Luke 14:25-33 How Much Will It Cost?

Salvation is free. Discipleship costs.

We say in English: There is no such thing as a free lunch. The same is true with our salvation. So I want to take a few minutes for us to evaluate how much it would have to eternal life.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke about this. He even wrote a book entitled The Cost of Discipleship. So I want us to look at three pictures that Jesus shares with us. These three pictures show us three different ways in which following Jesus is going to cost us.

PICTURE #1 – RELATIONSHIPS (14:26)

Napoleon understood this principle when he said, “I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander [the Great], Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love, and this hour millions of men would die for him.”

The point of rejecting family is that when God comes into your life – He wants first place in your life. When you let God take first place, some of your friends and family will notice that change. They will have problems accepting that change in your life. But Jesus says in comparison to loving God, loving your family should be like hating them. This does not mean that you start to act evil against your parents. The Bible says to honor your parents. But the amount of commitment to other family members should not be the same that you have with Jesus. Of course, when you give Jesus first place in your life, when you make Him your first commitment in your life, it will actually help your relationships, and not hurt them. A husband who is committed to Jesus first will make a better husband. A parent who is committed first to Jesus will be a better parent to their children.

PICTURE #2 – REPUTATION (14:27)

Convicted criminals were sentenced in Roman times to carry the cross. During the trial, there could have been some evidence that the person was innocent. However, when the Roman official ordered the person to carry their own cross to the sentencing, it was a statement to the people. Everyone knew that when that man walked out of the courtyard carrying the cross, he was to be considered an outcast. His reputation was now ruined. So it with us when we follow Jesus. It will cost us our reputation. You can’t really build a reputation for yourself.

PICTURE #3 – RESOURCES (14:28-32)

When Heike and I were in Turkey, we saw many buildings that were not finished. It looked very strange. We thought to ourselves: How can you plan to build big buildings, and then leave the buildings half-completed? Poor planning leads to pitiful performance and products. The point of this and the next parable is that you shouldn’t start something that you are not prepared to finish or see to completion.

Both parables point to the use of resources. In the first parable, the cost is clearly about money. The lesson is that you don’t go off and build a house or some other structure with having the financial resources ready to complete it. In the second parable, the cost is the resource of military capacity. A military general will not go to war with another country unless he knows that he has enough human resources (soldiers) to fight and win the battle.

When we look at the Christian life, we have to remember that there will be costs involved. We have to be prepared to count those costs. You may be thinking: Well, I am a Christian, and I never heard of these costs? Jesus said it. Actually, the words that He uses sound like this in Greek:

Say goodbye to everything that we have, and to give it up to Jesus.

It is as if we have an apartment and give the ownership of that apartment to Jesus. We don’t have to remodel the apartment before we give it to Jesus; but once we do, He comes in and starts tearing down walls and fixing up things. Being a disciple means that you help Jesus in that work instead of resisting it, or changing things back to the old way. So let Jesus take some time and remodel your life.

Photo by Paxson Woelber on Unsplash