Text: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Luke 14:25-33
We have precious few words of Jesus preserved in the gospels. Most of what we have is the testimony of the early Christians, their witness to what they had experienced in the risen Christ of faith. So, when we run across a verse or two that scholars suggest may well be something Jesus actually said, we appropriately take notice. Even when those words are hard to hear and understand. Especially so.
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, spouse and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
These words are hard enough to understand if we KNOW what Jesus was talking about - much less if we don’t. When Jesus says “TAKE UP THE CROSS”, we think immediately of the cross to which Jesus was headed. But by the time of Jesus, crucifixion was widespread, and was available as a symbol of a serious, deadly serious obligation. Commentator G B Caird suggests that Jesus used “the cross as a symbol for the extreme of torment and degradation which his followers must be prepared to accept as the price of their calling.” (179) No less than those first listeners of the rabbi from Nazareth, we know what “take up the cross” must mean: rigorous, extreme, personal, repeated, sacrifice.
The HATE part of the saying is more troublesome. Do we really have to HATE our families for the sake of God’s kingdom? Here Luke speaks out of the ancient Semitic voice that most commonly spoke in vivid and stark contrasts: light and darkness, good and evil, love and hate. The Semitic mind knew no shades of gray or subtlety. You were “in “or “out”. There was no half-hearted response available.
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Not what we want to hear. We want to hear words of comfort, assurance, and affirmation. We yearn for a gospel that makes promises, not demands. We are eager to receive and enjoy God’s grace. We are less sure of how much of God’s grace we are prepared to share.
Yet take up the cross is precisely what Jesus calls his followers to do.
In ancient times, no less than today, many who heard the gospel were not prepared to do that. And so we have the witness of the early church as expressed in the two short parables of the BUILDER and the WARRING KING. “What person sets out to build a tower without counting the cost first, lest he be ridiculed? What king sets out to do battle without having plotted his chances for victory?” Both parables illustrate the need to “look before you leap”. To recognize that building the Christian life is costly. Building the Christian life requires follow-through. Building the Christian life doesn’t come easy or cheap.
I remember one time I went into a craft store, and explained the project I had in mind to the inquiring and helpful clerk. She could barely constrain her laughter. She could tell I had not thought through the full cost in money and effort of the project I was initiating. She knew I would be back. Or the project would never be completed.
How easy it is to get excited about a new idea or a project! But when the initial glow fades and the real work isn’t fun anymore, what happens? How often do people join a club or a church, and when the excitement of joining wears, the participation begins to fade, too? How frequently do folks say “yes” to the gracious invitation of a life with God, but somehow don’t hear the part about taking up the cross? How often have you said “yes” to something and didn’t know what you said yes to? And then when you DID find out, wished you had read the fine print FIRST?
We all have done that, of course. And unfortunately, we in the church all too often encourage such behavior with newcomers and with our members. We are eager to welcome any and all into the fold - as well we should. But too often we welcome and encourage folks to take up the church without taking up the cross. We should not be surprised, then, when folks say yes to us without saying yes to anything else.
I have heard that many folks are more careful about choosing a car than they are choosing a church. I don’t know if that is true or not. What I HAVE found to be widespread is the notion that choosing a church is LIKE buying a car: you pick the one you want, the color, the model, the features that you are most desirous of, the one you can barely afford, and then you enjoy it as long as it delivers all of those features. And when it doesn’t work that well for you anymore, you simply trade churches - I mean cars.
Now, choosing a church is NOT the same as becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. But the church IS the arena where one acts out one’s discipleship. Where disciples are found and discipling takes place.
It is said that if you have to ask how much a yacht costs, you cannot afford it.
I think Jesus would state it this way: if you have to add it all up to see if you can afford being his disciple, if you have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a life with God, then you cannot afford it. Good Friday reminds us that discipleship always ends up costing more than you planned.
Over sixty years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic The Cost of Discipleship coined the phrase “cheap grace” to describe a faith that is all crown and no cross: Cheap grace makes no demands on the recipient; cheap grace dispenses forgiveness without demanding repentance. Cheap grace lets you talk the talk without walking the walk. And cheap grace is NOT what Christian faith is all about. Instead, Bonhoeffer insisted that Christian faith was based on “costly grace”: Costly grace propels us to seek moral perfection - to follow the law more closely and to extend God’s mercy more generously. Costly grace knows exactly how much that tower costs - and seeks to build it anyway. Costly grace understands the full weight of “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Costly grace is about taking up the cross.
In sum, Bonhoeffer wrote, “Such grace is COSTLY because it calls us to follow, and it is GRACE because it calls us to follow JESUS CHRIST. It is costly because it costs one’s life, and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.” (47-48)
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Who in the world would choose such a life? A life of giving to others. A life of sacrifice. A life of praying for those who despise you, and showing kindness to those whom others despise. A life working for justice for all of God’s children. Why would you choose such a life? I can think of only one reason, and one reason only to choose such a life: IT IS THE ONLY LIFE WORTH CHOOSING.
Of course, taking up the cross of Jesus Christ is not a once for all time thing; it is a DAILY duty, as daily we renew our faith in the God revealed in Jesus Christ by taking up the cross of Jesus Christ. Taking up the cross is never anything we can claim to have “achieved” - only Christ was faithful to that.
Which is where the grace comes in. As Bonhoeffer concludes, “above all, grace is costly because it cost God God’s only son.” (48)
The man Jesus whom we affirm as the living Christ took the way of the cross to be the way of his life. And the way of his death. And it is in Jesus, in his teachings, in his manner of life and death, in the continuing relationship of Christ and his church and in OUR living relationship with Christ that we find the model for living and the grace for living faithfully.
At the end of the play and the movie Shadowlands, author CS Lewis reflects on the meaning of life and love. Perhaps the leading Christian apologist of the 20th century, Lewis came to romantic love late in life when he began a relationship with Joy Gresham. Tragically, their life together was cut short as Joy died from cancer shortly after their marriage. Putting the pieces of his life together after her death, Lewis concludes that in loving another person we risk and accept the pain that comes with the love, because it is the very nature of love that it includes both pain and joy. “To experience the joy you accept the pain. When you love someone, pain and joy go together. That’s the deal.”
That’s the deal. That’s the deal for Christian faith. Faith includes joy and sorrow, grace and judgment, the victory of Easter morning and the cross of Good Friday. That’s the cost of discipleship. That’s what faith is all about. That’s the deal. And what a deal it is! AMEN.
