The Cost of Being a Disciple
25Large 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.
34"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Stuff that stood out: I think this set of verses is one of the hardest truths for me to hear. Why? Well, I'll get into it more as I break down some verses...but if I call myself a Christian, Follower of Jesus, Believer, etc., this passage is one I must hear and "digest"... And yes, the "title" I gave this posting is an old U2 song...been listening to them alot lately in anticipation of their new album :-), but I think the lyric applies here (and it's all that was going through my head as I pondered what to call this post...).
*** 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.: Wow. There it is. Jesus really "went there". He threw it all out there for us to see when it comes to how strong our surrender to Him must be. Jesus talks elsewhere about other things that "get in the way" of following Him, and while they are also hard (money, possessions, power, etc.), at least they are material in some fashion. But family? Friends? My own life? Oh boy... I even catch myself qualifying this list here into "rankings" of sorts. I can see possibly having to give up ones' own family-of-origin for the sake of Jesus (think, "I am a Christian now...and I can't live to please you or meet your 'dreams' for me anymore..." Someone very close to me has had to make decisions like this...). I can even see giving up my physical life for the Lord (although I realize it would be immeasurably tough to not "sell out" just to save my skin...). I think the one that would honestly be toughest for me is giving up my wife and child. What on earth does this look like? Thankfully, my family (wife/kid) are on my side as far as following Christ...but what if one day I sense God calling me/us in a certain direction...and my wife says, "Uh-uh...no way...you go do that, you might as well just keep on walkin'"? Isn't my family my primary ministry? Aren't I supposed to sacrifice all things on their behalf just like Jesus does for the Church? I know God hates and detests divorce, so if one day it's either Jesus or my family...do I just walk away and "ditch" them (and I do know people who have "divorced in the name of Jesus"...and I catch myself judging them...forgive me, Lord...?)? As I said, this is a hard couple verses...but if nothing else, it says that following Christ must truly be FIRST to a Christian. Not pleasing family, friends, others; not just trying to save my own skin and getting what I want.
*** 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him...: I also have seen this problem in my life before and thankfully the older I get I seem to get better at a) completing things and b) discerning what never needs to be "started" or promised in the first place. But I also think this speaks to those who gleefully start following Jesus in a sprint (often based on an emotion-driven "conversion experience", or being "saved" based on promises that God will "fix all my problems"...), but as the reality that yes, bad stuff will still happen to you even if you are saved, or that once you get farther from the "rah rah" environment where you were caught up in the moment and said, "Yes, Lord!", I think it is easy to stop following... I'm not trying to sound harsh (Jesus does plenty of that in this passage, haha), and I do truly affirm that Christ does save in circumstances like this. I just hope that if one's experience with meeting Jesus was emotionally-driven, at some point they hit a crossroads and say, "Ok...so I didn't realize it would be so hard..." or "Hang on, I prayed a prayer! How come I still struggle? How come my mom got sick? I thought all of that was gone!?", and will see the truth of Jesus' saving of our dark souls instead of just what "felt good" at the time or that we were saved because we were shown Jesus as some sort-of therapist that would make us "live like a champion" (heehee). Does Christ reconcile all things? YES. But on his terms, in his way...and we, unfortunately, look for it on OUR terms...and can get confused and disappointed when things are tough. Oh Lord, give me/us the strength to realize that simply the act of paying for our Sin on the cross was ENOUGH for us to fall on our face, to run to you (and from ourselves), and follow no matter what!
Questions for me today:
What "dynamic" listed here would be the toughest for me to walk away from in the name of following Jesus?
Am I a "finisher" of the things of God, or a "quitter"?
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