Following Jesus isn’t complicated. But that doesn’t mean it is easy.
Some want to make Jesus complicate so that they don’t really have follow him closely. It’s an excuse for not really wanting to do the hard work of following Jesus.
Others want to make following Jesus easy because they want to pretend that life isn’t hard (or are happy to blame/attack others when it is hard).
Right now people are looking for churches that make Jesus complicated (you know, nuanced, intellectually informed, deconstruction friendly) and say that the hard part about Jesus is that he’s complicated.
And right now people are looking for churches that make Jesus easy (you know, who just preach the gospel, whose politics align with what I already think, etc). Anything that is hard is of the devil, an attack within a culture war, or those crazy other people. Jesus is easy, so let’s get rid of those other people making it hard.
Living with, worshipping with, serving with, entering into NEW CREATION with people who are different than you IS HARD. And that is what Jesus is calling us all into. It’s not complicated. But it is just hard.
One reply on “Jesus Isn’t Complicated”
There are only “Jesus is easy” churches here in SoCal. He’s so easy you don’t even have to preach him. Once you’ve said the prayer, what else do you need to know? If a “Jesus is complicated” existed within 50 miles of me, I would be inclined to go there just to find some balance.