This is an excerpt from A Conspiracy of Love: Following Jesus in a Postmodern World / Second Edition
© 2024 Kurt Struckmeyer

Following Jesus

To follow Jesus means listening to his teaching, digging into his words and learning their meaning in the context of empire and domination—and like his disciples, sometimes understanding it, sometimes not quite getting it. However, discipleship is based upon the fundamental concept that lessons are to be put into practice as they are learned. The learning and the doing are a lifelong process.

As I read the deeds and words of Jesus in the gospels, I find nine key characteristics of the Way he taught others to follow. There may be more, but these nine themes run throughout his teachings and are obvious to a casual reader. They are radical actions, revolutionary ways of living that threaten the domination system, because they provide prescriptive remedies to the pervasive violence, oppression, suffering, and inequality that is epitomized by the status quo in nearly every society.

To follow Jesus means to embrace and manifest the following qualities:

radical love

• lavish generosity

• extravagant forgiveness

• inclusive hospitality

• compassionate action

• selfless service

• a passion for justice

• creative nonviolence

• simple living

These nine characteristics are the building blocks for a lifestyle of discipleship that can lead to the transformation of the world. Following Jesus means trusting that the Way of Jesus leads to a different quality of life—a fuller, more authentic human life lived for others and for the earth we inhabit.

1) To follow Jesus is to incarnate radical love—putting self-giving love into action. Love is extending oneself to help one’s neighbors. Radical love means always expanding our boundaries. Furthermore, Jesus calls us to love our enemies, seeking their transformation instead of seeking to do them ill. Jesus said:

Love your neighbor as yourself.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Love your enemies. Do good to those that hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for your abusers.

2) To follow Jesus is to share what we have with others. It calls us to a lavish generosity—graciously sharing our lives and resources. It means giving freely without thought of return. It also means generosity at many different levels: giving to individuals in need, donating to charities and nonprofits doing compassionate work, and using our tax monies to support education, health care, social programs, and emergency responses. Jesus said:

Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

Lend, expecting nothing in return.

3) To follow Jesus is to forgive each other. It is a life of extravagant forgiveness—reconciling with those we have hurt and those who have hurt us, forgiving again and again and again. The gospel of Matthew reports:

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy times seven.”

4) To follow Jesus is to welcome and accept others. It is the practice of inclusive hospitality—breaking down the barriers that divide us and accepting others without judgment. It means mixing with the unloved and undesirable. To follow Jesus is to welcome and accept the stranger, the alien, the immigrant, the refugee, and people of all races, faiths, and sexual orientations. It means affirming their rights in our society. Jesus said:

When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed for they cannot repay you.

It’s not the healthy people who need the doctor, but the sick. I have come not to invite the respectable, but the undesirable.

5) To follow Jesus is to embrace a life of compassionate action. It begins with empathy for the situations of those who suffer, and compassion toward their plight. It means opening our eyes to the needs around us and being moved to the point of action—caring for the least, the lost, and the lonely. Jesus said:

Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.

Blessed are the compassionate, for they shall receive compassion.

6) To follow Jesus means selfless service. It means engaging in personal service to people in need—meeting fundamental human needs of food, clothing, and shelter. It means giving up our need for importance in order to serve the least among us as an equal, not as a superior. Jesus said:

The greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.

Whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and servant of all.

The greatest among you will be your servant.

7) To follow Jesus is to have a passion for justice. It means becoming an agent of change for a world in which everyone gets a fair share of resources and opportunities. It means speaking out on behalf of those who have no voice. It means challenging the politics of selfishness and pursuing an alternative politics of compassion. Jesus said:

Strive first for the kingdom of God and its justice, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice! They will be satisfied.

8) To follow Jesus means using creative nonviolence in situations of conflict. It means seeking change without resorting to violence, and absorbing hostility with nonviolent defiant action. It involves working for peace. Jesus said:

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.

Blessed are those who work for peace, for they shall be called God’s children.

9) To follow Jesus means living simply on the earth, living lightly like an itinerant or sojourner. It means not being bound by possessions and a lifestyle of wasteful consumption.

Today, our earth is threatened. Climate change is transforming life on Earth. Around the globe, seasons are shifting, temperatures are climbing, and sea levels are rising. Longer, more intense droughts threaten crops, wildlife, and freshwater supplies. And meanwhile, our planet must still supply us—and all living things—with air, water, food, and safe places to live. To adequately address this crisis, we must urgently reduce carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, and that will mean changes in the way we live and consume.

I haven’t found any particular emphasis on the care and protection of the earth, its resources, and its creatures in the first-century gospel accounts and the teachings of Jesus. It was essentially a non-issue when the global population was no more than 300 million people. But in the twenty-first century, with a population of over eight billion, it is a vital concern.

However, Jesus did teach a lifestyle that opposed the mad accumulation of wealth and material possessions. The followers of Jesus were taught to live simply, not because simplicity is a virtue in itself, but because the resources we do not consume may be used to benefit others. Educator Elizabeth Anne Seton (1774–1821) summed up the necessary message for our time when she said, “Live simply so that others may simply live.”

The way of Jesus is a path toward a vision of the way the world ought to be, the way it is meant to be. It is a freely chosen path, but not without risk. There is never any assurance of success, only a promise of continuing challenge. It is a matter of trying and failing, and sometimes succeeding, but always continuing. Guided by the vision, the journey itself is the most important thing.

 

 

the wisdom of Jesus