Word of Salvation – Vol. 31 No. 43 – November 1987

 

The Cost Of Discipleship

 

Sermon by Rev. M. C. De Graaf on Luke 9:57-62

Reading: 2Cor. 5:11-21

Singing: 483; 452; BoW.H.602; 480; 376.

 

Brothers and Sisters,

One of the corner-stones of the Reformation was the belief in the fact that we are saved by GRACE ALONE!!  Luther especially was enraptured by this great fact: God has come to man, has paid our bill in full, nothing is left for us to do.  We are saved – by grace ALONE!  A simple and yet beautiful truth… at least it is simple on the surface.

Recently I have been re-reading this book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship).  If you have ever read it then you would have seen how sadly this concept of grace can be misunderstood by believers.  So often the institutional church and its members can turn this rich, full gift of grace into something cheap and empty.  Worse still, we can take this beautiful Gift of Grace and we can use it to empty our Christianity of any meaning it may have in this world!  Bonhoeffer shows us that when the New Testament speaks of Grace, it does so hand in hand with the concept of DISCIPLESHIP, of RESPONSE, of SACRIFICE, of GIVING to Him who has given us His all.

The text before us this morning is a classic example… three short incidents each of which touch on what our calling as disciples really involves.  And we see – that there is a COST.  And it may not be a cost that we are willing to pay!

The first story seems at first glance to be the most straight-forward.  Jesus is walking along the road with his disciples and he is stopped by a man.  Matthew tells us that he is a teacher of the Law, an influential religious leader, a man of power and authority.  And he says he is willing to follow Jesus wherever he goes!!  He’s obviously impressed by Jesus and his band of followers and now he wants to join to become part of the team.  It seems like an offer too good to refuse.  He was willing to FOLLOW Jesus and wasn’t that just what Jesus had called his disciples to do?   Yes, but of course there is an important difference here.

In Luke 5 and 6 it is JESUS who does the calling and it is on His terms.  Here we see a man who obviously has preconceived notions of what Jesus could or at least should be!  By the answer that Jesus gives him it is clear that he is not fully aware of exactly WHAT he wants to join.  Perhaps he feels that Jesus has the potential for political power.  It is interesting that Herod is often referred to as the fox; perhaps there is a political allusion in verse 58?   On the other hand he may well have felt that Jesus had the “religious” answer he was looking for.  WHATEVER HE WAS THINKING IT IS OBVIOUS THAT LIKE SO MANY – even within the church today – he could not help but approach Jesus on HIS OWN terms.  NOT ON THE CHRIST’S not on the Lamb’s terms!  He was obviously looking for a man who would give him power or peace, or religious harmony or whatever.  He couldn’t see that the Kingdom WAS primarily about SERVING and GIVING, not receiving.

Jesus was on his way to Gethsemane, and Golgotha, and the tomb.  You wonder if this man could have followed him there.  You wonder if he understood – if WE understand – that there is a distinct difference between being a volunteer worker and a genuine disciple!

In the case of the second man, it is Jesus who issues the call.  As with the first would-be-disciple, Jesus seems, at first glance, to be unnecessarily harsh.  But again he is laying a challenge before us.  There are two possible explanations for this dialogue:

1.  His father MAY have just died, and according to the Law he was under obligation to bury him, so he felt he couldn’t follow Jesus right at that time, perhaps later, at a more convenient time.  That interpretation is possible, but unlikely.  After all, if his father had just died it seems strange that he would be at the side of the road!

2.  It is more likely in the Middle Eastern Context, that his dad was perfectly healthy and therefore what he was saying was, “Let me go and serve my father for as long as he lives, then I will be free to follow you”.

William Barclay tells of a brilliant young Arab who had been given a scholarship to Oxford.  His answer to that was, “I cannot take it now – I will have to wait until my father is buried”.  HIS dad was only in his forties.  In the Middle East, family obligations have highest priority.  And the community very strongly expects this priority to be retained!

But Jesus comes, and pushes all our man-made priorities aside and he says, “The Kingdom comes first”, before your work, before your own comfort, before the expectations of your community.  Let them do what they feel they must do.  BUT YOU (and that “you” is emphasized in the Greek) YOU go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.  DON’T LOOK AT EVERYONE ELSE AND WHAT THEY EXPECT FROM YOU.  Just go, and proclaim the Kingdom, even if that makes you (as Paul says) a fool or an outcast.

And then we see the THIRD man.  Again an offer is made – like the first but this man openly hedges his bets.  “I want to follow – BUT here are my conditions”.  The English says, “Let me first go and say GOOD-BYE to my family”.  Now, that word, “Good-bye” is a tricky one.  Really the Greek seems to speak more of “leave taking”, like Paul does in Acts 18 (it’s the same word).  And in the Middle East that’s something quite different than simply saying “good-bye”.  When leaving anywhere, the polite thing to do is for the person who is leaving to correctly ask permission to go from the host.  He is to properly “take his leave”.  It is the HOST, or the HEAD of the house who then says, “May God go with you”, or “good-bye” – giving his blessing on the man’s departing!  So what we see here is a man who is volunteering to go, and yet is making it clear he first needs permission from those at home.  One version translates his answer: “Let me first go and explain my case to those in my house”.  And that seems to get the feel of it.  The parents’ and the community’s authority is placed higher than the Lord’s.  AND JESUS MAKES IT CLEAR it has no right to be.

Today, many of us don’t find this hard to understand, but in the Middle East this was earth-shattering.  Still today, middle aged, successful businessmen, will go to their peasant fathers and ask for permission to enter into a new business venture.  Jesus comes and turns all that upside down.  He isn’t saying, ignore your parents.  He isn’t saying, ignore the Fifth Commandment.  But it is clear that our relationship with Him has precedence over any other.

Again we are reminded that our Christianity is not just some voluntary self-interest programme which we follow or don’t follow depending on our mood or how much it may cost.  ALL ELSE IS IRRELEVANT.  All I see is HIS CALL – an all-consuming task – not unlike, the very difficult task of ploughing a field which requires your total concentration!

I guess the point of it all is that Jesus is not just some religious leader; He is the Son of God.  He is not just interested in your religious experiences.  He wants a new creature, a re-created person.  Re-created in His Image!!  That can be a costly exercise.  It may even cost us jobs, families, traditions, perhaps even my sense of well-being in church and community.  Who knows?   It cost Dietrich Bonhoeffer his life in a Nazi prison camp.  Maybe we will be called upon to pay that price.  I don’t know.  I can tell you that despite that I am not gripped by fear, because I KNOW who called me.  And I know His power and His kingdom.  He knows where I am going.  And whatever may be on the way, I know what lies at the journey’s end.  And I know that as I walk, His mercy, comfort, His strength will be with me.  Knowing that the cost is never too high!

AMEN.