Like all great leaders and teachers, Jesus often has a problem with his followers. Karl Barth, the late well-known and influential theologian of Switzerland, once said, "I hope I shall never become a Barthian. May God spare me from Barthianism!" Barth didn't want to be hemmed in or trapped by the smallest of his own followers who wanted to package him, market him, and profit from him as a safe product. Unable to keep up with the living Barth, they preferred the static Barth of printed pages. That way they could possess Barth, hold him in their hands, control him, use him to buttress their own biases.

Many contemporary disciples use Jesus in a similar way. They like the Jesus of a book better than the living Jesus because they can control and manipulate a religious leader in print, use his words to buttress their biases. But let Jesus come alive, and you have unpredictable demands. He then is in control. He is the teacher and we are the students. He the master, we the servants.

But we don't like that. We want to be in charge. We like to be the chiefs, not the Indians, and call the shots. Jesus may cause us discomfort and inconvenience. He might pin us to the wall on our discomfort and inconvenience. He might pin us to the wall in our selfishness and hardness of heart. He might expose the silent glee we have when the church has problems raising a budget or launching a program. He may press the question, "If you're not on my side, just whose side are you on?" We may want to say, "Let me go tend my field, bury my father, seek my pleasure, pursue my happiness, build my nest egg," but he says, "Follow me."