The news keeps getting grimmer and grimmer when it comes to cost of living. Petrol, groceries, energy costs, mortgages. People are needing to reassess their living expenses to work out what they can and can’t afford. Sadly you hear heartbreaking stories of people turning off power at night to save on energy bills. They go without one meal a day to save on groceries. Even the bicycle is being dusted off to ride places instead of taking the car. Then there are reports of builders unable to complete houses because of rising costs of materials. Businesses in the city under pressure because workers are working from home and not frequenting theses businesses. When costs are impacted we reevaluate what is really important and what is a luxury.
This is also the message of Jesus when it comes to our Christian faith and the cost of being a disciple. And in Jesus’ day there were many Christians that paid the ultimate price of being a disciple when they refused to reject Christ as their Lord and Saviour and were put to death – some in gruesome ways as we heard a few weeks ago in the reading from Hebrews. With their lives on the line they weighed up the cost and made the decision that eternal life was worth dying for. So the cost Jesus is referring to is not just a financial cost – which it can be – but personal costs that go beyond that. At the extreme it could be family relationships which for many of the first Christians it was just that. You think of Paul who prior to his conversion was a leading Pharisee with all the respect and privileges that came along with that. Paul may have presumed that his fellow Jews would listen to him seeing that they knew he was an ambitious Pharisee even overseeing the death of Stephen by stoning and persecuting and arresting Christians. Surely if I converted they would know that I’m speaking the truth about Jesus.
But sadly for him that didn’t happen and he abandoned trying to convert them with that declaration in Acts 13 – It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. That was really hard for Paul to do. He loved his Jewish brothers and sisters even prepared to give up his own salvation if it meant they could be saved – in Romans 9 he says: I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. And in the end Paul lost his freedom as he spent his final years in jail because of his faith but never complained. In fact he said, as a Christian, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
As Christians, sometimes choices need to be made because of our faith. And this is where we may be confronted to count the cost. Mature Christian living involves counting the cost and can require sacrifice from us. Sometimes that cost as a Christian is the sacrifice of forgiving someone that has hurt you for the sake of church. Sometimes that cost is speaking out against something and it’s not going to make you popular and in fact may see you ridiculed for it or even abandoned by friends as Paul was. Sometimes that cost is of your time as you choose to serve in the church which is rewarding but it can also be quite demanding on your time and your family’s. Sometimes that cost is financial as you forgo career opportunities because of your ethics refusing to work for a particular company or you don’t socialize with work colleagues because of questionable behaviour. Which is sort of what Jesus was talking about last week when he said to take the lower seat when invited and when you invite others don’t invite the rich and noble but the poor and less fortunate. Sometimes it can also be financial as you commit to financially supporting the church.
And they can be heavy crosses for us to carry. But they are the source of hidden joy just as Jesus cross, as brutal and gruesome as it was, was the source of true blessings for us. And that’s the thing we need to remember that we do these things where we give up our time and possessions not for our own blessing but for blessings of others.
We might not ever see reward for our sacrifices as Jesus said last week – when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. And that’s when many people give up. When they don’t see the results of all their hard work for the church. We do all these programs for our young families and they still don’t turn up. We do all these things to help the poor and needy and rarely ever get even a thank you let alone having them visit our church. But that’s often the life of Christian discipleship.
But it’s also the reason why many people give up following Jesus because it’s so demanding at times and often little or no rewards in this lifetime. But that’s what we need to understand like the examples Jesus gives: Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him,
Or
What king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?
If Paul became a Christian because he felt it would bring him fame and fortune then he would have given up the first time they tried to stone him to death. As Christians we’re going to face hardships and challenges because of our faith. A lot of those challenges and difficulties may arise from within our own congregation or within our wider church. And that can be devastating when you expect different from within the church and causes many to leave the church. But let us remember these are distractions to our faith and call for us to remain strong and to remember, as Jesus said last week, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
The Christian faith can be challenging. Jesus knows that too well as he himself gave up his life for us. As Paul said in Philippians 2 – that even though Jesus was in the very nature God, he did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; but made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness – all for you – not for himself. And so Jesus knows that sometimes the Christian faith will ask a lot of us – even putting it ahead of our loved ones – but the blessings of Heaven that await the faithful is where St Paul discovered – that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. A glory that we have now but hidden but when Christ is revealed to the world his glory and ours will be revealed and we will truly discover what all the hard work has been for – eternal life in heaven.
