Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Shepherd
of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)
Warnings from the Word Series: “Discipleship Is Expensive”
Luke 14:25-33
Large crowds
were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"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. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me
cannot be my disciple.
28"Suppose one of you wants to build a
tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough
money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not
able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying,
'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31"Or suppose a king is about to go
to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he
is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty
thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the
other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In
the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my
disciple.
For many of us there are a
number of variables that come into play while shopping that will determine
whether or not we’ll end up walking out of the store with any given item. It may start off with which store we’re even
willing to shop at; we may not even be willing to buy an item at certain stores
or retailers. And, when it comes to
shopping, some may also give a lot of consideration to the color or model options
available; if it doesn’t come in a certain color, or with certain features,
then it may be out of the question.
Others will make a purchase based on name brands, because they have
found certain brands have a better reputation or tend to last longer than
others. Yet even with all these
variables, there may be one consideration that will be a bigger factor than all
the others in determining whether an item will be purchased or not: price. Quite simply, no matter what color or brand,
no matter what store is selling it, if the item is more expensive than we are
willing to pay for it, then it won’t ever make the jump from the shelf to our
cart. More often than not, it simply comes
down to cost.
Cost is precisely what Jesus
warns about in our final Warning from the Word: Discipleship Is Expensive.
The dropsy-healing dinner party had come to a close and Jesus was now
traveling about, but as was often the case, he wasn’t alone. And, as Luke informs us, it wasn’t as if he
had only a few fans following him around, but “large crowds were traveling with
Jesus” (v.25). Knowing that
there were always a variety of reasons for which people expressed interest in
Jesus, he made use of the opportunity with such large crowds to clarify the
cost of being his follower.
Stop there for a moment and
notice how Jesus used this opportunity, and what it reflects about him. If Jesus’ life and ministry were to be about
a popularity contest or merely how many followers he could rack up, having
large crowds accompany him would have been a great chance to butter up the
masses by saying whatever itching ears wanted to hear. Surely Jesus could have smooth-talked his way
into their hearts if he so desired. But
Jesus shows us that he is always interested only in speaking what needs to be
heard, even if it may not be what the crowds want to hear. His warning, Discipleship Is Expensive, was a
blunt teaching that was not easy to accept.
Nevertheless, in full disclosure, Jesus was telling the crowds to count
the cost before they committed to clinging to him as their Savior.
So just what is the cost of
following Jesus? How expensive is
discipleship? The quick and easy answer
is that it could cost everything that one has, and that the follower of Jesus
must be willing and ready to part with anything if it compromises his
relationship with Jesus. Jesus’ warning
could be broken down this way: his disciples must be willing to reconsider
relationships, carry their crosses, and part with possessions.
To reconsider relationships
is simply to prioritize earthly relationships and one’s relationship with
Jesus. On the one hand, it’s really
quite simple: the relationship with Jesus is most important, and every other
relationship imaginable comes after that.
In fact Jesus stated it more strongly, using the word “hate”
to depict how strongly the follower of Jesus feels about keeping Jesus
first in life. If anyone – even family
members – threaten the believer’s relationship with Jesus, then the believer is
not simply indifferent toward them, but must fully guard against that
relationship and the threat it poses.
Moreover, it isn’t just the love of others that potentially threatens
one’s connection to Jesus, but even love of self. To reconsider relationships is to accept the
harsh truth that no earthly relationship must ever be allowed to drive a wedge
between one’s relationship with Jesus.
In addition to reconsidering
relationships, the followers of Jesus must be willing to carry their crosses. “And anyone who does not carry his cross and
follow me cannot be my disciple” (v.27).
A cross can be any struggle the Christian has that comes in one manner
or another because of his faith. Those
with children about to be in high school bear the cross of agonizing over
whether to send a child to CLHS – or even further away to one of our
preparatory schools like LPS or MLS – versus sending them to public high
school. Such a struggle is unique to the
Christian. The unbeliever doesn’t
agonize over a child continuing to receive a Christian education at the high
school level, but it is a cross that many Christian parents bear. The challenge and tension of living in a way
that reflects God’s will versus living in a way that is acceptable to the world
may be another cross the Christian bears.
Whatever the cross, Jesus says that it is something that his followers
will lift up and carry, not hide away and bury.
Finally, the follower of Jesus will also be willing to part with possessions. Admittedly, this would be a lot easier if not
for one thing: God is so abundantly gracious to us. God’s giving to us is not a
“good-enough-to-get-by” type of giving, but a “here, take what you need… and
then double it” type of giving. Most of us,
if left with even a fraction of what we now receive from the Lord, would still
be wealthier than the vast majority of the world. But such material blessings can potentially
provide a snare, one that perhaps God allows in our lives to test our faith and
see how willing we are to part with possessions for his sake.
Discipleship Is Expensive, isn’t it? That’s why Jesus continued with two stories
to illustrate the importance of counting the cost before going “all in” with
Christianity. No one would embark on a
building project without first figuring out how much it would cost and
determining if he could afford it. No
one goes to war severely outnumbered, but makes sure he has a large enough army
to give him a winning chance. In the
same way, how foolish one looks who is one day the most zealous Christian on
earth, only to be ashamed a short time later because of an inability to part
with someone or something in this world that seeks to trump Jesus in priority
and importance! Only a fool jumps into
something without first considering what all it involves, and if any sacrifice
is required, then he must be willing to make it.
Really what Jesus is illustrating in our verses today he also
illustrated through the parable of the Sower and the seed (cf. Luke 8). Remember that some of that seed fell on soil
and immediately shot up out of the ground.
However, shortly thereafter, either because of a weak root system due to
rocky soil, or being choked out by weeds that grew up right alongside, what
sprouted quickly wilted and died. The presence
of worldly cares and concerns and a lack of a deeply established root system
did not allow that faith to take off and bear an abundant crop. That, Jesus said, is what happens when one
fails to count the cost: there is a real danger that all might be lost.
Yes, Discipleship Is
Expensive. But you know
what? We haven’t even gotten to the real
cost yet. Yes, Jesus asks us to give up
much, indeed everything, for his sake.
But even everything we have is nothing but a drop in the bucket compared
to the real cost of discipleship. Suppose
we reconsidered our relationships and perfectly prioritized them so that God has
top billing in our lives as he deserves.
Imagine if we readily carried our cross each and every time it presented
itself, and willingly parted with all possessions that threatened to stake a
claim on our hearts. If we could do all
of those things, and do them just as Jesus here warns us to, would we then have
the security of heaven? We wouldn’t,
because our security doesn’t rest with us, but with Jesus. You see, Discipleship
Is Expensive, but not merely because
of what God asks of us; rather, it is expensive because of what God gives to us.
Discipleship Is Expensive because the
price God paid to make us his was the life of his only Son. It is estimated that on average, a pint of
blood today goes for around $230. Now if
a person in an accident required several pints of blood, that could get pretty
expensive. The cost of a pint of blood
though, is nothing when comparing it to Jesus’ blood. His blood is priceless, so precious because
it is pure and untainted by sin. When he
bled for you and me, the blood he shed was more valuable than the largest
diamond, the purest gold, the most refined silver, indeed more precious than
anything else in the world.
And, making it even more valuable was the fact that it was
one-of-a-kind. Why are people willing to
fork over millions of dollars for original works of art, when there are more
than enough replicas, fakes, and forgeries that look nearly identical? Because the original is a one-of-a-kind. There may be replicas, there may be fakes,
but there is only one original. So also,
there is only one Savior: Jesus. That
makes him even more precious to us, even though what he accomplished and
achieved for us – forgiveness and salvation – doesn’t cost us a thing! It cost a Father his Son. It cost a Father his dearly-beloved Son. How can we forget the Father’s expression of
that love, full of pride as he voiced his love and approval from heaven at
Jesus’ baptism and again at the Transfiguration? Do not think of God as some cold, unfeeling,
emotionless divine being who was indifferent to the plight of his Son – far
from it! We witness God’s compassion and
love for others as he expresses them throughout the life of Jesus. Jesus wept at the death of his friend
Lazarus. His heart went out to the diseased
and the downtrodden. God’s heart beats
with care and concern for others, and if for others, then surely also for his own
and only Son.
Discipleship Is
Expensive. Yes, Jesus wants us to count
the cost as we follow him so that we don’t have any unrealistic expectations
about how challenging it will be. But
even more than that, Jesus wants us to know it’s expensive because the price
for being called his disciples was his own death. He paid that price. He made us his. Let that be enough to work in our hearts a
willingness to give up everything for him who gave up everything for us first. Amen.
“For the freer confidence is
from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ
alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)
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