Many of us can testify to having entered a project or undertaken a venture and end up regretting it in the long run. Most of the time we would conclude that we never carefully weighed the pros and cons of getting involved before we decided to do it. We simply didn’t count the cost? Of course sometimes unforeseen circumstances do throw a wrench into the plans and cause things not to work out the way it was intended or expected. But what if we just went into something because it’s the popular thing at the time and it seems that everybody wants to be involved in it? What if we all want to follow a popular figure who is taking the place by storm? It is characteristic of us humans to want to be around famous and popular persons or to be connected to that person in some way because that individual is the ‘hottest’ thing in the news. Last year I remember it seemed that the whole world was enraptured by Taylor Swift. At one time it was the Beatles and a little later it was Elvis Presley and even later it was Michael Jackson. I wonder who the next big thing will be. One could say the same thing about some of our famous sports stars and political figures.
It seems that the same scenario was on display with Jesus as he travelled from place to place bringing healing and hope and new life in word and action wherever he went. He was the hottest thing in town and everyone wanted to be around him and to get as near to him as possible. Those disciples must have felt awfully proud that they were the ones he had chosen to hang out with him, to be his ‘besties’ so to speak. In this light, we consider the challenge that Jesus was giving to all who were following him or who may have been thinking about joining his band of disciples.
As usual, Jesus’ illustration of the high bar that must be met in order to become his disciples must have been quite unacceptable to many of those who followed him. It must have seemed that Jesus sometimes made deliberate efforts by his words to turn people off. How can one become his disciple if we must relinquish the very relationships that give us stability and assurance in this world? How can anyone consciously turn one’s back on your family, the bedrock of our existence? Yet this seems to be exactly what is suggested in St. Luke 14:26. No one should take this literally that Jesus is advocating for us to despise our relatives but it really means that our love and devotion to him must far exceed that which we have for our relatives and all whom we love and care deeply about in this world. In other words, our commitment and love for our parents, siblings, and even best friends must be secondary to our love and devotion to God. This is a hard thing for us to grasp as humans but it is what is required of us. If that was not hard enough to hear and accept, he then goes on to challenge his hearers to take up their own crosses in order to follow him. This my friends is like adding the proverbial insult to injury. You can almost hear the people grumbling in the background, maybe even saying something like what some said in St. John chapter six verse sixty where the people then said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? (See St. John 6:60 NIV) The cross was well known as the ultimate object of shame and humiliation long before Jesus was nailed to it. It was at the time the chief Roman method of punishment to all who were guilty of serious crimes according to Roman law including sedition, rebellion, murder and other violent acts. Being crucified was the extreme example of the harshness of Roman law as it was meant to be an example to everyone else. The cross was also a source of excruciating pain for those who were nailed to it as they had to die a slow death while birds and the elements ravaged their already weakened bodies. The cross symbolised humiliation and pain to the extreme. Who in their right mind would want to be associated in any way with it? Here Jesus says anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot truly be my disciple. In other words one must be prepared for the pain and humiliation and suffering that a cross brings in order to be truly his disciple. Who would want to entertain such an unattractive proposal? Most humans naturally wouldn’t if they had a choice in the matter. Yet it is only by being prepared and willing to carry our crosses, to bear that symbol of humiliation and suffering, that we can truly be Jesus’ disciples. It is only by carrying one’s cross can we truly say that we are Christians.
This is why Jesus emphasises the need to think carefully about it before you decide whether to follow him or not.This seems to suggest that the decision to follow the Christian life must be made in a conscious and rational way. No one is being asked to allow emotions and feelings to tell you what to do. One must carefully think about the upside and the downside of following the Lord Jesus Christ, before accepting his offer of new life in him. The examples Jesus gives here of the king going to war or the person building a tower serve to highlight the folly and sometimes even tragedy of poor decision-making by anyone who does not properly and wisely think through such a major decision.
There are two essential points being made here.
The first is that the love for God and our commitment and devotion to serving God must be far greater than our most treasured human relationship. The odd thing about life is that most of us expect God to be always there for us to provide for us and to protect us and our loved ones from all harm. We must always be God’s priority, yet God is oftentimes not the priority in our lives that he deserves to be. We treat God as second best and as our convenience when we need him. That my dear friends is a one-sided relationship that God cannot accept. This is why God is described in Exodus 34 :14 as a jealous God not in the negative connotation of human jealousy but in the protective mould of a God who looks out for his children in every situation.
Secondly, being Christian demands that we take up our cross with all the ramification that this involves and be his disciples.
What is your cross? The cross symbolises suffering, pain, hardship, being despised and humiliated. The cross includes making sacrifices, bearing with patience and grace the bad treatment of others. The cross is also symbolic of disappointment, sickness and dealing with the experience of death. The cross is unemployment, failed business ventures, family divisions, the havoc of natural disasters and a whole lot more. How do we bear all of these in our lives? Can we go through bearing all of these and still remain faithful to God? Can we bear them and still praise God?
Many people have turned back from following Jesus because the road was too long and the cross was too heavy to bear. Many have turned back along the way because they were convinced that God had deserted them and they bore all their pain and suffering alone.
This is why the word to us today is simply to ask ourselves, did we count the cost before embarking on this journey. Did I count the toll to my health and my mind as the disappointments and failures began to multiply? Did I count the cost of following Jesus as my body began to be wracked with cancer or when the sudden stroke left me paralysed? Did I count the cost when my only child was taken from this earth by a drunken driver?
Carrying one’s cross is about bearing all the things that this life throws at us, the sacrifices we must make for others, the heartaches and the humiliating experiences of loss and disappointment yet remain convinced that God is still with us.
Recently, I have had reason to believe that as a church family we are being tested through the number of incidents of illness and disappointments that members of our church have been dealing with. These are the times that challenge us to be a praying church more than ever before but we are also challenged to know that these are our crosses that we must bear knowing that nothing will separate us from the love of God as Paul so eloquently writes in Romans chapter eight. (See Romans 8:38-39)
Have you counted the cost of following Jesus? If you have then he is depending on you to run the race that is set before you looking only to Jesus the author and perfector of our faith. (See Hebrews 12:1-3) As I close, I leave with you the words of a song sung by an American gospel duo named Mary Mary which says, “I just can’t give up now. I’ve come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me the road would be easy and I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me.”
Let this encourage us all as we go into the world with the strength of God’s abiding presence my brothers and sisters. Amen.