Is Christianity Just a Crutch for the Weak?
Notes from the message preached by Nate Bush at New City Church in Albuquerque, NM, on September 27, 2026.
It's one of the oldest critiques of faith: religion is a crutch for people who can't handle life on their own. Nate's answer was surprising. He agreed, and then he said the metaphor doesn't go far enough. The last of the seven letters in the book of Revelation was written to a church that believed it didn't need a crutch at all, and Jesus' response to it is one of the sharpest things he says anywhere in the Bible.
What Was Laodicea Like?
Laodicea was a wealthy city in what is now western Turkey, and it was proud of three things:
Money. It was a banking center with a gold exchange.
Medicine. It was known for an eye salve made from a local powder. That mattered in a world where people lived close to their animals and eye disease spread easily.
Clothing. It produced a prized black wool that brought the city a great deal of money.
What it didn't have was good water. The city piped water in through an aqueduct of roughly six miles, and along the way the water picked up so many minerals that it arrived lukewarm and foul-tasting. Nearby Hierapolis had hot springs that people visited for healing, and Colossae had cold, refreshing water. Laodicea had neither.
Why Would Success Be a Spiritual Risk?
"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." - Revelation 3:17
Look at the three words at the end of that verse: poor, blind, and naked. Jesus is speaking to a city famous for its gold, its eye medicine, and its wool. He names the exact things they were proudest of and tells them those are the places they are most exposed.
This is where Nate returned to the crutch critique. Yes, he said, Christianity is a crutch for the weak. But it is more than that. It is a defibrillator for the dead. The Bible describes people as "dead in our trespasses," which is its way of saying we can't save ourselves:
"Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved." - Ephesians 2:5
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." - Ephesians 2:8–9
There is no way into Christianity that skips the admission I need help. And that admission is hardest to make when life is going well.
Both Ends of "Enough"
Nate was careful not to make this only about the rich. He drew on a book called Small Matters by Greg Nettle and Jimmy Mellado, which argues that poverty and prosperity carry similar spiritual risks. A child with too little can forget God because life is consumed by need. A child with too much can forget God because nothing feels needed. The further you get from "enough" in either direction, the greater the risk.
Why Doing Good Can Turn Into "I Am Good"
Many of us quietly assume that wealth and success say something about a person's character, as if being rich means being honorable. That assumption fuels the "prosperity gospel," the teaching that if you are good (or give enough money), God will make you rich. It preys on both the poor and the greedy.
Nate noted how short the distance is between I have done good and I am good. When a wealthy man once addressed Jesus as "Good Teacher," Jesus stopped him:
"Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." - Luke 18:19
Jesus also said this:
"Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." - Matthew 19:23–24
His followers were stunned. Jesus answered, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).
Nate offered a picture from his own life. After he had open-heart surgery, there was luggage he wasn't allowed to lift. His wife lifted it into the overhead bin and carried it into the house. Because she could, he could. That, he said, is the good news about Jesus in miniature: recognizing what you can't do, and letting Jesus do it for you.
How Does God Feel About Self-Reliance?
"I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." - Revelation 3:15–16
This passage is often read as if "hot" means passionate about God and "cold" means against him. That isn't what it says. Hot and cold are both good things here: the healing hot springs of Hierapolis and the refreshing cold water of Colossae. Lukewarm is Laodicea's own water, which was useful for nothing.
Jesus is telling them that their trust in their wealth turns his stomach, just like their water. He opens the letter by calling himself "the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation" (Revelation 3:14). In other words, he is the one who can actually be trusted, and the one who made everything they were proud of.
Is It Wrong to Have Money?
No. Paul wrote to his friend Timothy:
"As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share." - 1 Timothy 6:17–18
Nate called this a tension to hold rather than a problem to solve. Wealth is a good gift, but it always wants your trust. Jesus said plainly, "You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24). The way through the tension is to let wealth lead to gratitude and generosity.
Nate offered a simple test: where does your joy end? When you enjoy something good, does the joy stop at the thing itself, or does it carry on to the one who gave it? The Bible says that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17). C. S. Lewis put it this way: "He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only."
Nate added that, compared with most of the world, nearly everyone listening to this sermon falls into the "rich" category.
What Do You Do When Life Is Reduced to a Table of Photos?
As a pastor, Nate leads a lot of funerals, and he said they make one thing very clear. When a life is reduced to a slideshow and a table of memories, none of it has the power to save. Wealth can't buy good water, and it can't buy a way out of death. "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
He told a story that shaped him as a young Christian. In John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, Piper contrasts two women in their eighties who died serving the sick and poor as missionaries in Cameroon with a magazine profile of a couple who retired early to Florida to sail, play softball, and collect seashells. Piper's point was not that rest is wrong. It was that a whole life can be spent on things that won't last. An old line from the missionary C. T. Studd sums it up: "Only one life, 'twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last."
Who Is Jesus Knocking For?
"Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." - Revelation 3:19–20
This is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, usually as an invitation for an individual to open their heart to Jesus. That's a true and good invitation. But in context, Jesus is knocking on the door of a church. He is standing outside the very community that claims to belong to him, asking to be let back in.
Then he offers to eat with them. Nate connected that to a scene after the resurrection, when two discouraged followers walked with Jesus without recognizing him until he broke bread at their table. Afterward they said, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?" (Luke 24:32).
That burning is the opposite of lukewarm, and it's what Jesus asks this comfortable church for: zeal. That means wanting him present more than wanting to feel secure.
Life Application
If things are going well for you, this letter is worth sitting with. Success has a way of quietly telling us we're fine. Try Nate's test this week: when you enjoy something good, notice whether your joy stops at the gift or reaches the giver. Look for one place to be generous with what you've been given. And whether you've been around faith for years or are just curious, ask honestly whether you've been trying to get through life without needing anyone, including God.
Reflection Questions
Where in your life are you most tempted to say, "I need nothing"?
What are you proudest of? Could that also be where you're most exposed, the way Laodicea's gold, medicine, and wool were?
When you enjoy a good thing, where does your joy end? With the gift, or with gratitude to the one who gave it?
If Jesus were standing outside the door of your life right now, what would it take for you to open it?
