follow me:day 5
[Meditate again on Luke 14.25-35. Why would the cost of following Jesus be so high? What could it cost you to be a true disciple?]
I suppose the first thing that comes to mind for me is that maybe the cost is so high, because the price that was paid for it was so high–Jesus’ own life. Or maybe Jesus knows that if we don’t embrace him and his life completely, then we will never experience the full impact of his life, nor will we ever make the full impact. It seems to also lend itself to the idea that we as Christians are always in danger of being accused of being hypocrites. The people around us, though they might deny the existence or importance of Jesus, they know when we aren’t living like him and they don’t like it. It seems to turn them away. Maybe that’s what Jesus means with the salt comment. When we don’t embrace Jesus fully, when we don’t wrap him completely around our lives, we don’t have the full impact, and we misrepresent him to the world–we aren’t really good for adding flavor to the world or preserving it.
So what would it cost me to be a true disciple? It seems like I have to start trusting him more than me. I need to believe that his ways are better than mine. I need to give him my dreams and trust that his dreams for me are better than mine ever could be. I need to trust that his plans are better than mine. I have to trust that he can protect me better than I can. I have to believe that I am totally secure in him.
What will it cost . . .
My comfort?
My security?
My traditions?
My fears?
My hopes and dreams?
Is it worth it?
It’s really interesting to see Jesus put the successfulness (worldly success, of course) of his entire ministry on the line as he lays out the high cost for all to see. He could’ve had all these people listneing to his preaching and I’ll bet he could’ve gotten some fancy uniforms made for the original Twelve and he could’ve had a support group and weekly meetings. Obvioulsly, Jesus doesn’t care about being “successful-looking.” I think one reason the bar was so high is because that’s how to isolate the hard-cores from the anywhere-the-wind-blows-type-people. (This difference being only in the choices of the people and not in how they were created to be.) With this group of people who were serious about this divine new lifestyle thing, the possibilities were endless. And as for what it will cost me to talmidimize my life, the possibilities are also endless. I could end up sleeping in some faraway gutter, working in an office on the 137th floor, becoming the president of Iraq, or maybe even all three. The only sure thing is that I’ll be in the right place. Is it worth it?