The Cost of Discipleship

The Cost of Discipleship

Rev. Heather Carlson

September 7, 2025

 

Luke 14:25-33

 

It would appear that Jesus has gotten quite popular. “Large crowds were traveling with him…” Jesus is living the dream of every social media influencer or politician - a large crowd is willing to go wherever he goes. But instead of riding this wave of success Jesus issues a direct challenge: those who truly want to follow Him must be willing to give up everything, including personal relationships and possessions. 

Yet in Luke 14, Jesus says almost exactly that. He lays out three scenarios of discipleship: renouncing family, sacrifice, and forsaking possessions. Did we hesitate a little on the scriptural affirmation, wishing instead it were a question: This is the word of the Lord? It’s a hard sell in our economy of comfort, personal choice and affluence. 

 

Verse 26: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters... cannot be my disciple.” That’s a hard verse to read. Jesus is using a common Semitic idiom — not a literal command to loathe, but a way of expressing ultimate loyalty. Of placing one value over another. In comparison to our devotion to Christ, all other loyalties must come second.

 

It may mean relational tensions. It may mean walking a different path from loved ones. It may mean physically leaving family to follow where Jesus leads - in a society where family was your social safety net, it meant taking risks - living in trust beyond human reason and resources. 

 

Verse 27: “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

To carry a cross in the Roman world meant one thing — you were walking to your death. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Die to self. Die to ego. Die to comfort. The cross is not a metaphor for inconvenience, or a call to seek out suffering for its own sake. But the cross is a symbol of sacrifice. 

 

Bonhoeffer returned to Nazi controlled Germany to serve as a leader of resistance to the cheap grace that had overtaken the German church. Grace without true discipleship — forgiveness without repentance, baptism without discipline, and communion without commitment. It’s the idea of accepting God’s grace as a free gift while avoiding the cost of following Christ, essentially treating grace as a license to live unchanged.

 

In contrast, "costly grace" births obedience and transformation — it calls believers to take up their cross and follow Jesus, even when it requires sacrifice or suffering. The confessing church Bonhoeffer led had to go underground because of persecution from German church, society and government. Upholding their faith even when deeply unpopular. Bonhoeffer himself was sent to prison and executed for his involvement in a plot to stop Hitler’s genocide of the Jews. 

 

Jesus’ call to take up our cross is a costly endeavour. No longer are we islands of self preservation and ambition. Disciples of Jesus live lives of sacrifice. Radical trust that God is working his redemption in our lives and even our death. 

 

Verse 33: “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Jesus doesn’t say, “Give some.” He says, “Give up all.” This isn’t a blanket call for everyone to hold a garage sale, but it is a command to hold nothing back. Everything you own is now Christ’s. All resources — time, money, influence, energy — are redirected under His lordship. In affluent circles, Christians are marked by downward mobility.  

 

Why we pass the plate - reminder that we are a people who give up our possessions, willingly, cheerfully, obediently, and regularly. No hoarding in the Kingdom of God. Radical trust in God’s provision. 

 

Following Jesus is not an add-on to an otherwise normal life. It’s a redefinition of life itself. Jesus is not interested in trying to lure the unsuspecting into unconsidered commitments. The two parables could be labelled Fools at Work and War. (New Interpreter’s, 292) A man begins building a tower without first checking if he can finish it. He becomes a laughingstock when he has to abandon it halfway. That’s what superficial discipleship looks like — enthusiastic starts with no staying power. A king prepares for battle but realizes he’s hopelessly outnumbered. He should’ve counted the cost before marching forward. Likewise, Jesus is saying: Don’t follow me unless you’re willing to go all the way. This is not about scaring people off. It’s about making sure they know what they’re getting into.

 

We started with the analogy of a politician or influencer, but suppose instead, “we think of the leader of a great expedition, forging a way through a high and dangerous mountain pass to bring urgent medical aid to villagers cut off from the rest of the world. If you want to come any further, the leader says, you’ll have to leave your packs behind. From here on the path is too steep to carry all that stuff. You probably won’t find it again. And you’d better send your last postcards home; this is a dangerous route and it’s very likely that several of us won’t make it back. We can understand that. We may not like the sound of it, but we can see why it would make sense.” (Wright, 180) 

 

Following Jesus is a rescue expedition. He is the savior of the world. Those who follow are mobilized to be about his saving work. “At every stage of its life the church has faced the challenge, not only of living up to Jesus’ demands, but of placing [costly obedience] before the world. We are purveyors of fake news when we proclaim, “Come as you are, stay as you are” when Jesus is clear that following him will cost everything. Jesus was not looking for superficial commitment or a crowd of tagalongs, and neither is his church. 

 

People want to know how we will get young people in church. We must proclaim and practice the real thing — the gospel that saves through the cross, not around it. We cannot offer the world cheap grace. Discipleship isn’t about preferences - screen or bulletin, organ or guitar, dinners or brunch.

 

But lives that are transformed into a new community - bonds strong through adversity. Shaped by sacrifice - reputation, ego, forgiveness… and a willingness to quit the game of acquisition to the journey of discernment. That is good news. Young people can see through any snake oil sales pitch. That is a journey worthy of an all in commitment.  

 

There is a cost to nondiscipleship.

 

Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines)

 

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.