The Cost of Discipleship

Christianity is not a comfortable faith.  The trail of blood continues and will continue.  As sure as the sun will rise for another thousand years or so, more than the duration of one's lifetime, the costs are tremendous.  While the gospel is believed, as much as the Philippian jailer had a change of mind the very night he was told, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household," on short notice, as Luke never failed to elucidate in the Acts of the Apostles, the costs of following Christ is another matter.

Indeed, throughout the centuries, many Christians lived and died for following The Way, under less than normal circumstances. 

Never was this more important than Christ's word spoken while He was on earth, ministering to the utmost, in Palestine.  He Himself paid the price for His Incarnation.

The cost of discipleship involves our cherished values.

"And another of the disciples said to Him, 'Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.'"

"But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me; and allow the dead to bury their own dead.'"

Did Jesus tell him not to bury his father?  What's wrong with going to your parent's funeral, and attending to the necessities of a proper burial?  After all, it is proper in the realm of culture.  On the one hand, will the disciple ever knew, had he gone, of what might happen?  Perhaps the Omniscience of Christ was telling him that he will never return, had he made the decision.  We don't know, since the Bible is silent in the Gospel of Matthew.  But Christ knew, and He knew the answer, and the consequences.

Discipleship demands crucial decisions, and the path taken forks along the way, for which a confluence may never be found, afterwards. 

Had he return, he would might have not made it on the way back.  Families have a way of persuading one from making isolated decisions, that are remote, to one's background and upbringing, where those decisions involve separation from family.  Or, a compromise might be made, to keep family and faith together.  In any case, many opinions could be posited by loved ones, relatives, and friends.  The comfort of home and culture is a real issue in discipleship.

The cost of discipleship is physical.

Anyone watching championship basketball is aware that skill on the court is not enough.  One may encounter harm, that may lead to injury, temporary or prolonged.  External harm is real.

"But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues."

While we may speak properly of the sufferings in early Christianity from what Christ mentioned here, one may also not fail to see in the spread of Christianity that normal human observation does not accommodate a new thing with ease.  There is a price to pay that borders on conflict with the law, with institutions, and with politics.  

It seems that only academic perception is free from hostility or wariness, when one presents the Gospel.  But even modern societies frown on values that are viewed as moralistic and too conservative, hence irrelevant, for our time.  Even the most permissive of men and women will reject Christianity.

The cost of discipleship may imply the severance of filial bonds.

"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."

What great demand, as to cost even one's filial associations!  When Jesus began to express His Person and His ministry, not even His brothers and sisters believed on Him. 

Those who know you are the very people who do not share your passion and crisis.  But more than this, Jesus points the issue to Himself, and compared with other considerations, they pale in significance. 

A loved one will often keep you from following Christ, or even for that matter, demand more of you, by filial considerations, rather than the remote idea that one follows another.  Tribalism and ethnic values do not often see beyond the spiritual, always.  A person might be kept at home to persuade his family to follow the Lord, and the vocation to which he was called by the Savior never matures.

The cost of discipleship is you.

"And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."

The cross was the objective of Christ.  He focused His mind to reach that goal.  The Christian's goal is to follow Christ.  It was not convenient for Christ, but necessary, and so it is for the disciple.  Along the way, there were sufferings and hardships endured, to which the Christian is called, and Christ expects that we know what those are.  But the path is no different from what He trod.  His and ours are one and the same.

While the work on the cross was finished, ours is to point the way for the world.

The cost of discipleship involves a paradox, the magnitude implies a contradiction.

"He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it."

Discipleship is extreme, since everything becomes black and white, no grays in between.  It is not a life of compromise to one's own values and intentions.  It is radical, to the point of being paradoxical, and even contradictory.  That is, nothing could be more or less.  It upsets our very assumptions, and reasons for being.  We have to think beyond ourselves, and it calls for a mental fitness outside of your own usual perception.

Since Christ is not in the world today, bodily, what is available to us is His word.  How will our thinking adapt to His on discipleship?  This is more like a mystical question with a mystical answer.  One knows when one is there, or that stage of being a disciple, and paying the price. 

Will one reach that stage in his study of the word of God?  Indeed, yes.  The Bible becomes comfortable and understandable when one paid the price.  It involves hours of study, and disciplined dedication.  A mature understanding of the word of God is the key.  One simply knows, and in no other.  When a passage is opened and re-evaluated, it is not far to see that one's previous understanding has changed.  Maturity has caused one to evaluate without fear or prejudice, or rational evaluation that speaks more of one's background and ideals.

The cost of discipleship today is dedication to truth.