Are you willing to pay the price

Funny Warning Labels

Sometimes a warning is ridiculous but sometimes it is warranted. Years ago, when I was a youth pastor in Alberta, our church went every other year to Juarez, Mexico to build a home with an organization called Casas por Cristo. Well, in 2011, when I was going to go with them, the Canadian government warned us about travelling there because it was so dangerous due to a drug war with the cartels there. Because our team was intergenerational, with both youth and seniors on it, we spent a lot of time in prayer and discussion about what to do. We decided to make new plans to go to another area in Mexico and were able to help out a family there by building them a safe home to live it. We had to look at the situation, count the cost of it and then decide what we should do.

Since January, we have been working our way through the gospel of Luke in the New Testament, following Jesus and learning some life lessons from him. One of the things that I notice about Luke’s writings is that he writes thematically - that is, he repeats themes in different parts of his letter. One of those themes, is the cost of discipleship and both Luke and Jesus want us to know that the cost is not cheap.

Before we read today’s passage, let’s begin with a definition of discipleship because it’s a bit of “churchy” word these days and not everyone may know what it means.

Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them. That means, for those of us who say we follow Jesus, we are engaged in a process of learning how to be more like Jesus in our relationships to God, to our families, to our community and to the world. When we say becoming more like Jesus, we don’t mean the miracle working side of Jesus. We mean we become more like him in our character, in how we react to others, in how we relate to God. We are called not to just be believers, but to be followers - disciples of Jesus the Christ.

In response to a growing crowd of people who are with Jesus, but perhaps only superficially, Jesus teaches them - and us - about the cost of truly following him. Let’s read Luke 14:25-35.

Luke 14:25–35 NIV

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If 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. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Pray.

So what is Jesus teaching us here today? Jesus is telling us that there is a cost to discipleship -to following him- and we had better count that cost. So what is the cost of following Jesus?

1. Prioritize Jesus over family

Jesus says at the beginning of this passage that if you don’t hate your family, you cannot be his disciple. Wait, what? Jesus is saying that in order to follow him, you have to hate your family? No, he isn’t. Poor students of the Bible will take a verse like this, rip it out of the Biblical context, read it as a stand-alone truth, and then get offended by it. I mean, if this was all you read about Jesus, you would think Jesus is a terrible person to follow. But whe we read this passage in light of the rest of Jesus’ teachings, we see that we can’t just take this as a literal saying because it would be incongruent with the rest of what Jesus says.

Matthew 5:43–44 NIV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 22:37–39 NIV

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

John 13:34–35 NIV

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 15:12 NIV

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

When we study this passage in Luke in the context of all of Jesus’ teachings, we can see that Jesus is using a common teaching device here called hyberbole to make his point. Our modern-day understanding of the word “hate” pigeonholes it as the opposite of love. We use it as an exaggerated contrast - the polar opposite. But when we look at the passage here in Luke, “hate” has the meaning of “loving less,” not the opposite of love. Jesus is using strong, bold language to hammer home the point that if we are to follow Jesus, it means we put him above our own families.

Video from Voice of the Martyrs (https://vimeo.com/290527486) (approx 5 min)

Not everyone here will experience the kind of rejection and persecution from their families that many people around the world will. In the face of that rejection and pain, many of these saints continue to hold onto Jesus because they know that he is more important than even family.

To follow Jesus is to make him your first priority. Over your spouse, over your kids, over your parents. What does this look like practically? The Holy Spirit will convict each of you in that area as you examine your heart and life. Some of you as parents, prioritize your kids activities over their spiritual growth. Some of you are trying to find your identity in your spouse instead of Jesus. Some of you are so busy trying to be there for everyone else that you have forsaken following Jesus yourself.

Jesus isn’t actually telling us to hate our families. He is telling us to look at our families and reprioritize them so that the most important relationship that you have isn’t with your kids, your parents, your brothers or sisters. It’s not even with your spouse. It’s with Jesus. When that relationship is right, it makes all the other ones better. Beware the idolatry of family and ensure that Jesus is your first priority.

The second cost of following Jesus is that you have to prioritize Jesus over self.

2. Prioritize Jesus over self

In verse 26, Jesus says that not only do we prioritize him over our families, we have to prioritize him over ourselves. And I would say that this is by far, the hardest thing there is to do. To surrender all your plans, all your desires and all your behaviours to the rule and reign of Jesus goes against everything that is natural to us. To embody what Paul says in Galatians 2:20 when he says

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

is, perhaps the hardest part of our discipleship. We can grow in knowledge pretty easy. We can learn to love our neighbors. But to die to ourselves, to die to what we want, to the selfishness and pride that resides in each of us is the great challenge of our faith.

Can I be honest with you right now? Lately, I have been feeling pretty overwhelmed in life. Between our family dynamics at home, having to care for my aunt who has dementia in BC and my responsibilities as pastor here, I have been feeling pretty drained. Then, earlier this past week, I heard some faint rumors that I took personally and it really brought me low. It put me in a foul mood and I was scrubbing some dishes and muttering angrily to myself about “if I don’t do it, no one will” and feeling both entitled and disregarded simultaneously. The main problem with all of that, was that I was focussed on me. I was behaving as if the world revolved around me and I praise God that the Holy Spirit gave me a gut check. I took some time later to surrender myself back to the Lord. Every day, we need to surrender ourselves back to God. Sometimes every hour. As soon as we let our eyes drift away from Jesus and we focus on what we want, on what we deserve, on what we need, we move into idolatry. The idolatry of self.

When evangelist John Wilbur Chapman was in London, he had an opportunity to meet General Willliam Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, who at that time was past eighty years old. Dr. Chapman listened reverently as the old general spoke of the trials and the conflicts and the victories. Then the American evangelist asked the general if he would disclose his secret for success.

“He hesitated a second,” Dr. Chapman said, “and I saw the tears come into his eyes and steal down his cheeks, and then he said, ‘I will tell you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, men with greater opportunities; but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart, and a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with the poor of London, I made up my mind that God would have all of William Booth there was. And if there is anything of power in the Salvation Army today, it is because God has all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life.’”

Dr. Chapman said he went away from that meeting with General Booth knowing that, “the greatness of a man’s power is the measure of surrender.” Jesus calls us to “hate” ourselves - not to actually hate ourselves, but out of love for Jesus to surrender our lives to him and invite him to be Lord of your life.

The third cost of following Jesus is that you have to prioritize Jesus over life itself.

3. Prioritize Jesus over life

According to church tradition, Peter was crucified upside down. Andrew, his brother, was also crucified but on an “X” shaped cross. James, the brother of John was beheaded by a sword. John, died of old age, but was exiled from his home to the island of Patmos. Bartholomew was either flayed and beheaded, cruelly beaten and crucified, or beaten unconcious and drowned. Historians aren’t sure which. Thomas was stabbed to death by spears in india. Matthew was either burned, stoned, stabbed or beheaded. James, Jesus’ half brother was pushed from the pinacle of a temple he was preaching at and then was beaten with a club. Stephen was stoned to death and Paul was beheaded by Emperor Nero.

The way of Jesus is a way that not only means we die to ourselves in a spiritual way, but that we must also be prepared to die for our faith in a very real way. When Jesus says that “whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” he is drawing upon a common sight. Criminals were forced to carry their cross through town and up the hill to wherever they were crucified at. It was a show of superiority by the Romans to humiliate the person through public ridicule as they marched their way to their own death, carrying the thing that would kill them. Jesus, knowing that soon it would be his time to walk through the city carrying his cross to his death, reminds his disciples, and us, that following Jesus as real consequences. It’s not just a faith that is in our heads, but is a faith that is lived out and leads to death - both spiritually and sometimes physically.

Leighton Ford, in his book, “Good News for Sharing” told the sotry of the forty martyrs of Sabaste. These forty soldiers, all Christians, were members of the famed Twelfth Legion of Rome's imperial army. One day their captain told them Emperor Licinius had sent out an edict that all soldiers were to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. These Christians replied, "You can have our armor and even our bodies, but our hearts' allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ."

It was midwinter of A.D. 320, and the captain had them marched onto a nearby frozen lake. He stripped them of their clothes and said they would either die or renounce Christ. Throughout the night these men huddled together singing their song, "Forty martyrs for Christ." One by one the temperature took its toll and they fell to the ice.

At last there was only one man left. He lost courage and stumbled to the shore, where he renounced Christ. The officer of the guards had been watching all this. Unknown to the others, he had secretly come to believe in Christ. When he saw this last man break rank, he walked out onto the ice, threw off his clothes, and confessed that he also was a Christian. When the sun rose the next morning, there were forty bodies of soldiers who had fought to the death for Christ.

Matthew 10:21–22 NIV

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Let us not be of those who shrink back from Jesus when it gets hard to follow, but let us be those who love Jesus more than we even love our lives.

Jesus has given us the price tag to discipleship and we can see that it is costly. It means we will have to prioritize Jesus over our families, over our selves and even over our lives. Jesus isn’t interested in large crowds following him to get something from him. He desires that we would be disciples - people who follow his example and by the power of the Spirit, are being transformed to be like him in our character. And because discipleship is so costly, we should think carefully before jumping in and we should count the cost. To help illustrate his point, Jesus gives us three short parables to impress upon us the importance of counting the cost.

1. Parable of a builder

In this first parable, someone wants to build a tower. But before he builds it, he has to figure out if he can afford to do the whole project. Why? Because if he can’t afford to finish it, everyone will mock him. His reputation will be in tatters, his credibility shot, his witness ruined.

Look at this picture here. This is a picture of the"National Monument of Scotland.” Modeled after the parthenon in Greece, it was commissioned in 1822 and the cost of the project was 42,000 pounds. Unfortunately, they only raised 24,000 pounds and so they built the foundation and 12 columns. Construction stopped in 1826 and it has remained unfinished since. Instead of a monument to remember those who died in the Napoleonic war, like it was intended, it is now a monument to failure.

Jesus is warning us that this could be us. If we fail to count the cost and we abandon our discipleship, we invite mockery. We become the monument to failure and not only will we lose our own credibility, to many people, Jesus becomes less credible.

The main question that Jesus is asking here is, “Can you afford to follow me?”

2. Parable of the king

Next, Jesus tells a mini-parable about a king at war. He has 10,000 troops and the other King has 20,000. He has to sit down and figure out if he can win. If he knows he can’t win, he will send a delegation to ask for terms of peace.

What’s interesting to me in this parable is that Jesus approaches this question differently. What if the other king you are fighting is God? What if you are at war with God, rebelling against his rule and reign in your life? Are you going to win that war? What would winning even look like to you.

Maybe today is the day to ask for terms of peace. What are they? What does God ask of you? Simply to lay down your burdens, surrender, and invite Jesus to be the King of your heart. Allow his love, his mercy, his grace and his power to fill your heart and your life. Receive his forgiveness for all your rebelliousness and find a greater freedom in surrender to him than you could ever have being a slave to yourself.

If in the parable of the builder Jesus asks “Can you afford to follow me?” then here he asks, “Can you afford not to follow me?”

3.Parable of the Salt

The last parable refers to salt.

Luke 14:34–35 NIV

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Salt in Jesus’ time was not pure salt, like we have today. Pure salt can’t lose it’s flavour, but back then the impure salt that most people had could and would lose it’s flavour. If it did, it was useless. Not only could it not be used in cooking or farming, you couldn’t even throw it in the manure pile because it wouldn’t break down properly so it would just be thrown out.

So what does this have to do with our discipleship? It means that if you stop following Jesus, if you stop pursuing being like Christ, then your influence and your ministry becomes useless. Discipleship is about growing in character, and there is no ministry if there is no character. When I look and see the amount of pastors who have thrown away their credibility, who have hurt the name of Jesus, because their character veered away from Jesus, it breaks my heart. The church of the west needs less celebrity, and more integrity. And not just from its pastors. This is for all of us who claim the name of Jesus. People will judge Jesus by our character. Don’t throw away your ministry and your influence by forsaking a Christ-like character.