We’ve been dealing with some weighty questions in these last few chapters of Luke, these last few Sundays. Will those who are saved be few? What is it lawful to do on the Sabbath? Do you think Jesus has come to bring peace on earth?
In every case the answer is surprising. In every case, Jesus points us away from ourselves, our own righteousness, our own good works, and toward something greater, something better, namely, himself, and faith in him.
Today, the question might be posed, “what does it cost, in order to follow Christ?”
Some might say, “well, it means you have to go to church once a week for about an hour.”
Others might say, “you have to be a good person, you know, follow the rules, more or less.”
Still others might say, “All of the above, and don’t forget to contribute your 10% offering.”
But as nice as all those things would be, they’re not enough. The cost of discipleship is far greater: Hating your family. Hating your own life. Taking up your own cross.
Jesus can’t put a finer point on it than this: “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Or in other words, what does it cost to follow Jesus? Everything.
This is, admittedly, a hard sell.
Now, don’t get Jesus wrong. He says “hate your family” but he’s using strong language to make a point. He must come first, even before your family. Even before your own life. He, true man but also true God, must be your God. He must be your one and only savior. Compared to everything and everyone else, even to the good and the best things of life – family, even life itself – he exceeds them all. And he says this, for your good.
For no one can be saved from sin by putting his family first. No one can be free from death by loving and clinging to life. No one can expect eternal salvation in any other way, by any other means, than by Jesus himself, the narrow door. So, if you would be his disciple, be his disciple! Trust him. Listen to him. Follow him. He will be your Savior and you will be saved.
But it won’t always be easy. It will cost you. It will come with crosses. But for the Christian, the person who truly follows Christ, we endure such crosses with faith and trust.
Following Christ may bring hardship, up close and personal, even from within the bounds of your own family. Loved ones may not understand, may not agree, may not accept the ways of Christ and of his church. They might expect you to compromise and follow worldly ways. And if you don’t, they may call you unloving, see you as backward, consider you too religious. They may mock you, try to shame you, or simply disdain you quietly. But carry on, dear Christian, and follow Jesus.
The world may persecute you even to the point of death, as indeed the world has done to so many Christians over the centuries. But we hold in high esteem those who were faithful under fire, faithful even to death, who hated their own lives for the sake of Christ, and the confession of his name. These holy martyrs will certainly not lose their reward.
But consider the cost. Count the cost, Jesus says, because if you go into this Christian faith unawares, it could be a disaster. You might find yourself worse off than if you’d never believed. If the going gets tough, and you make a shipwreck of your faith, if persecution comes and the hatred of the world, or even your family comes, and it causes you to forsake Christ, then you have suffered and are without Christ anyway.
Jesus uses two examples to warn us here: The man building a tower and the king going to war. Both must consider the cost of their endeavor, and go into it with eyes wide open. Both must know what to expect. If the tower construction begins and the money runs out, then the half-built tower will stand as a testament to the man’s foolishness. Better not to have even started. If the king were to go to war with half the forces of his opponent, and lose in bloody and costly fashion, he will be remembered for it in the annals of history. Better to make peace with the stronger army, and fast.
Consider the cost of being a Christian. And when you come to the clear-eyed realization that what it costs is... everything... and that you can’t pay it... when you despair of yourself, then that’s right where you ought to be. For only Jesus can pay the cost for you, and he does.
First: the absolute cost – the absolute and perfect demands of righteousness that we can never meet. Consider the futility of trying to be free from sin, or have a righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees. Consider the impossibility of loving God with all your heart, strength, soul and mind, or of even loving your neighbor as yourself. Try going 1 day without sin, one hour, let alone a whole lifetime. And yet God calls us to be perfect as he is perfect. He warns us that breaking one law brings guilt for breaking all of it. He drives us to despair of our own powers to save ourselves. The cost is just too high. We can’t pay it. We never could.
But Christ can, and Christ has. His perfect life – lived under the law – lived in our place – is counted to us as righteousness. He did love God with all his heart. He always loved the neighbor as himself, and even more. He obeyed his Father’s will in all things, perfectly humble, perfectly kind. He was like us in every way – yet without sin. And his righteous life covers us like a white robe, blankets us in perfect righteousness. Only he could pay the price, and thank God he did.
And he pays it, also, by his blood. You see, he can call us to take up our cross and follow him, because he went before us with his own cross. He took our sins there, our guilt all the awful punishment we deserved. He paid it. He said, “charge it to me!” and God did. So that’s the absolute cost – Christ paid it. By his perfect life, and substitutionary death. It’s all said and done.
But there’s still a cost, in this life, this side of heaven. As we said, being a Christian isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. It may cost you goods, fame, child or wife. Trouble and persecution, sacrificial living, cross-bearing of all manner may come. And yet the kingdom ours remaineth, if we are disciples of Christ.
Disciples of Christ learn, sometimes even through suffering, that the troubles of this life are not worth the glory that is to be revealed. That the temporary hardships of life in a fallen world are hard, but they are not worth comparing to the abundant, perfect, glorious and eternal life that is ours in Christ, when we feast with him in kingdom to come.
So stand firm, faithful to him. Retain your distinctiveness, your saltiness, and do not be conformed to this world. Follow Christ, come what may, even through hardship and trouble, even if it comes from your own family, for he has paid the cost, done it all. Renounce all that you have, and receive all that he gives to you... and that.. Is everything.
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