When we come to Yeshua for salvation from our sin, it is because we have realized our deep, eternal need, and the great treasure and benefit in accepting what He’s offering. Along with this salvation, God then grants us His generous and gracious gifts, not the least of which is His faithful and unending love. The knowledge and reality of Yeshua’s sacrifice fills and touches us in our inmost being, producing thoughts and feelings of appreciation, gratitude, thankfulness, passion, and profound, overflowing joy. This is the Jesus that most believers know and are more than happy to follow—the one who loves abundantly and gives generously; the one who is gentle and lowly in heart; the one whose yoke is easy and burden is light.

But while all this is true, and is more than enough reason to wholly love and devote our lives to God, the problem is that many believers have also mistaken that unheavy burden and easy yoke for a walk with Yeshua that is free of personal cost and responsibility. Far too many today have mistaken the gentle Jesus who makes us feel loved and promises to improve our lives, for the full, complete and demanding Yeshua of the Bible.

As disciples of Messiah, we are called not to be like the mass of believers who follow Yeshua selfishly just because they want something from Him. Yeshua’s fundamental message to us is a call to follow Him. But what many of us either don’t realize or purposely overlook is that when Yeshua tells us to follow, at no time does He indicate that it will be self-serving, comfortable or easy. Rather, we are to be the kind of disciples who follow Him self-sacrificially—who love and serve and obey Him simply because He is our Master. He wants us to go with Him not just spiritually or mentally, but in our actions.

The Yeshua that believers don’t want to follow is the one who says to the rich man, “If you want to be perfect, go away, sell what you have, and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in Heaven. And come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). The Yeshua that believers don’t want to follow is the one who says to Keifa, “‘[W]hen you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want.’ And He said this, signifying by what death Keifa would glorify God. And having said this, He said to him, ‘Be following Me’” (John 21:18-19). The Yeshua that believers don’t want to follow is the one who says in Matthew 10:38-39, “[W]hoever does not take his execution stake and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” And in Matthew 16:24 the Master says again, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his execution stake, and follow Me.”

To this execution stake that Yeshua tells us to take up, Paul replies in Galatians 2:19-20, “With Messiah I have been crucified, and I no longer live—but Messiah lives in me.” And he exhorts us to this self-sacrificial commitment in Galatians 5:16-17, saying, “walk in the Ruach, and the desire of the flesh you will not bring to its goal… so that the things that you want—these you may not do.”

To follow Yeshua means to bear the weight and responsibility of carrying His Name. He did not save us so that we may live a life of comfort, ease and security, or so that we may feel happy, lovingly embraced and content (not that we won’t experience those things). He saved us because He loves and cares for us, yes, but also so that we may share His burden. He saved us so that we may do the will of the Father, put our faith into action, and work hard and selflessly for the salvation and the provoking to love and good actions of others. As the Messiah Yeshua gave up His life for ours, so are we called to follow and give up our lives to Him.

Don’t be satisfied with following an easy Jesus whose only expectation of you is to love and worship Him, and to be abundantly blessed in return. Stretch out your hand to Yeshua and follow Him—not because you want something from Him, but because you want to find Him, and to give Him absolutely everything you have.

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