Word of Salvation – Vol.38 No.41 – November 1993

 

Discipleship: Call, Cost and Commitment

 

Sermon by Rev. J. W. Westendorp on Luke 9:57-62

Scripture Reading: John 1:35-51, Luke 9:57-62

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

There are different kinds of ‘Jesus-followers’.  Some follow Jesus the way they followed the Gulf War.  They are interested, even fascinated.  And they want to stay informed of progress.  But there is no involvement.  They are not bound to Jesus in love and obedience.

We read of people like this in John 6:66.  When Jesus began to say hard things, they soon left Him.  Over the years there have been the temporary followers of Jesus.  They made a decision to follow Him but it didn’t work out.

That leaves us with some questions:
            What is true discipleship?
            What makes for lasting discipleship?

In our text there are three examples to tell us.

A.  The Call to Discipleship.

What we seem to have in these verses is volunteers.  That’s definitely the case with the first man.  He’s not a disciple.  Matthew tells us he was a scribe (Matthew 8:19).  He comes to Jesus and he volunteers: ‘I will follow you!’  And notice how enthusiastic he is about it.  No half measures with this fellow: I will follow wherever you go!

The third man too is most definitely a volunteer disciple.  He too offers to follow, to accompany Jesus.  True – that man has some matters to attend to, but he’s willing.

With the second man the situation is not so clear.  And some might object to calling him a volunteer.  After all it seems that Jesus issues a call in verse 59: ‘Jesus said to another man, “Come follow me!”

But Matthew’s gospel sheds some light on the subject.  In Matthew 6:21 we read that ‘he already was a disciple…  though not one of the twelve.’  It may well be that he voluntarily joined.  In a loose sort of way he attached himself to Jesus.  And now a formal call is issued by Jesus also to this man.

All three of them seem to be keen volunteers, enthusiastic would-be disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.  And now Jesus seems to dump icy cold water on their intentions.  Instead of Jesus expressing gratitude for their willingness, He really makes some quite off-putting remarks.  Remarks that may well lead them to reconsider and then go home.  Does Jesus want disciples or does He not?

Today we read the story of the call of Philip.  Elsewhere there is the call of Levi.  Peter and Andrew, James and John are mentioned.  And for each there is a clearly recorded call.  A call with no debate and no argument.  Simply the call of Jesus without discussion.  And they come and they follow.

But now some qualifications are made about discipleship.  And some qualifications are laid down to answering the call.  That shows us that there is a gulf between a call and all our volunteering for discipleship in the Kingdom of God.

It’s one thing to answer a call to discipleship from Jesus.  It’s quite different to see it as an interesting career.  And if we think we can plan and plot it all out, we’re mistaken.  Christian discipleship is not a career path that we map out.  It is something to which Jesus must call us.  In fact that was one of the hard sayings in John 6:65, ‘No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him!’

It’s nice to have volunteers.  But in the Kingdom of Christ it’s not quite so straight forward.  We see that very clearly in the case of Matthew in Luke 5.  The call of Jesus must precede our human response.

It’s not that Jesus rejects these three people.  Scripture is silent on what actually happens.  We’re not told about what happened afterwards.  At least with the second man, Jesus does issue a call.  But how they responded, we just don’t know.

Perhaps there is a reason why we are not told what happened.  Because the important thing is not what the scribe did.  Or what those two other fellows did.  The important thing is the lesson there is here for us.  And the important thing is what we will do with that.

You ask: ‘What lesson?’

This lesson.  That there is more to discipleship than meets the eye.  That there are disciples and there are disciples.  Some are disciples and stay disciples.  And some are just volunteers and hangers on.  And those people fall away.

Are you prepared to learn this lesson from our text?  Jesus wants informed followers.  He wants disciples that go in with their eyes open; not some people with lots of enthusiasm and good intentions, but a bit naive when it comes to knowing what it’s all about.

Here were some whose inclinations were good.  But their preparedness to follow it up with action was not good.  Jesus did not want to discourage their enthusiasm.  But He did want to ask them: Hey do you understand?  And if you don’t understand, then don’t go in for it.  Because it’s better never to be a disciple, than to be a disciple and fall away from the living God.

B.  The Cost of Discipleship.

Jesus raises here the cost of discipleship.  Discipleship is not something you can have on the cheap.  Have you stopped to count what it is going to cost you?

It might help at this stage to make some comparisons.

There’s an explorer and he has come to town to pick up a team.  He has planned a great trek through the outback.  Lots of people volunteer – it sounds like fun.  And besides – he’s a world famous explorer.  But your enthusiasm and good intentions aren’t enough.  So he asks you a few, questions: Can you cope with the flies and the dust?  Are you willing to put up with the swamps and the mozzies?  Have you counted the cost?

Or, there is this trainer about to choose a team of athletes.  And lots of folks want to join up with the team.  It involves travel and the coach is the best.  But first he asks you some questions: Can you handle the discipline of a special diet?  Can you handle the gruelling hours of exercise?  Have you counted the cost?

The cost is referred to in all three instances.  In the first instance Jesus talks about material possessions.  Identifying with Jesus may mean a lack of material things.  In the last two instances He shows that discipleship even costs in terms of the family and the things around us, somehow, will have to lose their place of priority.

It’s informative how Jesus relates this to his own situation.  It cost Him something to come here and do His work.  In fact it cost Him a lot.  When He was born, His cradle was a borrowed manger.  In the whole of His busy life, He never owned a house to call His own.  When He rode into Jerusalem He rode on a borrowed donkey.  Right at this moment a cross awaited Him.  And when He died even His tomb was borrowed too.

Yet He was Lord of all creation.  That spells out the cost of His incarnation.  He humbled Himself.  He emptied Himself.

In fact: His whole life is summed up in terms of suffering.  He was known as the Suffering Servant!  And now, discipleship is following Jesus.  It is identifying with Jesus, fully and totally.

Now the meaning of this was different than it is for us today.  For those early disciples identifying with Jesus was just this: Many of them really didn’t have any place to call their own.  The fox has his den and the bird her roosting place.  Christians in times of persecution had nowhere to call home.  All because they were followers of Jesus Christ.

Here in a free land it’s different.  Yet the principles are still the same.  It’s costly being a disciple.  No, it may not mean that we have to sell our house or car.  But it does mean that our orientation in life changes.

The main purpose of life is no longer our house or business.  Following Jesus doesn’t have as its goal:
            – living in a nice house in a good area of town;
            – having a good family and regular holidays; and
            – then at the end of it all, heaven thrown in as a bonus.

Following Jesus may still mean costly sacrifices:
            – living in a dirt hut in the mission compound;
            – leaving the family to serve in some Kingdom work;
            – giving up some holidays to run a Holiday Club.

Often we give people an unrealistic picture of Christianity.  We portray an easy, cheap discipleship.  Preachers and evangelists have said it: Become a Christian and life will be wonderful!  Some have even said that if you are not healthy and well off then there is something wrong with your faith.

For Jesus the way to glory included the cross.  And the Master Himself warned us of the need for self-denial.  In fact it is probably true for most disciples of Christ that in some ways life is more difficult than when they were not Christians.  There is a cost to discipleship.  In the Kingdom it is always: Through suffering to glory!  Unfortunately, today many have no theology of suffering.  And no biblical picture of the cost of discipleship.

C.  The Commitment to Discipleship.

In our text it is not only counting the cost that is vital.  We can do that and still go wrong.  Some did count the cost and later still fell away.  In John 6 the disciples counted the cost and stayed – Judas too!

There is also the matter of commitment.  We see that especially in the case of the second and third man.

Remember: the second man was already a follower, a disciple.  Yet now there comes to that disciple a specific call.  In verse 60, Jesus says: ‘Go…  proclaim the Kingdom of God!’

In other words: The call to discipleship is not just a once off thing.  It is not made at a decisive point and then that’s it.  In a sense it is a constant commitment.  The call is repeated in many and varied ways.  It is an ongoing call to decision and discipleship

We see that for example with the 12 disciples too in John 6:67.  Jesus had already called them to Himself.  He again called them and faced them with a choice.  (Read vs 67-9).

The problem with the second man is his lack of commitment.  This man asks for leave, for a delay in taking up the call.  Jesus refuses him and that seems harsh to us.  Was the burial of his father not a noble and necessary thing?

Some have suggested that the man’s father was still alive.  And that this was just an Eastern way of speaking.  That the man was saying something like this: I’m keen to be a disciple but my father’s still alive.  I have obligations to look after him – but when he dies and I’ve buried my father, then I’ll follow you.

I think that’s stretching things a bit.  We ought to keep in mind the Jewish funeral ritual.  That involved quite a lot of responsibilities: organising a funeral meal; all the etiquette of mourning.  Contact with the dead also made a man unclean for seven days.  So in Jewish circles this took priority.  All else stopped.

Jesus is saying that there is something much more important.  In fact we must not miss the urgency of the situation.  In verse 51 we read: ‘Jesus resolutely set His face to Jerusalem.’  In other words: here He sets out determinately for the cross.  In verse 57a we read: ‘that it was on the way that these events happened.’  In other words the context is Jesus travelling to the cross.  So there is a real urgency.

Let the dead bury their dead.  Let the spiritually dead see to it.  But you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.  This man is now being called to be a herald of Christ.  To speak about Him in all the villages He will visit on the way.  In fact the very next chapter tells of 70 sent with that mission.

So what is important?  A funeral?  Or the cause of Christ?  Some have suggested that the words of Jesus: ‘Let the dead bury their dead’, is a round-about way of saying: ‘Don’t worry about the funeral.  There’s nothing more you can do for your father anyway.  Just go!  Things at home will be okay.’ Jesus calls for a higher level of commitment to His cause.

The third man is also enthusiastic.  But he too makes a qualification.  For him it is a matter of saying good-bye to those at home.  Again Jesus refuses the request and again that seems harsh.

But there is more at stake in this seemingly simple request.  It is not just as simple as ‘Good-bye’.  The expression is literally: To take leave of those at my house.  That saying is used elsewhere for putting one’s house in order.

It seems he may have had quite a few things to sort out yet.  In any case the following words of Jesus show his real problem.  Again a lack of commitment to the cause of Jesus.  There are the divided loyalties!

Jesus compared him to a ploughman.  That ploughman cannot look back.  If he does he won’t plough a straight furrow.

So here too it is a total commitment that is expected.

I have been talking quite a bit about commitment.  That’s a favourable word amongst Christians.  Commitment is a common concern to many.  Most of us agree that we need more of it today!  But interestingly, the Bible doesn’t speak much about commitment.  What the Bible does do is talk about faith.

Where does faith come into the whole matter of discipleship?  Well, obviously in a very important way.  Obviously faith is important in counting the cost.  So that by faith we see the reward – the crown beyond the cross.

But faith is also important in the matter of commitment.  In fact, in a real sense, commitment is nothing less than faith.  Just think again of those two men.  The second man needed commitment to Christ.  Commitment greater that the duty to a departed father.  What he really needed was faith.  Faith that the funeral would all work out okay.

Or think of that other man.  He needed a greater commitment to Christ.  A commitment greater than family and business left behind.  What he really needed was faith.  Faith that the business will be right.  Faith that it would survive despite having to be elsewhere.

Conclusion

The way of discipleship is the way of faith.  And that faith is shown in obedience.  A disciple is one called to act.  Jesus says the same to you as He did to those people: ‘Sure count the cost.  But then leave your problems and worries and simply follow me.  Trust and obey!

That’s what true and lasting discipleship is all about.

AMEN