“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’” (Luke 14:28-30 NLT)
Have you ever started something with full intent on completing it, but got sidetracked, so it stands as a monument to your inability or lack of desire to finish it? Two boxes in my office hold cameras I intend to install, but I’m now going on my second month, and they haven’t moved. It’s sad when it’s a house project, it’s sadder still when it’s your life.
In the verses that precede the ones above in Luke 14, Jesus uses some of the strongest and perhaps some of His most misunderstood words in the Bible. His audience is a large crowd, not unusual at this point in His ministry, but it’s as if He’s purposely trying to rattle their proverbial “cages” to get them to think seriously about what it means to be His disciple.
In verse 26 He says: “If you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison – your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even your own life.” As in virtually every verse in the Bible, seeing and understanding it in context is critical. When He spoke these words, Jesus was moving toward Jerusalem, which in His mind was the Cross.
Everything Jesus has thought, said, or done to this point in His life has been to prepare Him for the Cross. He above all people knew where His journey was leading and I can imagine, nearly on a moment-by-moment basis, He was counting the cost of His life and ministry. Might He have ever doubted? Based on such seeming frivolity and lightheartedness of those who were following Him, perhaps at times even among His trusted twelve, did He ever question why He was even making this journey?
Surely if anyone had, it was Jesus who placed His love of God the Father above every earthly relationship. Did that mean He couldn’t or wouldn’t love generously those in His literal and spiritual family? Of course not, but in light of the agony of His own heart and mind, He wanted to convey to those who were following Him, in the strongest possible language, what it meant to be His follower.
“Hate” in this context isn’t to be taken literally. As one commentary I checked said: “In the most vivid way possible He told them that the man who followed Him was not on the way to worldly power and glory, but must be ready for a loyalty which would sacrifice the dearest things in life and for a suffering which would be like the agony of a man upon a cross.”
Not every person who follows Jesus is a disciple, that’s why so many bail out when it gets hard to walk closely with the Lord. Pastor Alistair Begg wrote: “If our Christianity costs us nothing, it is worth nothing.” Counting the cost of following Jesus isn’t anything that should seem unusual to any reasonable person. We count the cost, or should count the cost, before buying anything of significance; before investing our savings into an enterprise; before getting married or starting a new job; certainly we can’t jump into a relationship with Jesus without giving it considerable thought and consideration.
The reality is, following Jesus is going to cost us our life – certainly as we follow Him day after day, but in the world in which we now live, the possibility of literally giving our life in death because of our faith in Him is becoming a more real possibility with each passing day.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 