At first glance it looks like Madison just isn’t getting it.  Jesus was crucified for us.  He died so we wouldn’t have to.  But, the more I ponder Madison’s question the more I’m impressed by a couple of things.  Granted, Madison can’t possibly grasp the horror that crucifixion was but, for that matter, can any of us?  Nonetheless, can you hear the simple childlike assumption that if crucifixion is what it takes to follow Jesus, then, so be it?  Madison’s only concern was whether she’d have to do it by herself or she would have company.  Beyond that, I’m wondering if this child isn’t telling us what she’s been hearing the gospel say.  That living for Christ, indeed, means dying to self.  I certainly want to be careful not to read more back into Madison’s question than is really there.  But, Jesus did say that “unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 18:3) 

All this time I’ve been thinking Madison needed to come more my way in terms of understanding before she is ready to become a Christian.  Now I’m beginning to wonder if maybe I need to go more her way in terms of simple willingness to do whatever Jesus said no matter what it costs me even if I don’t understand it all before I start the journey.  So, before we dismiss, out of hand, the question of a child with only one whole hand of maturity, let’s listen again to what Jesus said about what it means to follow Him that only those with only one whole hand of childlike trust in a Father seem to be able to grasp.  “The kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news . . . and . . . follow me . . ..”  (Mark 1:15, 17)  

The “good news” that Jesus was telling us to “believe” is that, as He said, “the kingdom of God has come near.”  In Christ, God has closed the distance between Himself and us that our sin against Him created.  In Christ, God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves.  God’s part is a finished work to which nothing can be added.  Our part involves repentance and following neither of which we do in order to make possible what only God could do but both of which we do in order to accept what only simple trust makes possible.  And, the more I understand the gospel, the more I believe Jesus when He said that repentance and following are things of which children are more naturally capable than adults. 

In part, first, because being Christian means a willingness to change.  That’s what repentance is, at the core.  At the core of our being, in our hearts, that place where we dream and choose and hope and love and hate, in that part of ourselves, a willingness to change.  Whatever words you want to put on it, repentance is a decision we make that we’d rather be moving toward the God who has come to us than running away from Him.  Repentance doesn’t mean getting your life in order and then coming to God.  Repentance means you’ve accepted the fact that you will have to come to God because your life is so out of order without Him.  Repentance will eventually lead to changed behaviors if it is genuine.  But, genuine repentance is, first, a simple change of heart that your life is a mess without God and you don’t want to live that way anymore.

Billy Graham, who has probably done a better job of communicating the gospel to the common masses more than anyone in our generation, always ends his evangelistic calls with the invitation hymn, “Just As I Am.”  The words of the third stanza are my favorite.  “Just as I am, tho’ tossed about.  With many a conflict, many a doubt.  Fightings within and fears without, O Lamb of God, I come!  I come!”  (Just As I Am, Charles Ellliot)  That’s repentance.  Coming to God not only if you don’t have it all figured out but specifically because you can’t figure it out.  Coming to God, questions and all.  If you think about it, you can’t come to God any other way than as you truly are and still call what you are doing repentance.  If you could get life all figured out on your own then you wouldn’t need God, would you?  Repentance doesn’t mean you’re coming to God because you finally have all your questions answered and your moral act together.  Repentance means coming just as you are to a Father who will love you no matter how you show up on His front porch when you finally get home.

Several years ago a member of another church of which I was pastor told me of a painful lesson he learned the nasty way.  Jim’s father was a farmer and because they lived out in the country getting their car filled with gas wasn’t as simple as running to the corner 7-11.  One night, when my friend was in high school, he was out running around in his pickup when he realized he was just about out of gas.  Because he was in a pinch, he decided he would just “borrow” some gasoline from a neighbor who kept an above ground storage tank on his place.  He pulled his truck up to the tank only to learn that the farmer kept the nozzle pad locked.  But, because these above ground tanks have a drainage plug on the bottom side, Jim thought there was still hope.  So, he pulled his truck up underneath the tank and got up in the back of truck with a can.  His idea was to just loosen the plug a little and fill the can with what he needed and then go on his way.  What he didn’t realize until too late was that, with hundreds of gallons of gasoline putting pressure on the plug, you can’t just loosen it.  Not knowing that yet, however, he took a wrench to the plug and turned it ever so slightly.  But, with just one turn too many nature took its course and Jim and his pickup got instantly soaked in hundreds of gallons of gasoline. 

Now, I don’t know how Jim got home without something terribly disastrous happening.  But, one thing he learned was that, you can’t always stop what you start.  Sin may be your choice but the consequences, most often, are built in beyond your control.  Once you let loose the stone, you can only stand back and watch how many ripples it makes in the pond once it lands.  The other lesson Jim learned was that, when you get that messed up, you have no choice but to go home, just as you are.  When you get that dirty, there’s simply no way of hiding the stink. 

There may be specific behaviors in your life that you believe make you unqualified to come to God.  But, that’s only because you believe there is something you could do to make yourself more qualified than you already are.  The “good news” to which Jesus referred is the fact that He, in His life, death and resurrection, would take care of getting us qualified to come to God.  That’s what the writer of Hebrews meant when He said of Jesus, “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him . . ..”  (Hebrews 5:9)  Now, the only qualification you need to come to God is your acknowledgement that you need Him.  Sounds strange, doesn’t it?  Your greatest qualification for coming to God is how unqualified you are to come to God.  When Jesus said, “repent,” He meant for us to come as we are to the Father who will love us no matter how we smell when we show up.  And, the reason Jesus pointed to children as those most likely to understand that is because children seem to have this basic trust that they can always go home no matter how dirty they get.

And, they also seem to have a basic sense of trust that, if someone loves you that much, it’s safe to follow them wherever they may lead you.  Repentance, a change of heart about the direction of your life, is one part of what it means to be Christian.  The other is the willingness to start on a journey to which there will never be an end.  The children always ask from the back seat on vacation, “when are we going to get there?”  On the Christian journey, the only honest answer is, “never.”  Jesus simply said, “follow me.”  It’s an invitation to a journey not a description of the destination.

Which is troublesome for most of us.  Especially us adult men.  Have you ever noticed, ladies, how when men get behind the wheel, we not only won’t stop to ask directions, we get this deer-in-the-headlight-bladder-busting-fixed-gazed look on that stripe in the highway and we don’t look up until we get there?  I will admit that I haven’t seen a man trying to put on mascara and talk on a cell phone at the same time while driving in rush hour traffic.  At least not yet.  But, as a rule, whereas men are obsessing over their destination, women tend to enjoy the journey there just as much.

Maybe we live such unsettled lives in part because we are too consumed with where it’s all headed.  Certainly, I am concerned that I arrive in heaven as opposed to a place with a warmer climate when it’s all said and done.  And, Jesus did talk about heaven and hell both.  But, when He said that “the kingdom of God has come near” He was, in part, trying to tell us that what God is up to in our lives is right in front of our faces not just on “the other side of the Jordan.”  Being a Christian is not just about where we go when we die.  It is just as much about the journey as it is about the destination.  Otherwise, Jesus wouldn’t have stopped along the way to heal the sick or feed the hungry or commanded us to exercise the same compassion.  Following Jesus is just as much about the next step in front of us as it is about where that step is leading. 

In fact, I can make a good case from scripture that, just as hope of heaven empowers us for the journey we’re on, the journey we’re on is what gives the destination its meaning.  Listen again to scripture.  “Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him . . ..”  (Hebrews 5:8-9)  It’s a mystery to me in some ways.  But, the scripture more than implies that Jesus could not have become our Savior apart from taking the journey He did.  Our ultimate destination derives some of its meaning from the moment in which we are now living.

So, the questions that most naturally pose themselves for each of us are these.  Are you satisfied with the direction of your life?  If there was no change of course in your life from this moment on where will you be when you get where you are headed?  Does there need to be some kind of change in the direction of your life for it to ultimately include God?  Are you willing to follow Christ no matter where He leads even if the journey there gets confusing at times? 

And, there is meaning for our church, too.  Cliff Temple will never be the church it could be and should be until, having celebrated its past, it now releases that past to God and moves on to embrace the church it is now.  And, we will never be the church we can and should be if we only derive our sense of worth from what we hope to someday be.  This moment in our church’s life is as much a part of what God means for us as anything He might ultimately mean for us.  If we derive our sense of worth only from where we hope to someday be without embracing who and what we are now we will be forever unsettled and miserable and miss out on the joy God intends for us.  There is something we’re learning right now that is so essential to God’s calling for us that, if we didn’t learn it, the significance of our destination would be diminished once we arrived.

Who in this room would really want to be a part of the Dallas Cowboys right now?  Not me.  Not that I’ve been invited.  But, I’d really hate to be a part an organization in which you only had value if you are better than everyone else all the time every year no matter what.  What a miserable existence!  But, I guess that’s what it means to be a pro and make the big bucks.  You’re paid to know it all and do it better than anyone else all the time because you’ve arrived.

In the Christian life, there is no such thing as a professional.  There are no PhD’s in the faith walk.  In terms of knowing it all and always being able to be better every day than we were the day before we’ll never get there.  We’ll always be beginners.  We’ll always stumble and struggle.  We’ll be always repenting and always following with a childlike trust that, though following Jesus will ultimately mean our own crucifixion, our own death to self, we won’t be alone because Jesus will never lead us where He is not going Himself.