"And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. The a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." - Matthew 8:18-22
In this verse, Jesus outlines the cost of discipleship. I wonder if these men followed Jesus after this exchange? Matthew doesn't say, but regardless of the outcome, He makes one thing clear here: It is not enough to be willing to follow Him. Jesus tells these men that they will have to give up creature comforts and family to follow Him, if they can't do that, they can't be His disciple. Wow! Jesus denying discipleship! There's something we don't often think about. Jesus however, mentioned several types of people who simply COULD NOT be His disciple : Luke 14:25-33 says that if you don't hate your family and your own life, you CANNOT be Jesus' disciple. It says that whoever does not take up his cross and follow CANNOT be Jesus' disciple. It says that whoever does not forsake all that he has CANNOT be Jesus' disciple. Peter, John, and the rest were not "good" disciples at times- They fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked them to pray. Peter denied Jesus three times when He was in His darkest hour. John ran away naked when the Pharisees came to take His master. Thomas wouldn't believe until He could touch the risen Christ. What set these men apart as disciples was not their reputation, the fact that they hung out with Jesus, and certainly not that they were any "good" at what they did. What set these men apart was that when they were just going about their daily lives, Jesus said "Come, follow Me." And they did. They left businesses and family members and friends behind. They left their homes to wander the streets of Israel for 3 years with a man they had only heard about. At His command, they left it all.
We say "Yes Lord" when He calls us to die in Asia. Why is it so difficult to say "Yes Lord" when He asks us to die a little every day? To wake up early and pray, seek His face like a treasure? To give of our comforts that those who are working may receive the wages they are worthy of? To work as hard as possible to scrape enough together to obey Him? Jesus speaking to the scribe and another of His followers in the quote above from Matthew asked very pointed questions. In meditating on the road ahead, I find that the most painful things to leave behind will be family and home.
To decide if a venture is worthwhile, one is first to count the cost. After that has been determined, one must see if they can meet that cost and compare it to what they will receive in return. What will the profit be? What will the end result be? Only then can we determine if our venture is worthwhile. Jim Elliot once said "He is not fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." We cannot keep our comforts. I cannot keep my sofa, my linens, my dishes, or even my sweet kitten, Cookie. We love our families, but one day, they will die- we cannot keep them. We cannot keep our money- we will spend it all and eventually, it will burn. We cannot keep our time- it is slipping through our fingers even as I write this. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
The cost of discipleship is everything we've been given. The rewards of obedience will be eternal and unshakable. Is it worth it? Just look at the faces in this picture--see the hunger in them for the love they don't know that they have access to. Jesus deserves to be all He is to them. They were bought at the same price as we were--shouldn't He get all that He paid for? Is it worth it to be a part of that? Can we give it all for the sake of knowing and of following and of glorifying Him? Everyday? I don't want to walk away sad because I have many possessions. I want to leave my father and my mother and my brothers, my home and my life and take up my cross and follow Him. I need the Lord, I need the Holy Spirit everyday to do this because I am a selfish and stupid creature and I fail miserably. But He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion, of that I am sure.
1 comment:
This was written in response to an Email from my mother who did not think people would understand what I meant when Jesus said that His disciples had to hate their families.
"Thanks for the comments. Actually a lot of stuff from that video was from the Matrix, so good call.
I hope you weren't too offended by the hate your family thing, but Jesus did say that in Luke, so I don't think for a second that He didn't mean it, and I hope that you don't refuse to believe it. I'm not gonna water it down and say that Jesus didn't say hate when He did, He actually talked about hate a lot. He is a God of love and the Bible says that God is love, but if He were to ignore the deeds of wicked men in the name of "love" He would not be righteous and His grace would be of no effect.
I looked up the word that is used in that scripture in the original Greek, and surprise, it means "hate" plain and simple. In the context of Luke chapter 14 though, where that scripture comes from, Jesus has just finished telling His disciples a parable about the Kingdom of God. He says that a man had a feast and invited everyone he knew, but that every single one of his guests came up with an excuse not to attend. Everyone on earth has been invited to what the Book of Revelation calls "the Wedding Feast of the Lamb" where the Bride of Christ (the Church) and the Lamb (Jesus) will be united for eternity in Heaven because of His work on the cross, and that is what this parable is in reference to. There were in Jesus' day much as in ours, two types of followers: there were those who when Jesus said "Come follow me" dropped family, business, and life as they knew it to follow Him. There were others who said things such as "Ok, just lemme do this first." This is not an acceptable attitude for a disciple of Jesus Christ to have.
In Luke, what Jesus is prescribing is not hatred in a mean or pointed way, nor in a subtle and manipulative way. He is saying that those things which you love the most, if you love Him more, it will be as though you hate them. That is how much love He deserves; more love than we are capable of giving to our families because the fact is that even though you and I love each other a lot, there is no one on earth who loves you or I more than Jesus does. You do not love me the most. He does. I do not love you the most, He does. And as a result of that great love, of His great worthiness, we can say as the Apostle Paul did, that even the good things in our life we count as rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.
I hope that I would never show you anything but love, honor, and obedience. Unless you ask or expect me to do something contrary to what I have been commanded to do through Scripture, in which case, my actions will be as though I hate you. I will not listen to you. I will disobey you. If it's something you really want me to do or believe is best for me, you will feel that it is cruel and unreasonable. My actions won't be because I hate you, but because I love Jesus more.
Compared to His love for you, my love for you is hatred. "
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