From the Pulpit: The Cost of Following Jesus

The way of the cross is hard, Dean Randy Hollerith says. But it's the only one that makes sense.

Preaching for the Gospel passage where Jesus says his followers must “hate” their families and deny everything to follow him, Dean Hollerith said that Jesus is saying that “our love for him must be so ultimate, so complete, that all other loves look smaller by comparison. This is about allegiance. It is about who comes first.”

And from there, he says, there are implications for our life together:

“If Christ is Lord, then morality is not a preference but a reality, and discipleship means staking our lives on that reality — even when it puts us at odds with family or our culture or the powers-that-be in our world.

Today, there are powerful voices that would argue there is no moral order to our world at all, no higher truth and no accountability. These voices want us to believe that right and wrong are purely subjective and truth is in the end whatever we want it to be. When this kind of thinking thrives, we can see the devastating consequences all around us.

For example, when violence is excused and law is twisted, fear replaces justice. If political violence is minimized or pardoned, the message is clear: might makes right. The law ceases to protect, and instead intimidates people learn to keep silence, to live in fear and a society ruled by fear is antithetical to the gospel of good news, where perfect love casts out fear.

When voting maps are redrawn by both parties to preserve power rather than to serve people, integrity is lost. Gerrymandering may sound technical, but it is deeply moral. It means leaders are choosing their voters rather than voters choosing their leaders. Public office becomes a fortress of self-protection rather than an act of service and trust in government erodes, Jesus didn’t protect his power. He washed people’s feet. When public office becomes a means of personal enrichment, public service is corrupted into exploitation.

Leadership at its best is stewardship for the common good. Jesus taught the way of servant leadership. Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, he said. But when leaders use power to enrich themselves and their families, the sacred trust of service is betrayed. Greed is normalized. Cynicism spreads and integrity dies in the public square.

When compassion and science and care for the vulnerable are dismantled, human flourishing is sacrifice for gain or convenience. Cutting programs that feed the hungry, gutting efforts that fight disease or dismissing. the research that protects creation are not only failures of policy; they promote a national indifference, a selfishness that refuses to see the suffering of others as our concern.

When compassion is silenced and the vulnerable are ignored, we choose comfort over care and a society that abandons compassion has abandoned its very humanity. This is what can happen. When we deny the moral universe of a loving creator, everything becomes negotiable. Truth becomes disposable justice, malleable power, ultimate and the fear. And fear, the governing principle,

But to follow Christ is to say there is truth. There is justice. There is right and there is wrong, and they are not for sale. But that will cost us. It may put us at odds with family or with friends or with party or with tribe. But discipleship, I think, demands nothing less.”