider: God becomes human (Jesus) to show his love for us, to the point where (when people treat him badly) he chooses to suffer and die rather than lash out. Then Jesus rises again to new life, not just for himself, but so that we, too, can be raised to new life eternally. Clearly this is mind-blowingly, earth-shatteringly important, more important than everything else. When deciding to answer, there is only one response to Jesus that seems to fit: a whole-hearted Yes! We should go all in!

To “go all in” means to treat Jesus with the importance he deserves by shaping our life around him. It means to arrange our time, our energy, our priorities, and our resources completely according to the truth of who he is and what he means. In the Gospel, when Jesus calls his disciples, and they respond with a Yes, they leave their old lives behind, be it the life of a fisherman [Matthew 4:18-22], a revolutionary [Luke 6:15], or a tax collector [Mark 2:14]. They give Jesus everything they have: they follow him for their entire lives. But how about us? Even if Jesus does not call us to quit our jobs, as he did them, he still asks those who want to follow him to go all in:

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. [Mark 8:34-35]

There are three things here that Jesus describes as being necessary for those who want to follow him: first, to “deny themselves”, second, to “take up their cross”, and third, to “follow him”. Let’s look at each of these.

First, to deny yourself is to refuse to allow yourself to have something you want, despite wanting it. By this, Jesus does not mean to deny oneself everything you feel in need of, to starve to death because you want to eat dinner, or die of thirst because you want to drink water. Instead, what he means is this: to say Yes to following Jesus means to say No to all other things that conflict with following Jesus. When you want those things that you need to say No to, you have to decide what you want more: the things, or Jesus. If you want Jesus more, the things that conflict with Jesus have to go. It’s as simple as that. If something has to go, don’t dither or delay. “Cut it off and throw it away” [Matthew 18:8]. Indeed, when Jesus calls his disciples, be they fishermen or tax collectors, they realize that in their case they cannot remain fishermen or tax collectors and also follow Jesus, so they quit their old jobs right on the spot [Luke 5:11, 5:28]. Similarly, when what we want gets in the way of what it takes to follow Jesus, we need to deny ourselves those things thoroughly and immediately, so that we can follow Jesus properly without those things getting in the way.

Second, to take up your cross is to accept what comes with following Jesus, even if it is unpleasant. Jesus carried his cross and died on it. The cross wasn’t something he preferred to carry [Matthew 26:39], it was forced on him by those who hated him, but he accepted it. You see, Jesus has enemies, people who hate who he is and what he teaches. Those who hate him will hate his followers. Because of this, being hated sometimes is something that comes with following Jesus. After all, if someone asks you to follow them on a mountain hike, you will face steep slopes: steep slopes come with mountain hikes. If someone asks you to follow them on an arctic winter trek, you will face cold weather: cold weather comes with arctic winter treks. Jesus asks us to take up our cross as he embraces his own cross, and dies on it. This means there is going to be pain and suffering, just as Jesus endured pain and suffering. We will be hated and treated unfairly, just as Jesus was hated and treated unfairly. But Jesus overcomes the cross: he rises again, and he promises the same to us. If we want to go all in, we will need to accept our cross, as he accepted his, so that we can make it through to the resurrection, as he made it through to his.

Third, we need to follow Jesus. This means that we need to pay attention to him, to listen to what he says, and to watch what he does. But listening and watching is not enough by itself. To follow Jesus means to actually go after him. This means doing what he says and imitating what he does. It’s hard to follow Jesus because he takes a hard path. Jesus is very difficult – actually, impossible – to follow by yourself. But we do not have to be by ourselves when we follow him. If we keep close when we follow, we will be near Jesus himself, and Jesus himself can help. That way also, we will be with all sorts of other people who are following him closely, and they also can help. But clearly we need to follow Jesus closely, not lag behind at a distance.

This need for help in following Jesus is worth a closer look. Imagine: if we went on a difficult trek through a dangerous wilderness, we would be more likely to get to our destination if we had with us an expert wilderness guide. In Jesus, we have far more than an expert guide, we have God himself, who is not only an expert, but is fully committed to saving us. There can be no better guide than Jesus. But it is not just “Jesus-and-me”, there are others who are following Jesus closely, others we will also be with, and we can follow him together. Jesus intended this: he built a Church for this purpose [Matthew 16:18]. This Church is not a building put together out of stones, but a body made out of people who follow Jesus together. This means that to go all in following Jesus is to be all in the Church, so that we can go together.

Finally, going all in is more than what you do, it is also how you do it. It’s understandable needing to take some time to fully realize what it is that you need to do. But once you realize it, act on it! To go all in means no hedging, hesitating, dithering, or hemming & hawing. Do you really want your personal response to God’s amazing act of love for humanity, the most important event in human history, the Incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to be something like “Uh, well, I’ll think about it and eventually get back to you?” Sorry, that’s just not a fitting response! Our answer to Jesus should be Yes, without reservations: he deserves nothing less. So let’s go all in!