The Cost of Being a Christian
This is not a common or even easy subject for today. Jesus confronts three possible disciples and does not make it easy for them. His responses seem almost harsh – but are they unreasonable? Up till now Luke has portrayed Jesus as the friend of sinners whereas John the Baptist appears sterner. Contrast the impressions John and Jesus gave.
“For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” Luke 7:33-34
Luke portrays Jesus as being compassionate and understanding. A little earlier in this chapter, the disciples are arguing amongst themselves who is the greatest. What must have particularly upset Jesus was that he had just explained to his disciples that he was going to be arrested and would give up his life for them. Jesus’ self sacrifice is contrasted with the disciple’s selfishness. Jesus responds to the debate about who is the greatest by taking a little child and saying,
“Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least amongst you all who is the greatest.” Luke 9:48
Then comes a little cameo with the disciples saying that they had tried to stop someone from driving out demons in the name of Jesus because he was not part of their group. Jesus graciously rebukes this attitude,
“‘Do not stop him.’ Jesus said, ‘for whoever is not against you is for you.’” Luke 9:50
Then Jesus resolutely left Galilee with his group to go to Jerusalem and to his death. They passed down through the state of Samaria, where anti-Semitism was rife. And they were not at all welcomed. James and John were appalled and asked Jesus,
“’Lord do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them.” Luke 9:54-55
Jesus is so understanding and gracious. But suddenly the tone changes and Jesus queries the motives of three who say they are interested in becoming his disciples.
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’
58 Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’
59 He said to another man, ‘Follow me.’
But he replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’
60 Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’
61 Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.’
62 Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’ Luke 9:57-62
These three people represent three different forms of halfhearted discipleship and this is clearly repugnant to Jesus.
The Enthusiast
He says,
“I will follow you wherever you go.”
To follow Jesus at this time could have meant to travel with him around the country as a member of his team. Words such as these are easy to say in the heat of the moment. They are reminiscent of Peter who, just before he denied Jesus three times, said,
“Lord, I am willing to go with you to prison and to death.” Luke 22:34
To follow Jesus can mean not having the security of a home. This seems to be a harsh deterrent to anyone becoming a Christian but this is what Jesus said.
2. The procrastinator
When Jesus calls this man to become his disciple but he comes up with what seems to be a reasonable excuse for putting off a commitment. It is likely that he had an elderly father who needed his care and he felt that this was his priority until his father died. This seems very reasonable so what does Jesus really mean by saying,
“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:60
3. The double-eyed
This person has clearly made up his mind about Jesus. He is intellectually convinced and says openly,
“I will follow you Lord.” Luke 9:61
But then he adds,
“ . . . but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Luke 9:61
This man appears to be willing to leave his family to join Jesus’ travelling band and he wants to go and say goodbye to his family. There may be more to this that first seems. They were travelling down to Jerusalem from Galilee so it is likely that this potential disciple comes from the north and to say goodbye would entail going on a significant journey to see them. It does seem a harsh thing to say, and particularly puzzling when we remember that these words come from the lips of someone who is usually so gracious.
When Luke was compiling this short biography of Jesus he clearly thought it was important to include these stories, he could easily have omitted them. He had been travelling with Paul and must have seen the problem of half hearted decisions so it is likely that these short accounts were included to remind people about the seriousness of the decision they were making.
Christianity is Costly
The cost of discipleship is an ineradicable part of the Christian message. Although admission to God’s kingdom, his forgiveness and adoption, is free to all because Christ has paid the admission fee for us, there is an on-going daily subscription.
The great Bible teacher, Dick Lucas was leading a Christian mission to the students of Oxford University. Dick’s old youth leader went to one of the talks that happened to be about the cost of discipleship. He wrote a short note afterwards,
“Dear Dick, I was there on Monday night and it was a great joy to hear you preach to the students. . . . But Dick, what you were preaching was not the gospel.”
This raises the question as to whether telling people about the cost of being a Christian not a gospel issue. It is so easy to present the gospel in glowing attractive terms in the hope of drawing more people to the cause. This is happening in many churches throughout the world where a ‘Prosperity Gospel’ is proclaimed. People are told that if only they would support the church or their particular Christian movement with money and time, then God will bless them in this life with financial and social prosperity. Clearly Jesus did not share this approach of emphasizing benefits in this life. He was poor and had no home for himself, he had left his family to fulfill his Fathers wishes and he clearly expects his followers to follow his example.
When Jesus had first told his disciples that he was going to be rejected by the ruling authorities and would be killed by them before rising again, Peter started to rebuke him for talking in such a way. Jesus reacted strongly,
“Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Mark 8:33
After this the crowds were again gathering around Jesus and he made it abundantly clear to both his disciples and the crowd that following him would not be an easy option in this life.
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’
Clearly to follow Jesus means adopting a new lifestyle in which we die to our own desires to take up living for Christ. Please note that Jesus is not saying this is the way to being a more fruitful Christian, he insists that it is the way to saving our souls for eternity. These strong words are also chilling,
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mark 8:35-36
Note that Jesus is again speaking to both his followers and to those still uncommitted. He refuses to attract people with the ‘soft sell’ and then tell them the small print, the bad news, later. Knowing the cost is a matter of salvation – we don’t only accept the free forgiveness on offer but also that it will be costly to follow.
Luke also clearly records that Jesus would not sidestep the issue of the cost of discipleship to the crowds who were attracted to him.
25 Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 ‘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. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 ‘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? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”
31 ‘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? 32 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. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:25-33
This is very strong teaching. Jesus warns us not to start on the path of discipleship if we are not willing to see it through. To ‘carry their cross’ is to reckon oneself dead to this world.
Modern Misconceptions
How different is the approach of much 21st century evangelism. This has resulted in many people mistakenly calling themselves Christians because they have not been heard or understood what Jesus taught. I had a young lady attend my surgical outpatient clinic who was wearing a beautiful silver cross on a necklace. I commented on this and then said,
“Excuse me asking, but does that cross mean you are a Christian?”
“Yes,” she replied thoughtfully, “But it depends on what you mean by Christian.”
“A Christian is surely someone who is sold out to the Lord Jesus” I replied.
“Then I’m not,” she concluded.
In 1935 George Gallup founded a research organisation that organized many surveys. He was a Christian and undertook several surveys investigating people’s religious ideas. A poll in the 1970s concluded that 32% of adult Americans claim to be ‘born again’ Christians. In 1993 this poll was repeated but some additional questions were also asked.
‘Are you born again?’
'Do you go to church with some regularity?’
‘Do you pray?’
‘Do you have some minimal structure of Christian belief?’
In this survey only 8% claimed to be ‘born again’. Professor David Wells said of this,
“If we were to probe just a little bit more and if we were to ask first, ‘Are you regenerate?’ and second, ‘Do you have a sufficiently cogent world view to make a difference to society?’ and third, ‘Do you have a sufficiently formed Christian character to want to do so?’ - than based on some ongoing research I have seen my guess is that the figure may be no more than 1-2%.”
We have been living in a fool paradise. Since the Second World War, much of the Christianity in the West is nominal. This trite, superficial religiosity is as prevalent in Reformed and even Evangelical churches as it is in Catholic Europe.
Dietrich Bonheoffer was a German pastor who was hanged by Hitler in the very last days of the Second World War at Flossenberg Concentration Camp. He wrote a number of pertinent books including ‘The Cost of Discipleship.” He says that his aim in this book was to expose the idea of ‘cheap grace’ which is accepting grace without repentance, being baptized without being ‘dead to sin’ and ‘raised to live a new life,’ of confirmation without a heartfelt commitment to the Saviour, and a private confession in my heart without an outward confession to the world.
Lord Melbourne was the British Prime Minister early in Queen Victoria’s reign. He once said,
“Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade the sphere of private life.”
What a disaster it is both for the individual’s eternal salvation and for the behavior of people in a society when people say that their religion is a private matter and that they don’t need to talk openly about it. Our very salvation depends upon an open commitment to Christ. Jesus himself taught,
“Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:26
“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” Matthew 10:32-33
The apostle Paul also stressed the importance of an open public commitment to the person of Jesus, the Christ. This is clearly much more than a commitment to a church or set of beliefs.
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10
‘Easy-Believism’ is not Christian, it does not come from Christ and saves nobody for eternity. We must therefore ask ourselves whether in our churches and in the evangelistic courses we run for enquirers whether we are sufficiently clear about the cost of following Jesus. Or are we behaving like the fraudulent salesmen who never let you see the small print, much as PPI’s were mis-sold?
The Full Gospel
When Jesus calls us to follow him it is a deeply personal relationship he is demanding. He wants us to ‘walk in his light’ (1 John 1:7), to have nothing in our lives hidden from him. To the man who wanted to go and care for his father until he died Jesus gives a more urgent priority,
“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:60
Jesus is speaking in this dramatic, extreme way in order to get the point across that his mission, to save those who are lost and face a future of eternal separation from God in hell, is a matter of the greatest urgency. Let the spiritually dead get on with mundane tasks, let those in God’s kingdom prioritise God’s work. In our nice, comfortable version of Christianity it is so easy to forget Christ’s priorities. The majority of people in Britain, whether religious or not, are on what Jesus describes as the broad road ‘that leads to destruction’ (Matthew 7:13).
The grimmest problem facing all of us is the possibility of losing our souls. The only thing that will cause people to stop and think and then change direction will be the vibrant witness of members of a living church. The church has no greater priority than that of warning the masses of people around us about the inevitable judgment of God and pointing people to the one and only Saviour. This is a matter of life and death, of heaven and hell, the latter being an eternal separation from God. If what Jesus says is true, then everything else is secondary. Nothing is more important than that this message is understood.
No wonder Jesus can say,
“No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
Please do note the significant way Jesus spoke. Being accepted into his kingdom means being accepted for service in the Kingdom. There is no place for spectators in his kingdom!
Thank God for those around us who have kept going and kept living for the Lord Jesus. They have kept on ‘walking in the light’. They are far from perfect but they have kept their focus on what really matters, living for the reputation of the Lord Jesus. Timothy was discouraged, there was great opposition, both from inside as well as outside the church, teaching God’s Word was so hard and the response so little, yet he could look to older Christian men and women who had run well. Paul himself wrote to Timothy about his priorities and the need to keep going. My mother was also such a person and these were the last words I read to her before she died:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and only not to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6
So let us ensure that the full implications of the gospel are taught. Enthusiasts must be warned that it is not worth starting if they are not going to finish. Procrastinators need to be reminded that there is nothing so important as following the Lord Jesus and nothing, such as the opinions of friends or family, should be used as an excuse for deferring a decision about following Christ. Weary backsliders need to be reminded that the Lord Jesus graciously enrolled us into his service and to look backwards means we become unfit for the kingdom of God.
BVP
