Jesus spoke hard truths to His disciples when He walked this earth with them. In the Gospel of John, the writer records a difficult interchange between Jesus, His disciples, and his bold teachings that often offended His followers. John the Beloved records the interchange between Jesus and His disciples regarding His bold teachings:
When many of His disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, 'Do you take offense at this?'" (John 6:60).
Jesus often offended His followers by telling them things they didn't want to hear or weren't willing to do once He told them. However, Jesus did not shy away from these awkward and difficult moments. He instead pressed into them and challenged His followers. He was not afraid of losing "the crowd" to find "the called."
In John 6, many of the disciples who had been following Jesus could no longer stomach what He had just spoken to them, and John the Beloved records their response to Jesus:
After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him (John 6:66).
Difficult sayings required difficult sacrifices to follow Jesus. Many were not willing to pay the price, and certainly not the ultimate price. Nevertheless, this did not deter Jesus from speaking the Truth in Love to His followers, because He understood that what He was calling them to required them to leave the stands of being a fan of Jesus and to go out into the world and radically choose to live what He had taught them to be and do.
The Sermon on the Mount, along with other places in the Gospel of Luke and Matthew, records some of these difficult sayings and bold teachings of Jesus that challenged their comfort, pride, revenge, materialism, and shallow faith. Much of what Jesus said to His followers was admired in theory but resisted in daily life; nevertheless, Jesus did not back down, back up, or give up. He kept teaching and calling the crowd to become the called.
1. Love Your Enemies
No one naturally wants to love their enemies or do good to those who mistreat them. When Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, He gave challenges that were radical to their faith and way of life. He challenged His disciples to love their enemies, to pray for those who persecuted them. Jesus never told His disciples not to have enemies. The idea that His disciples would have enemies and would be persecuted by them was a foregone conclusion. Jesus simply taught His disciples how to properly respond to those who would mistreat them because of Him. Loving an enemy might not mean facing persecution — it might mean extending grace to the family member who keeps crossing boundaries.
2. Stop Worrying About Your Life
Jesus told His followers in Matthew 6:25, "Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear." Imagine how the world would change if this principle were put into practice in every person's life. Jesus wanted His disciples to take their eyes off the "stuff" of this world and focus on their souls. But just telling oneself to do this doesn't change the reality of most people's lives. To get off the train to anxious-ville, one must get on a different train to somewhere else, and to get on a train to somewhere else, one must decide this world and its stuff is not what will satisfy one's soul.
3. Seek the Kingdom First
Jesus told His followers that the recipe for overcoming anxiety is to change the destination they were headed toward, for whom they were living, and for what they were living. This sounds simple enough, but it requires radical re-prioritization of one's life and the lists that matter to them. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you." Every person has something they are worried about. Every person has an unknown outcome in their life that is robbing them of their peace. Every person who follows Jesus has something they want Him to do for them. Jesus knows this. He asks His disciples to, in essence, care first about what matters to the Kingdom of God, and then about what matters to them; He will take care of them. Choosing the kingdom first when the bills are real, the marriage is hard, and the to-do list never ends is not a small thing. Jesus never called it small. He called it a cross. This requires a radical re-shifting of priorities and a massive amount of trust in and for Jesus regarding the unknown outcome of that which has caused the person anxiety.
The outcome of the unknown stuff of this life is a peace robber. Jesus knows this and uses the things of this life to get each person to trust Him and to rest confidently in the knowledge that if they let go of their pursuit and pursue His kingdom, the rest will take care of itself. That's a huge risk that Jesus promises to each of His followers. It will be worth it.
4. Deny Yourself and Carry Your Cross
Jesus even takes this concept one step further when He says to His disciples in Matthew 16:24-25, "Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'"
Denying oneself is not a popular message in a culture that tells everyone to put themselves first. But Jesus flips the script. He tells His followers that the path to finding your life is to stop clinging to it. Self-denial is not self-hatred — it is the radical decision to let go of the steering wheel and let Jesus drive. It's the mom who lays down her agenda for the day because someone in her world needs what only she can give.
5. Leave Everything For His Sake
Jesus not only wants His disciples to seek Him first, but He also wants each of His disciples to seek Him solely at the risk of losing it all in this life. That is radical Christianity! But Jesus makes this promise to every one of His disciples in Mark 10:29-30: Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
Anxiety loses its grip on the disciples of Jesus when trust in His promises grows, and actions begin to occur by faith.
The Only One Worth Following
Jesus said to Peter in John 6:67 – 69, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
Nuff said! Jesus is the only one with the words of eternal life!
He promises to be a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Jesus is trustworthy, take Him at His Word and obey His radical teachings! Seek first His kingdom, and all these other things will be added later. And when the anxiety creeps back — because it will — His invitation stays the same: seek Me first, and I will take care of the rest. Not because you've earned it, but because He promised. And He keeps His promises.
