Devotion 8 - Cost of Discipleship

Devotion 8 - Cost of Discipleship

What does it mean when we make Jesus the master of our lives and call Him Lord?

Lk. 9:57-62 – “Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

In this passage of Scripture, we see the responses of three different individuals on following Jesus. Each of them had his own excuse. Like these three men, many Christians think that following Jesus is important, but not the most important thing in life.

The third man had put it aptly, “I will follow you, but…”. The word “but” has kept many well-meaning people from fully following Jesus.

Discipleship demands sacrifice, and Jesus never hid that cost. He pictured for them that while even the animals have a place to call home, He was functionally homeless. In other words, He was saying, I do not have any home. If you follow me, you will have no home to call your own either. He wanted them to count the cost of what He was proposing.

Following Him means the willingness to surrender all. However, when Jesus questioned them further, their commitment was half-hearted. To self-test our commitment, consider these questions:

Ø  Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing some of your closest friends?

Ø  Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means alienation from your family?

Ø  Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means the loss of your reputation?

Ø  Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your job?

Ø  Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your life?

A Shift of Priority

Following Jesus requires also a shift in our value and priority.

“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” This man may have wanted to fulfil the oldest son’s duty to bury his father, or maybe obtain an inheritance so that he can follow Jesus without financial anxiety. Nevertheless, Jesus’ answer made it clear that this request would have involved putting tradition or the disciple’s own desires ahead of serving Him. Jesus’ demand from the man was an extraordinary sacrifice to show his sincere attachment to Him.

Matt.10:34-38 - “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

Jesus’ bringing a “sword” and turning family members against each other can seem a little harsh, unkind and run counter to family responsibilities. But Jesus never softened the truth, and the truth is that following Him leads to difficult choices. To truly follow Jesus means He has become everything to us. There is no such thing as a "halfway disciple."

Free Yet Costly

Lk.14:33-34 – “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”  “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

 

Does Jesus mean this literally, that we must get rid of everything we own and take a vow of poverty in order to be His disciple? No. The point is, we cannot simply add Jesus to our lifestyle so that we can be known as Christians. To be a Christian means the acknowledgment that we are bought at a price and we are not our own.

1 Cor. 6:19-20 – “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Nothing we own is our own. He owns our lives and everything we have. That is what Jesus meant when He said that we must give up all our possessions in order to be His disciple.

Salvation is free and yet it costs everything in our life. This is the paradox of the gospel. Unfortunately, many draw a sharp distinction between salvation and discipleship, believing that we can be truly saved with the options of not being a disciple. That is receiving Jesus as Saviour but not necessarily entails embracing Him as Lord. That is half the gospel which results in many converts who are not disciples. The truth is, Christ demands our total allegiance – to love Him and serve Him above family, friends, property, even life itself.

Lk. 9:62 - “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

These were serious words and they were spoken at the end of several discussions Jesus had with the 3 men. Apparently, each of the 3 men told Jesus that he would follow Him. Jesus told the first one that He did not have the physical comforts of life. He told the second to forget about the urgent things of this world and his reply to the third one was about looking back at the things of this world.

 

The point is, allegiance to Jesus Christ is absolute and all other allegiances are relative. Do we want to follow Him more than anything? Jesus must be our first priority. He comes before all other relationships; He comes before our personal desires. He comes before our dreams and ambitions. He comes before our own plans for the future.

 Following Jesus is not just an important thing, it is the most important thing in life!