Count the Cost of Discipleship | Carrying the Cross and Following Christ

“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” From the fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

This past week, I spent the whole week with the men of the church in Gunnison, Colorado. We were retreating, and doing a little bit of prayer and a little bit of golf, a little bit of fishing, a little bit of everything. Mostly, we were enjoying the beautiful sights of Colorado; the wildlife and the wonderful weather and the streams and the mountains. One day, as we were staring out into the distance of these beautiful mountains, I was reminded of backpacking in the mountains. Some of the men in the group had done some backpacking as well. Usually a backpacking trip has a particular mission; to go up a mountain or to a summit of some sort. Each mission has a particular packing list of items that you need to bring in order to complete the mission successfully. One of the principles of packing gear for a trip such as this is that you only take what is necessary. You don't bring any luxuries. You only bring necessities. You bring, for example, food, something to drink water out of, because you're probably going to get it out of a stream somewhere in the mountains. Appropriate clothes; if it's cold, you need to wear warming layers, socks, sleeping bags, certain types of shoes. These are all things that you need, but you don't bring things that you don't absolutely need on the trip. You don't need, for example, your cell phone to survive out there. So, you don't bring your cell phone. You bring a compass instead. You probably don't need your comfy big fluffy pillow to survive. So, you leave that at home. Instead, you use a rock to sleep on.

There's an important saying amongst those who are experienced backpackers that I often remember. We joked around about that saying this past week when we were talking about those times when we took too much equipment or we took luxuries with us on a backpacking trip. The saying is this: ounces equal pounds. If any of you have ever carried a pack for a long period of time, you start thinking about what you packed in there and you realize, “I probably should should have left that at home,” about a particular item. Those little items that you think don't weigh anything end up costing you in the end. A tiny little item that I brought as a luxury or something that I thought I needed, but I actually didn't need, ended up costing you a great amount of pain. After you've hiked for 50 or 100 miles, over many miles of walking with that little weight on your shoulder, those small things begin to feel like 1,000 pounds over the course of time.

And this reminded me of the reality of the Christian life that often we hold on to these unnecessary little things that actually weigh us down. Jesus is calling us today to deny ourselves and to surrender our desires and our wills and all these little things that we hold on to to his perfect will. Often what he wants us to do in his perfect will is to just let go of those little unnecessary things that are preventing us and holding us back from following his will. Jesus in those gospel lessons that we just read invites his wouldbe disciples to pack very lightly for life in the kingdom of God. He invites people into the life of the church and into the life of God. A lot of people come for different reasons to Christ. Some of them genuinely want to be disciples of Christ. They want to know, "What does it take to be a true disciple of Christ?" And you might be asking yourself that very same question this morning. Jesus's message is very appealing. He's garnering a lot of followers. People are coming to him for healing and deliverances. This made people want to follow him even more. But the reality here with both Jesus in the gospel that that we read this morning and both today in our very lives, some people are not ready for life in the kingdom of God. Jesus, what he does in the gospel is he opens the eyes of these would-be disciples to the reality of being a true disciple using these two metaphors.

The first metaphor is of building a tower. Christ says, "For which of you intending to build a tower does not first sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, "This fellow began to build and was not able to finish." At first glance, what he's what you think he might be talking about is good building practices. Make sure you have enough money before you start a project. make sure that you've made plans before you start laying the foundation for a building. But that's not what he's talking about. He's warning those people that are coming to him for healings and deliverances and for the good stuff. He's warning them, saying to them, you need to count the cost before you begin to commit to follow me. The warning is this: There is a great cost to following Jesus. I know that's not a very popular message these days, but there is a great cost to following Jesus. The cost is not always monetary. It's not always in friends. It's not always in relationships or status. The real cost that Christ is talking about here is the surrendering of your will to Jesus Christ. You see, because in our societies and I'm sure in the societies of past, self-determination was highly valued. Self-determination that I determine my path in life. I am the master of my destiny. As I'm sure we've all heard, I am the captain of my ship. These are all common sayings. That is not the Christian way, my friends. I hate to burst the bubble of anybody thinking that they are masters of their own destiny here. Christ wants somebody who is willing to surrender their will to him. Christ wants disciples who are willing to give up what they desire for the chance of serving in the kingdom of God. Christ wants disciples who are first and foremost as he came to serve, willing to serve instead of to be served.

The second metaphor that Christ uses is the metaphor of a king going to war. Christ says this, "Or what king going out to wage war against another king will not first sit down and consider whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose the one who comes against him with 20,000. If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace." Here Jesus is not advocating for good practices in international relations. He's not talking about what we should do politically as a nation or as an individual even. He's using this metaphor and he's once again issuing a warning to these would-be disciples that are coming to him just to take from Christ. Just give me the good stuff, Jesus, and everything else. I want to opt out of everything else. He uses a metaphor of a king thinking through a possible conflict. And this king is outnumbered and decides to instead settle for peace. And the warning that really Christ is giving these would be disciples is that before one commits to service as a disciple in the kingdom of God, one must count the cost.

Just like the king, before going to war, he sits down and he counts all of his men and considers the opposition and then makes a decision. Jesus is looking for disciples who can introspectively look at their lives and make the decision to follow Christ with the full knowledge of the co of the cost of true disciplehip. He's looking for disciples who are going to sit down and look at their lives and will seek peace instead of vain glory. He's looking for disciples who consider the cost of following Christ and are willing to surrender themselves to whatever it is that the Lord Christ may give to them. It might be a good, peaceful, pain-free life or it might be a very troublesome existence in this world. And yet the true disciple of Christ is willing to undergo whatever it is that the Lord wills for their life.

Jesus presents three conditions in the midst of these two metaphors that help us to understand what it means to count the cost of true disciplehip. And I believe that these two conditions are absolutely necessary for us to consider today. In Matthew 6 24, Christ says, "We cannot serve two masters." Therefore, life in the kingdom of God is a life surrendered to the king, to Christ himself. And it might be easier actually in the long run to be not in the kingdom of God, but in your own little kingdom where you're wearing the crown and you get to make the decisions. That might be easier for the time being, but life in the kingdom of God, as hard as it might be and as much as it might cost us, leads to eternal life if we are willing to surrender our will to Almighty God. And Jesus says that there are three conditions to life in the kingdom of God as a true disciple.

What he's referring to in these conditions are first relationships. In verse 26, Jesus tells these people, these would be disciples, he tells them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself cannot be my disciple."

Whoa, Jesus, that's a hard saying.

It's easy to hate those people who are not very kind to you. But what about to my own mother who raised me and loved me and nourished me and cared for me? How how am I supposed to hate my mother? Well, what he's not saying is that you have to be mean or detest your family. But what he's saying is that they have to come in second place to God. What is the first and great commandment that I just read to you a little while ago? Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And what is the second commandment? Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, including your family. So Christ is not saying that you should hate your family, you should detest them, that you should treat them poorly. But what he's saying is that human relationships should come in second place to God. And yet, how many times have we reversed that and placed our relationships above fostering a relationship with God?

How many times do we even view God as not a relationship, but more of a vending machine? How many times have we come to the holy rail just asking God just give me the give me your grace and let me get out of here. Don't expect too much out of me as you would in a relationship.

The second condition that Christ puts up for true disciples is self-denial.

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. verse 27. Here he's not referring to carrying a physical cross on your back every day. I know some of you might have one at your house that you kind of throw on every once in a while, but he's not talking about carrying a physical cross. He's referring to self-denial because the cross itself is a symbol of Christ's self-denial, the self-mping of Jesus. Philippians 2:5-7 says, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assu assuming human likeness." And so, the best example of self-denial is Christ. And we are called to be little Christs, Christians, images of him.

So the question I ask you today in terms of self-denial, what are you will unwilling what are you unwilling to give up for Jesus? Is it possessions? Is it hatred? Is it jealousy? Is it envy? pride.

Jesus calls true disciples to give up everything to him, including their own self-determination and self-will.

The third condition that Jesus presents for true disciples of him is possessions.

Verse 33, Jesus says, "So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

This is another hard word of Jesus to those would-be disciples who came to him hoping to get something from him. True disciples of Christ know deep down inside of them that all of their possessions are not their own, but are God's.

In the liturgy we say, "All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee." Everything that we give to the Lord is his anyway. Everything belongs to him. All material things in this world, not just things that you possess, but everything that you see and and hear and feel and touch, everything belongs to God. And so if Jesus says, "Give up your possessions," the true disciples would do just that. And what Christ is not advocating here is he's not advocating for poverty, that everybody has to be poor necessarily, but he reminds us that we have a really tight hold on our earthly possessions. There are things that we love in this world that we just can't let go. We all have those things. And so a test to see how tightly we might hold on to our possessions would be think of your most valued possession that you have. I've got a D28 Martin guitar that I truly love.

Think of those things that you really love. A classic car, a beautiful home, jewelry. And if Jesus walked into the room right now and said, "Go and sell all your guitars, Elmer, and give it to the poor." Just like he told the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:21, "Would we be able to do those things? Would we willingly do those things?"

It's a hard demand that Jesus is putting on true disciples, is it not? Jesus wants us to hold our possessions lightly, with an open hand. and in the service of the kingdom of God. He's not saying that possessions or material things are bad because he created them. They are good. But what he's saying is that our material possessions can be distractions to true disciplehip. They become burdens or obstacles, distractions, shiny things that keep our attention away from Jesus Christ.

relationships, our own will and our material possessions must be put in their proper place in relation to God Almighty. True disciples can possess all of those things. They can have relationships and they can have their own will in certain ways and they can have material possessions and yet be willing and ready to serve to the full extent of their capabilities in the kingdom of God. So what are we holding back from Jesus? Where's the line that we've drawn for Jesus to say, "You can have all the other things about my life, but don't you touch this thing here?" If he asked us to surrender our relationships, would we do it? If he asked us to sell our possessions and give it all to the poor, would we do that? If Jesus asked you to surrender your self-will and your self-determination, would you follow him?

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

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