The Cost of Discipleship
Sermon text for September 9, 2007:
Luke 14:25-33
He sat in the courtroom looking as if through a fog at his wife of five years. He was at one table with his attorney, and she, a few feet away, with her attorney. It all seemed unreal, like a terrible nightmare from which he would awake at any moment. He heard the lawyers talking about something, but the sound was like the drone of a distant airplane. Nothing made any sense any more.
Five years ago, when the said their vows in front of the minister and started their life together, marriage seemed like a lark. Surely they would beat the odds and have a happy life and grow old together. In marriage their love would be expressed in complete freedom and it seemed a foregone conclusion that they would be happy.
After the initial period of excitement, their relationship settled into a routine. They would not have called it boring, but they found themselves doing the same things day in and day out. Each of them focused a lot of energy on careers and they were tired when evening came. He would often spend all evening from after dinner until bedtime surfing the Internet, and she, more often than not, curled up on the couch and read or watched television. Neither noticed when their relationship began slipping away from benign neglect. Neither understood that a good relationship came at a cost, that each needed to invest time and energy in each other.
In those happy moments immediately after their wedding, neither would have understood the idea that continued happiness came at a cost. They simply enjoyed being together and surely that was enough. And now it was over, not because either had done something terrible, but because neither had paid the price for staying together.
We often forget that everything costs us something. We even like to say that “the best things in life are free”. But the saying is not true. Our relationship with God and with others comes at a price and sometimes the price is too high.
Jesus wants those who follow him to count the cost of discipleship, to look at the price tag. In our gospel lesson we see that Jesus has attracted a large crowd of traveling companions. They see in Jesus someone who is very attractive, someone with whom they want to be in a relationship, but they have no idea how much that relationship is going to cost.
In this lesson, Jesus shows them the price of being in relationship with him, and the price tag is shocking. He says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
We can make discipleship seem a little less costly when we understand that the word, “hate”, in this context is not referring to being filled with negative emotions toward our loved ones. Even so the price is still very high. When Jesus calls us to “hate”, he is asking us to detach from others so that we can attach to him.
For those of us whose lives revolve around family and friends, work or school, the call is to detach emotionally so that we can attach ourselves to Jesus. Jesus does not ask us to walk away from loved ones, but to move them out of the center of our lives so that he can occupy that space.
I have a fantasy that many of us who eagerly started a relationship with Jesus sometimes find ourselves in family court getting a divorce. It is not that we love him less or that we have lost our faith, it’s just that we never considered the cost of discipleship before we got started. According to today’s lesson being a disciple of Jesus is very expensive.
I wonder how many of us were told the price of being in a relationship with Jesus when we were being evangelized. Probably few of us have ever considered how expensive discipleship is. Yet Jesus indicates to the crowd that there are some obvious questions which thinking people ought to ask before we commit to discipleship. He illustrates the need to ask questions by telling two mini-parables: “Who among you decides to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost?” The answer to this rhetorical question is “no one.” It would be too embarrassing to get started and to then discover the job can’t be finished because the cost was more than anticipated. He asks, “Or, what country would go to war against another without estimating what it will cost to win”? Again, the answer is no one would do that because there is too much at stake. There is too much at stake in discipleship also, and those who want to be disciples must pay attention to the cost.
Jesus says part of the price of discipleship is the rearranging of everything in our lives. He wants to be in the center so that everything else revolves around him. Those of us who value Jesus may battle for a lifetime to clear out the clutter so that we have room for him. I believe that when we are committed to making space for Jesus, he hands us a broom, while he keeps the rake, and we clean house together. But some of us refuse to clear out the clutter, because we are used to the mess we have made of our lives. And even with Jesus working side by side with us, the price of cleaning house to make Jesus the center of our lives is too high.
Jesus is looking for men and women who are tired of the clutter we have created in our lives. He is looking for people who aren’t satisfied with just hanging on or just hanging around the edges of discipleship, never being fully engaged. He is looking for people who are willing to put him first, no matter who, or what, needs to be left behind. If that’s who you are then hear this invitation. Jesus says, “Come, follow me.”
Copyright © 2007 by Dwight R. Blackstock
Luke 14:25-33
He sat in the courtroom looking as if through a fog at his wife of five years. He was at one table with his attorney, and she, a few feet away, with her attorney. It all seemed unreal, like a terrible nightmare from which he would awake at any moment. He heard the lawyers talking about something, but the sound was like the drone of a distant airplane. Nothing made any sense any more.
Five years ago, when the said their vows in front of the minister and started their life together, marriage seemed like a lark. Surely they would beat the odds and have a happy life and grow old together. In marriage their love would be expressed in complete freedom and it seemed a foregone conclusion that they would be happy.
After the initial period of excitement, their relationship settled into a routine. They would not have called it boring, but they found themselves doing the same things day in and day out. Each of them focused a lot of energy on careers and they were tired when evening came. He would often spend all evening from after dinner until bedtime surfing the Internet, and she, more often than not, curled up on the couch and read or watched television. Neither noticed when their relationship began slipping away from benign neglect. Neither understood that a good relationship came at a cost, that each needed to invest time and energy in each other.
In those happy moments immediately after their wedding, neither would have understood the idea that continued happiness came at a cost. They simply enjoyed being together and surely that was enough. And now it was over, not because either had done something terrible, but because neither had paid the price for staying together.
We often forget that everything costs us something. We even like to say that “the best things in life are free”. But the saying is not true. Our relationship with God and with others comes at a price and sometimes the price is too high.
Jesus wants those who follow him to count the cost of discipleship, to look at the price tag. In our gospel lesson we see that Jesus has attracted a large crowd of traveling companions. They see in Jesus someone who is very attractive, someone with whom they want to be in a relationship, but they have no idea how much that relationship is going to cost.
In this lesson, Jesus shows them the price of being in relationship with him, and the price tag is shocking. He says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
We can make discipleship seem a little less costly when we understand that the word, “hate”, in this context is not referring to being filled with negative emotions toward our loved ones. Even so the price is still very high. When Jesus calls us to “hate”, he is asking us to detach from others so that we can attach to him.
For those of us whose lives revolve around family and friends, work or school, the call is to detach emotionally so that we can attach ourselves to Jesus. Jesus does not ask us to walk away from loved ones, but to move them out of the center of our lives so that he can occupy that space.
I have a fantasy that many of us who eagerly started a relationship with Jesus sometimes find ourselves in family court getting a divorce. It is not that we love him less or that we have lost our faith, it’s just that we never considered the cost of discipleship before we got started. According to today’s lesson being a disciple of Jesus is very expensive.
I wonder how many of us were told the price of being in a relationship with Jesus when we were being evangelized. Probably few of us have ever considered how expensive discipleship is. Yet Jesus indicates to the crowd that there are some obvious questions which thinking people ought to ask before we commit to discipleship. He illustrates the need to ask questions by telling two mini-parables: “Who among you decides to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost?” The answer to this rhetorical question is “no one.” It would be too embarrassing to get started and to then discover the job can’t be finished because the cost was more than anticipated. He asks, “Or, what country would go to war against another without estimating what it will cost to win”? Again, the answer is no one would do that because there is too much at stake. There is too much at stake in discipleship also, and those who want to be disciples must pay attention to the cost.
Jesus says part of the price of discipleship is the rearranging of everything in our lives. He wants to be in the center so that everything else revolves around him. Those of us who value Jesus may battle for a lifetime to clear out the clutter so that we have room for him. I believe that when we are committed to making space for Jesus, he hands us a broom, while he keeps the rake, and we clean house together. But some of us refuse to clear out the clutter, because we are used to the mess we have made of our lives. And even with Jesus working side by side with us, the price of cleaning house to make Jesus the center of our lives is too high.
Jesus is looking for men and women who are tired of the clutter we have created in our lives. He is looking for people who aren’t satisfied with just hanging on or just hanging around the edges of discipleship, never being fully engaged. He is looking for people who are willing to put him first, no matter who, or what, needs to be left behind. If that’s who you are then hear this invitation. Jesus says, “Come, follow me.”
Copyright © 2007 by Dwight R. Blackstock
posted by Dwight Blackstock | 2:28 PM
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