Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-35
The internet is a great tool for people who like to shop for bargains. From books
to automobiles, clothing to houses, the savvy shopper can compare the cost of just about anything through the right web sites and search engines. Seasoned on-line shoppers know how to research products, choose what they want, and find the best values. They know that through their searching they’re likely to find the same product at a better price. But they also know that some web sellers don’t disclose the full cost of the product or add to it with handling fees or inflated shipping charges. If you aren’t paying attention when shopping on the internet it’s going to cost you.
When it comes to the full disclosure of costs, no one can accuse Jesus of trying to hide anything from us. In today’s Gospel lesson, He tells a couple of pointed parables about the cost of discipleship and then plainly tells us that unless a person is willing to hate his own life, bear his crosses, and renounce all that he has he cannot be His disciple. As plain as this is, we still want to shop around to find a lower cost for following Jesus. In our bargain shopping we try to explain away what Jesus says here. We want to believe that He is exaggerating to make a point or that He is just trying to rattle people. We also try to justify ourselves and insist that if He meant what He said here that it only applies to other people, not to us. But there’s nothing in this text that indicates that Jesus meant anything other than what He clearly says. And there’s nothing here that gives us a pass. Jesus is making it very clear that if you are going to be His disciple it’s going to cost you.
But a closer look at what Jesus is saying shows us the true cost of being His disciple. It’s not in the relationships that we lose, the sacrifices we make bearing crosses, or the worldly goods that we renounce. None of these payments come close to the price that had to be paid for us to be His disciples. What Jesus is telling us here is that the cost of discipleship was far too much for us to pay and that no one could ever have been His disciple if He, the King, had not been willing to pay the cost it took to defeat the prince of this world. He wants us to know that whatever we sacrifice in this life to be His disciples is not a payment but a privilege; a privilege because we are His disciples, but not a payment because He has paid the full cost for us to belong to Him with His blood. In other words, being a disciple of Jesus may involve sacrifice, hardship, and loss, but it’s going to cost you … nothing.
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