“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.’”
-John 8:31

Very often as religious people, as Christians, as disciples, we want Jesus to get us into heaven. We want him to heal us or help us with our circumstances. So we want him to be our Savior.

But we don’t want him to be our Lord, meaning we don’t want to obey what he taught us. We want to make excuses for why we don’t actually have to do what he said. It is very common for theologians, for churches to frame Jesus as Savior but not as Lord, or to make Lord more about being God and less about being Master, someone who tells us what to do. Remember, Jesus was a rabbi and the things that rabbi’s care most about is that their students do what they say to do.

So every human being struggles with a few things, at least as disciples, that Jesus tells us to do. Loving our enemies is probably one of the hardest. So, very often we make excuses about why we don’t have to do some of the things that Jesus tells us to do because usually those are the hardest ones.

Nonetheless, to be a happy and whole student of Jesus, we must make our Savior, Jesus, also the Lord of our lives.

Prayer: Dear Lord, you are my Master, my Rabbi. I submit my life to you and follow you each step of the way. Amen.

Reflection: How do you serve your Lord and Teacher Jesus?