And then, remarkably enough, even though he is living amongst a “Christian people,” he incurs the same peril as he did when it was dangerous to openly confess Christ. The follower aspires with all his strength to be what he admires. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, will not reconstruct his life, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. Could you not make an exception for me? Could it not be enough if once in a while, at great risk to myself, I come to you during the night, but during the day (yes, I confess it, I feel how humiliating this is for me and how disgraceful, indeed also how very insulting it is toward you) I say ‘I do not know you’?” See in what a web of untruth an admirer can entangle himself!

It is as if he might have said to Christ, “If we are able to reach a compromise, you and I, then I will accept your teaching in eternity. Despite the risk to his reputation, despite the effort on his part, Nicodemus was only an admirer he never became a follower. There is a story of yet another admirer – Nicodemus. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious a fire as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite, to hate, jealousy, and revenge. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness but if there is any inconvenience or trouble, he pulls back. It is not hard to imagine that those who only admire the truth will, when danger appears, become traitors.

Judas was precisely such an admirer and thus later became a traitor. If you have any knowledge at all of human nature, who can doubt that Judas was an admirer of Christ! And we know that Christ at the beginning of his work had many admirers. He fails to see that what is admired involves a claim upon him, and thus he fails to be or strive to be what he admires. An admirer, however, keeps himself personally detached. What then, is the difference between an admirer and a follower? A follower is or strives to be what he admires. In that sense, to admire Christ is the false invention of a later age, aided by the presumption of “loftiness.” No, there is absolutely nothing to admire in Jesus, unless you want to admire poverty, misery, and contempt. It is absolutely impossible for anyone to sneak away from the Pattern with excuse and evasion on the basis that It, after all, possessed earthly and worldly advantages that he did not have. This is why Christ was born and lived and died in lowliness.

At the same time – as is implied in his saving work – he came to be the pattern, to leave footprints for the person who would join him, who would become a follower. Christ came into the world with the purpose of saving, not instructing it.

Fans of the impossible life