The Cost of Discipleship

Deut 30: 15-20
Luke 14: 25-33

Jesus was always willing to lay everything out for us. There was no hiding of facts or concealing the more grueling parts of what it meant to be his follower. Jesus believes that if you want to follow him then you should be aware of what it is you're taking on. Churches today should probably follow his example more closely when new people arrive, but we're so eager to make them feel welcome and we're so busy praying they'll stay that we would never consider telling them the blunt truth about what it would mean to be a member of this particular church.

And it's not that there's a bunch of bad things going on here, but it's the idea of saying honestly, "We could use you on about three different committees and your money will be very welcome and please don't sit in that pew over there unless you want someone very influential in the church to make you feel like you've done something wrong." Even though that is the bare, bald truth in almost every church in America, no one wants to state that to someone just walking in the door! We want to offer them friendship bread and handshakes and hugs. We want to show them how loving and kind and open we are to their differences. We want them to STAY and so we don't reveal all the truth at one time. We allow them to discover our little idiosyncrasies all on their own over time.

Jesus, well.. Jesus wasn't like that. Jesus loved walking up to a crowd of people and telling them exactly the way it is and letting them sort it out for themselves. Jesus tells the people in this text that they need to hate their mother and father, their brother and sister and their children and husband. They are to hate their very own life. If we walked up to every new person that comes in the door and said such things, how might they react? They'd think we're crazy Christians; fanatical Christians!

What was the purpose of Jesus telling the people that they must hate those the bible tells us to love and cherish? What is the purpose of us hating our own lives that God has given to us? This doesn't make sense! What is Jesus telling us?

Nothing in life is free. Nothing in life is truly easy. There are too many sermons and too many pastors preaching about how life is good when you're a Christian. There is too much talk about how much God loves us and how much Jesus has done for us and not enough about the cost of being a Christian disciple. There's a difference between a Christian and a disciple of Jesus Christ.

A Christian is someone who believes in God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. They believe that Jesus died for our sins and through his death we are accepted into the relationship of the Trinity and will receive eternal life. That's a Christian. A disciple of Jesus Christ is a person that believes all the things a Christian does, but also acts upon those beliefs. They are not passive in their faith. They feel Jesus calling them to new places and feel the Holy Spirit urging them onward and they believe in the Father's promises to them and therefore they take action.

A disciple cannot sit back and watch injustice happen before their eyes. A disciple feels the need to tell a person that is hurting that there is more to life than pain. A disciple knows when to offer a helping hand, a listening ear, and a prayer. A disciple does not only come to church to hear the Good News, but to learn how to spread the Gospel to those that have not heard it. A disciple gives more than he or she takes. A disciple understand there is a true cost to being a Christian, one that not everyone is prepared or willing to give.

It's why Jesus doesn't sugarcoat the truth. It's why we really shouldn't either. Being a Christian disciple is hard work. It sometimes requires us to be at odds with our family. It sometimes requires us to give up our hobbies so we can help improve the church. It sometimes requires us to spend all sorts of hours in meetings when all we want to do is get home to our kid's softball game. It sometimes requires us to give a lot of money to certain functions and events because we know that no one else is going to fund the dance competition in school this year, but it's something the teenagers actually enjoy. Sometimes it means being at odds with the people who are working for the same things you are, but each person has a vision and they're not meshing right now.

Being a disciple is full of stress and angst and anger and conflict. We're at war with others and with ourselves. When we're honest, we know there is more we could be doing to follow Jesus. We know there is more we could do in our personal lives, our professional lives, and in church life to make the Kingdom of God more real to the world. We fight against our need to be independent and our desire to lean upon God. We fight against what we know we should do and what we want to do instead.

It's easier to pretend we didn't hear the sermon that says, "give more time and money to church and your community" and that way we can sit back in our recliner and watch that episode of Modern Family without any guilt. We can tell ourselves that since we put in that hour on Sunday, we're good for the week. "That was quality God time and now I need quality Me time!" But Jesus, he doesn't let us get away with that.

He tells us to hate our lives, not to sit back and relax in it. Jesus wants us to understand that when we take on the label of Christian all that we say and do is suddenly labeled Christian Behavior and Christian Way of Doing Things. It's an all or nothing deal that is so black and white that we instinctively try to search out the gray area. We want to hide in the shadows! We do not want to be the poster child for Christian life! But the day you were baptized; the day you stood up in church and said I believe; the day you accepted your membership here at church you took on the life of a Christian disciple.

We have taken on a heavy cross and Jesus tells us that in plain words. He tells us to prepare us for what is coming. For the tests, the trials, the tribulations that we want to pretend aren't coming our way and that if we pretend maybe we can avoid them. It won't work. And not only that, but in the meantime we are Christian in name only because we are not acting as Christ's disciples because we have buried our heads in the sand.

Jesus leaves us with no excuses and no pretenses in this passage. "Are you a Christian?" he asks, and when we say yes he replies, "Then act like it with all of your heart and soul and mind."

I will end with the wise words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who writes about the cost and grace of discipleship, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a person must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a person their life, and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God [Jesus made flesh].”

Amen.