Radical Demands of Discipleship
Radical Demands of Discipleship
Jesus summoned disciples to follow him, making this call more pressing than kin or other social ties, than possessions, or even their lives. To illustrate this emphasis, we will briefly examine his sayings about letting the dead bury their dead; about it being easier to get a camel through a needle’s eye than a rich person into the kingdom; and the demand to take up the cross and follow Jesus to death.
The urgency of the kingdom message risked subverting the social order. Yet if Jesus held a prominent role in the kingdom, and if he expected to reign as the “son of man” in any sense, the demand to follow him might prepare for the kingdom in another way. Most of Jesus’ demands could fit those of a radical sage, but they would be even more appropriate if he were an eschatological prophet or ruler.