The Cost of Discipleship
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The Cost of Discipleship[1]
One of the distinguishing marks of a great leader is the honesty with which such a leader describes just what is expected of those who would follow him or her. Early in the 20th century, the famous Arctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shakleton, in seeking to recruit men for a gruelling expedition, placed an ad in a London newspaper. The ad reads: “Men wanted for hazardous journey: small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness and constant danger. Safe return doubtful…” In the days of the Second World War, when Sir Winston Churchill took over the leadership of the country, he told the British people that he had nothing to offer but "blood, toil, tears and sweat." When Garibaldi, the great Italian freedom fighter, appealed for recruits in his bid to liberate his country, he said, “I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country in his heart, and not with his lips only, follow me.”
Jesus too, speaks of the need for total commitment – even to the point of death – for those who would want to follow him. He conveys this in no uncertain terms when, before a crowd of expectant onlookers, he sets forth the requirements of being a Christian in the strictest possible terms: “You must take up your cross (a symbol of death) and follow me.” But wait just a minute, isn’t Jesus the one who promises abundant life, peace, freedom, contentment and rest to all who would follow him? So why is he now painting such a dark and forbidding picture of the Christian life? What’s he up to? Well, you will notice that Jesus never tries to coax people into a glib profession of faith. Neither does he seek to attract a large following simply by telling people what they want to hear. Rather than trying to lure the unsuspecting into unconsidered commitments, Jesus warns the crowd in advance that the way of discipleship will not be easy.
You see, Jesus knows what is involved in following him; he is aware of the “dangers, toils and snares” that await those who would choose to commit their lives to him. And so, the demands that Jesus makes upon those who would follow him are extreme. As Martin Luther once said, “A (faith) that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.” Christianity is not a Sunday morning religion; it isn’t some kind of “free pass” that exempts the holder from having to go through the many painful experiences of life, nor is it some kind of opiate that dulls one’s mind to the real world of hardship and disappointment.
What Christianity does offer is a deep, personal, and vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ; a relationship that allows us to face with courage all that life throws at us, knowing that we are never alone in our struggles; a relationship that enables us to display astonishing resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and devastating setbacks.But such a relationship comes at a price: it shakes our foundations, topples our priorities, and sometimes it even sets us against friend and family, and makes us strangers in this world. We need therefore to make our commitment to follow our Lord with eyes wide open and faculties intact.
We learn in our text that a large crowd was travelling with Jesus as he makes his way to Jerusalem. He knows of the suffering and death that awaits him there. But evidently, the people thought he was on his way to Jerusalem to set up his kingdom for which they had waited for so long. Aware of their misguided expectations, Jesus turns to the crowd and tells them what is involved in a true commitment to him. And at that moment the crowd learns, and so must we, that to follow Jesus we must establish our priorities; we must count the cost, and; we must be willing to pay the price.
I. We must establish our priorities
Too often we allow things to stand in the way of that which we consider to be of greater importance. And so hobbies interest us more than our children. A job takes precedent over a marriage. And television displaces family conversations over dinner. We have the best of intentions but the priorities we know to be vital to a good and happy life never get carried out in our day-to-day living.
When you consider that during a life span of 70 years, the average person spends about 6 months on religious activities, you begin to seejust how low a priority spiritual matters occupy in our lives.Jesus now shocks us by making a radical and earth-shattering pronouncement: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.”
But what does Jesus really mean when he speaks of hating “father and mother,” “wife and children,” “brothers and sisters”? “Hate,” in the literal sense of the word will not fit this situation, because it would contradict everything Jesus ever taught. On further investigation, we discover that the word “hate,” as Jesus uses it here is a Semitic expression that exaggerates a contrast so that it can be seen more clearly. “Hate” does not mean anger or hostility. It indicates that if there is a conflict of loyalty, then one’s response to the demands of discipleship must take priority over even the most sacred of human relationships – the family![2]
Even something as noble as the love of family, as good and as right as that is, cannot stand in the way of commitment to the Kingdom of God. There is no duty higher than commitment to Jesus and to being his disciple. Jesus said, "If any man would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Nothing – not possessions, not family, not even our love for our own lives – ought to stand between us and the call to follow Christ. Commitment to Jesus Christ demands our unconditional obedience! It must be our number one priority!
Unfortunately, there are many Christians today whose faith is, at best, peripheral to what is really important in their lives. In his book, What Ever Happened to Commitment? Edward Dayton makes the point that “Seeing ourselves as playing different roles allows us to avoid becoming Christians at the core of life. Rather than seeing our Christian life as fundamental to every other part of life, too often we see it as just another role we play…
“Instead of seeing all of life as part of Kingdom life, our citizenship is a part-time affair. We are very much like citizens of one country who hold passports to another: They have potential citizenship in two countries. Many of us need to burn one of our passports and make a lifetime commitment to (our citizenship in God’s kingdom).”[3]
“Short of a dynamic conversion to Jesus Christ, nothing will ever be placed in proper order. Value conflicts can only be resolved by making value choices. An individual must accept one Lord of life while he or she rejects the other.”[4]
But not only must we order our priorities aright, we must also …
II. Count the cost.
Look with me at how Jesus illustrates this point. “Suppose,” he says, “one of you wants to build a tower over your vineyard so you can keep a lookout for thieves who might want to steal your harvest. Before you build, what is the first thing you will do? Will you not,” he says, “first sit down and estimate how much it will cost you to build the tower?” Of course, this is a rhetorical question, and the answer is: “Yes, I will first count the cost!” In today’s language, we’d say, “If it doesn’t pencil out don’t do it!” You wouldn’t want to appear foolish by laying the foundation, running out of money, abandoning the project, and becoming the laughing stock of the community; would you?
Next Jesus makes another simple observation: A king would not go to war unless he had enough soldiers to resist the opposing force. By the same token, God has not entered a redemptive process without being prepared to complete it, and Jesus did not set his face for Jerusalem without being prepared to face the sacrifice that would be required of him there. Thus no one should step forward as a disciple without being prepared to forsake everything for the sake of following Jesus.
With these two illustrations, Jesus warns all would-be followers against any impulsive decisions to be his disciples. “Have you ever made a commitment to an organization or committee without first finding out all that would be expected of you? Have you ever gotten caught by purchasing something or (signing an agreement) without first reading all the fine print?” [5] Along with the advantages of the Christian live, Jesus promises us more hardships, more pain, and more tears, so we should first of all count the cost! And what is the cost? The very next verse (v. 33) answers the question: “…any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
The cost is “everything.” Let me ask you, could it be any clearer than that? Jesus spells out the extremely high cost of discipleship. It will cost all that you are and all that you have. If you should choose to follow, there is no part of life that is immune to that call.
“Some churches, preachers, and TV programs present the gospel as though they were selling a used car. They make it sound as easy as possible, as though no real commitment were required. Jesus’ call was far different. He was not looking for superficial commitment or a crowd of tagalongs and wagonists. Instead, he required his followers to be totally committed if they were going to follow at all.”[6]
It is quite possible to be a nominal follower of Jesus without being a disciple; to be a hanger-on in some great enterprise without pulling one’s weight. Once there was a man who had a conversation with a prominent lecturer about a younger man. He said, “So and so tells me that he was one of your students.” The tutor’s response was immediate: “He may have attended my lectures, but he certainly was not one of my students!”[7]
“It is one thing to make a decision for Christ in the warm emotion of a (church service). But it is quite another thing to deny one’s self, and take up the cross daily, and follow Christ. Although it costs nothing to become a Christian, it costs plenty to be a consistent believer walking in a path of sacrifice, separation and suffering for Christ’s sake. It is one thing to begin the Christian race well, but it is quite another thing to slug it out, day after day, through fair weather and foul, through prosperity and adversity, through joy and through grief.”[8]
In a sense, no one can know whether he or she will be able to fulfil a commitment to discipleship. But Jesus was not asking for a guarantee of complete faithfulness in advance. If he had, no one would qualify to be a disciple. Through these parables, Jesus was simply calling for each person who would be a disciple to consider in advance what that commitment requires,[9] and having done so, to ask him- or herself the question: “Am I willing to expose myself to risk and ridicule in order to follow Jesus?” This now brings us to the third point.
lII. We must be willing to pay the price.
Jesus closes his message on discipleship with the words “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”! These words imply that not everyone will have the willingness to accept to the stringent terms of discipleship. But if a person is willing to follow the Lord Jesus, no matter what the cost may be, then he should hear and follow. [10]
Everything we have now as Christians started with those original disciples. How deep was their commitment? Let’s see:
Andrew, Simon and Peter were all crucified, with Peter being crucified upside down;
Bartholomew was whipped to death;
James (son of Zebedee) was beheaded;
The other James (son of Alphaeus) was beaten to death;
Thomas was run through with a spear;
Matthias was stoned and then beheaded;
Matthew was killed by the sword;
Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows;
Philip was hanged.
They all paid the price – ultimately by laying down their lives, which is a powerful witness – but it was the daily work they did before they died that we need to understand before their martyrdom can have any meaning.
I wonder what would have become of Christianity if these disciples had not willingly made the ultimate sacrifice. If they had not paid the price of discipleship with their very lives where would we be today? Geographically, Christianity is the most widely spread of all faiths, and a third of the world’s 6 billion people claim Christ as their Lord. What kind of faith, if any, would we have today if these original disciples had not willingly taken up their cross?
Not many of us will be called on to give up our lives for our faith. But “the cost of discipleship is paid in many different kinds of currency. For some persons a redirection of time and energy is required, for others a change in personal relationships, a change in vocation, or a commitment of financial resources; but for each person the call to discipleship is all consuming. A complete change in priorities is required of all would-be disciples. No part-time disciples are needed. No partial commitments are accepted.”[11] Are you willing to count the cost, and pay the price? Now is the time for decision. Will you take up your cross and follow Jesus?
[1] “The Cost of Discipleship,” adapted from Collected Sermons, Brett Blair and Staff, ChristianGlobe Network, 2004, 0-0000-0000-1, http://www.eSermons.com
[2] R. Alan Culpepper, Vol 9: New Interpreter’s Bible: The Gospel of Luke: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections, Electronic Edition, Nashville: Abingdon Press.
[3] Qtd in David A. Thompson, Vol 18: Counselling and Divorce, Gary R. Collins, Gen Ed., Resources for Christian Counselling, Dallas: Word Publishing, 1989, 19.
[4] Ibid., 20.
[5] Culpepper, op. cit.
[6] Ibid.
[7] William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, Rev. Ed., Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975, 196.
[8] William MacDonald, True Discipleship together with Seek Ye First, Bromley, Kent: STL Publications, 1973, 77.
[9] Culpepper, op. cit.
[10]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. 1997, c1995. Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. Thomas Nelson: Nashville
[11] Culpepper, op. cit.
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