Until Lisa Miller asked the question, I hadn't really thought about the relative merits of "Follower of Jesus" vs. "Christian" as a self-description. I appreciate the whole idea of fresh new ways to tell the old, old story. But as I've mulled it over, I've surprised myself how I like Follower of Jesus less and less in the face of alternative names.
So here's reasons why "Follower of Jesus" is weak:
1) It says so little about who Jesus was.
Jesus of Nazareth was God's Anointed One (Christos in Greek, Messiah in Hebrew). He was not just some rabbi who taught people to be nice to each other. He came announcing that God was doing something big in history, and then he accomplished it. Jesus was his name, but Christ was his title, designating more clearly what he was all about. So at the very least "Follower of Christ" is a more significant description than "Follower of Jesus."
2) It says so little about who you are.
I follow a bunch of people on Twitter, people I like and respect. I follow my friends Jeff, and Dave, and Mike, and I hope hanging out with them makes me a better person. I'm not sure I'd call myself a little Jeff, or Dave, or Mike, nor even a disciple of Jeff, Dave or Mike. Not as a total life-focusing disciple anyway.
But you were baptized into the name of the Anointed one, and so share in his anointing. You were anointed to confess his name, to serve him as a living sacrifice of thanks, and to strive against evil. One day you will reign with Christ in his New Creation. I'm not sure "follower" comes anywhere near capturing that richness.
"Christian" (little Christ) and "disciple" (student or apprentice) do better, but as we noted, they're churchy words. I kinda like "Apprentice of Christ" because it's different and rich. Yet apprentice is also an old word, even a medieval word. Any better ideas?
3) It suggests it's all about you
Another red flag I see with "follower" is the sense that it's all about whom I choose to follow to my own ends. It's too easy to follow as I care to, only as far as I care to. If I don't like the path I'll go somewhere else.
It also says nothing about the People of God, whom the Spirit has called together, as if it's my choice to follow Jesus with or without the Body of Christ. The Gathering (ekklesia) is full of broken and ugly people, no doubt. Fellowship is hard. But spirituality without religion is not a biblical picture of what life in Christ is supposed to be.
4) There are better, biblical names
We've mentioned a few.-Apprentice (Disciple, pupil, adherent, mathetes) -Ambassador (Apostle, Sent One, Missionary, one dispatched) -Child (son, daughter, house-servant, paidos) -Messenger (Angel/angelos) -Proclaimer (herald, preacher, kerux)
Of course Servant of Christ (Doulos Christos) is a favorite of the New Testament writers themselves. James, Titus, Jude, Peter, Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and especially Paul describe Christians (and themselves) as slaves of God and Christ.
After all, as Dylan said, you gotta serve somebody.
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Comments (24)
There are also significant positive and negative connotations for the word "Christian" in our world. So those really need to be taken into account.
That being said, I still prefer Christian because I think it is good to claim the traditional label and then try to work toward a better understanding of it.
However, being that there is no one all-encompassing word (other than, ahem, "Christian") that adequately describes our charge seems to indicate that it is a little of all of those things. That's why "little Christs", or "Christians", seems to be such an accurate, honest, useful term.
I like the servant language because it includes a statement about who Jesus was, an active element and places the speaker lower in the hierarchy. However, when people ask me, I either identify as Christian or say something like "I love Jesus". Even though Christians across history have done some really awful things, I also want to identify with the good parts of our history as well.
Tell me what you think of these meditations on 'doulos' I scrawled a while back:
http://tr.im/kszw
http://tr.im/kszz
Nevertheless, I generally don't refer to myself as a "slave to Christ" except internally and with other close Christian friends, for the very reasons you've pointed out. I guess I was answering a slightly different question: "What terminology do you like to use in thinking about your relationship with Christ?" Personally, I LOVE thinking of myself as Christ's slave, just as He is my Lord, precisely because he is such a good Lord over me. He bought me from my previous master, who beat and ridiculed me, shamed me and tried to destroy me; Christ paid for me and cleaned me up, and put me to work in His fields. Now I am slave to no one else and I am free to please the only Master that matters.
That's why I love being a slave.
we try to hard to come up with the perfect word to describe our relationship with God. This is, of course, completely limiting. To describe a relationship, especially one with the depth and importance as our relationship with Christ would take something like 3 hours instead of 1 word.
to encapsulate the way God saved us, what we think Christ is, and how we are responding to Him in one word is impossible, and - ultimately - meaningless. It doesn't matter what you call your relationship, it matters what that relationship actually "is."
so call yourself a christian, or little christ, or slave of christ, or follower, or disciple, whatever. It doesn't matter. You ought to be all those things and more.
-lover of Christ
-Jesus person
-Christ sharer
-Christ listener
-Christ immitator
-friend of sinners
-lover of God and others
all these OUGHT to be true of you. you can choose whichever you like.
but please, please don't try to say one of them is wrong, or one of them is right.
I remember in the 70s we used to smile and say, "We're Jesus people". Today that sounds quaint and 70ish. That's the problem with trying to be more relevant for your generation. I'm not to excited about Jesus Follower either. It just feels like a too humanist, like I am following the ethics or the example of Jesus. I say, stick with history. Christ is just a deep word...meaning annointed, which seems to involve the Holy Spirit as well. If anybody ever successfully changed the term to Jesus Follower or whatever, in two generations people would be wanting to change it again because some Jesus Followers had set a bad example.
That sure says more about Him than me. But speaks volumes for our relationship as well. (Though it is also unfortunately weighed down with being a "churchy" as well.)
How we live will ultimately mean a whole lot more than what we call ourselves at the end of any day.
I recall sitting in church as a kid, struggling to wrap my head around the meaning of the word. The only thing I had ever heard of being redeemed besides Christians were grocery store coupons (or Green Stamps!). I couldn't quite grasp how turning in a ticket for 2-for-1 canned goods was the same thing as being chosen by God. Was I the coupon? Was I the canned good? It didn't make sense. I honestly sat a good 20 minutes trying to puzzle this out one day (a nerd even then), so I don't see "Redeemed" as the most accessible word.