{"id":9903,"date":"2026-08-24T11:26:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T09:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/predication.net\/?p=9903"},"modified":"2026-08-24T11:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T09:26:50","slug":"following-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/predication.net\/?p=9903","title":{"rendered":"Following of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"
But what does this following of Christ mean? We often imagine Christ as a perfect person who fulfills the will of the Father and therefore is a model for us in keeping the law. In this way, anyone can accept Christ without a problem. As a model of the perfect man. But this view is insufficient and leads to an unsolvable situation. For Christ is not just a model, He is the way. And that is an essential difference. Ideals are necessary because they motivate us, but they are also dangerous because they lead to despair if we cannot fulfill them. Therefore, following Christ as a model of perfection leads to despair. We cannot do it. We are not up to it. And so, even though at first glance Jesus as a perfect man seems acceptable to everyone, worthy of being followed, it is a desperate path into hopelessness.<\/h2>\n
Following Christ, fortunately, is not copying a model of perfection, but living from His grace. He is the way, He is the strength, He is the one who enables us to come to the Father. Therefore, following Christ means the art of entering into His way of thinking and making His spirit our own. It is the art of asking questions and solving the problems of everyday life in this light: “What would Christ do?” or: “What would Christ advise me to do?”<\/h2>\n
Lest there be any misunderstanding, it must be emphasized right away that this is not a mechanical application of the Gospel – Jesus drives the merchants out of the temple, so I too will throw out people who offer pilgrimage tours in the church. Jesus praised Mary for sitting at His feet and warned Martha that she was attending to everything except what is essential, and so I too will stop taking care of the household and only read Scripture. That would be a misunderstanding. To follow Christ does not mean to copy what He does. To follow Christ means to understand the logic of Jesus’ thinking, what attitudes He takes, what is a value for Him, how He motivates people, how He admonishes them, then to observe the present age, which is different from Christ’s time, and to try to apply Christ’s attitudes even in today’s world.<\/h2>\n
It is not enough to look at Christ as a historical person, but we must see and accept Him in the history of the whole world. Among the Jews, those who could recognize Jesus as the Messiah were those who saw in Him the fulfillment of everything toward which the historical development of the Old Testament was heading. Those who understood that the history of the Old Testament is a history of God’s faithfulness and the people’s unfaithfulness, those who understood that history was heading toward the coming of the Messiah who would remove the burden of original sin and remove the heart of stone from our body and give us a heart of flesh. It was precisely these people who were able to accept Christ. Whoever did not understand these historical connections and saw only social injustice, the loss of authentic religiosity, political oppression by the Romans, was disappointed by Jesus, because He did not solve these situations according to his idea. A wrong understanding of Jerusalem, its Temple, the Kingdom, the prophets, led to the condemnation of Christ and His being handed over to death. It is precisely this that the apostles point to, and that is why they so gladly explain and summarize the history of the chosen nation in their sermons.<\/h2>\n
Similarly, we too can accept Christ only in the context of our own lives. Where is my life heading? What is its meaning and goal? Why do certain things happen? What is the Lord educating me for through them? We are invited to live our everyday life from the perspective of the goal toward which we are heading. And not from the perspective of the happiness and trouble-free life that we would like to have. Our everyday life is connected with our eternity and not only with our earthly happiness. Following Christ, therefore, is not detached from everyday reality. It is not valid to say: I go to work, I earn money there to survive, and then I can devote myself to my family and my salvation. I will build a pastoral center so that there is finally a suitable space for pastoral work and then evangelization will finally be possible. Perhaps I have said nothing new by this. It is completely natural and clear, and yet how often we forget it in concrete life. To follow Christ means to live one’s salvation here and now. To perceive every event of life as one that influences my salvation. And then to ask how Christ would act.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"