Scripture Reflections

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost… So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33)

I imagine that when the small group who followed Jesus faithfully, went out preaching for him, and provided for his physical needs saw a huge crowd following their master, they were elated. We can imagine them saying to one another, “Finally! His message is being received—the people are coming!” Ask any church planter or pastor, and we will all tell you that we long for the moments when a crowd of new people bursts through the door!

But Jesus looked at the huge crowd more soberly, with a type of compassionate honesty. They were all invited, but they would not all follow to the end. It wasn’t right to pretend that this would be a walk in the park, a joyous journey to a life of ease. This path to Jerusalem would cost his life, as well as the lives of many of the disciples. Following casually wasn’t an option; it was a form of naivete. They needed to know the cost. And so, Jesus warned them: “Your family? Your life? You might lose it all. You have to choose me before everything else if you want to follow me.”*

There are places even now where following Jesus means being ready to lose everything, where there are no casual Christians. North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Nigeria, China—the list of countries where following Jesus means the potential of losing everything, including life itself, is long. We need to be praying for the Christians in these countries!

It is easy for us, who don’t face this danger, to forget the cost of following Jesus. “Counting the cost” isn’t just about the threat of external persecution—it is also about letting go of ourselves as masters of our lives. We want to follow Jesus, but also to have the life we have mapped out for ourselves. Jesus calls us to choose him above everything else, including our own desires for a particular life. It simply isn’t possible to have two masters, and he calls us to renounce ourselves and put him first.

We might chafe at this, wondering if it is a bit extreme. But it comes from the one who was willing to give his life for us, and he speaks in compassionate honesty as he calls us to trust him as master.

Steven+