[This is part of a series on Thriving in the City.]
Tyler Durden is no follower of Jesus. His arrogant swagger, recourse to violence, live-for-the-moment philosophy, and anarchic anti-authoritarianism set him in clear opposition to Christ on many fronts. But just as God speaks through a donkey (Numbers 22), even Tyler Durden’s ideas intersect with Christ’s once or twice. As when he says,
You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.
Unlike Durden, Jesus is not anti-sofas. In fact, I think Durden’s antagonism towards possessions stems more from his desire to escape all responsibility and be free to follow his every desire and impulse; in that sense, there is little overlap between his thinking and that of Christ. But even in Durden’s warped view of life, there is some strange resonance with the way of Jesus.
You will recall how Jesus himself eschewed possessions for the sake of mission: ‘Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’ (Matthew 8.20). And he called his closest followers to do the same with the result that they left their nets – their very means of survival – and followed him. In one shocking moment, a man is almost literally trapped in his lovely nest, choosing to keep his wealth instead of following Christ; he just couldn’t disentangle himself from his money (Mark 10.17–22).
While I don’t think we can reduce Christ’s teaching on money and possessions down to a simple set of rules, the essence of it seems to be this: Look at your heart and be honest with yourself. Money is constantly seeking to usurp the throne that belongs to Jesus alone. It will seduce you with comfort; it will corrupt you with envy; it will compel you to make massive sacrifices of time and effort with the promise of reward; it will weigh you down with worldly possessions so that you can barely think about or care about anything else; and it will feed an ever-growing lust for more, more, more.
In opposition to this idolatry, Jesus teaches us to look at him as our Lord and provider, and view this life as a pilgrimage towards him. Anyone walking a long journey wants to travel as light as possible. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus and on eternity, we can see that the mission of life is not accumulation of more stuff, but laying up treasure in heaven by obeying Christ generously and wholeheartedly.
This pilgrim mindset is absolutely vital if you are to have a healthy and vibrant spiritual walk whilst living in the city, even in the heart of Babylon. There is a never-ending assault of false promises in this consumeristic age, seeking to engage you in the same pursuits and the same goals as everyone else. That temptation is dialled up to the maximum in a city like London where wealth is not just visible, but actively displayed in obscene ostentation and endless comparison.
A Christian in the city must be prepared for this. They must learn to steer the same narrow path that Christ walked, being able to enjoy and celebrate God’s good gifts here on earth without guilt or judgement, but never allowing those gifts to divert us from our steady march of pilgrimage towards the giver, even Christ. That is an exceedingly difficult path to tread, but we have the Spirit of Jesus inside us to help us. You must always remain sensitive to his voice and suspicious of the world’s. By doing so, he will change your heart and your expectations, so that you can live in the city and not be corrupted by the city.
London needs more Christians who see themselves as pilgrims and disciples to a greater master than money. Some of these disciples will be called to live lives of deliberate simplicity. Some will earn little and display contentment, and others will earn and steward extraordinary wealth for Christ. The point is not that Christ has set certain limitations on what you can or cannot own, but rather that these things must never own you; on that, Tyler Durden was exactly right. In this way we can radiate our love and passion for Jesus over against the city’s decadence, committed to our great pilgrimage and pursuit of him.