The Cost.

By: Pastor Kason

Scripture Text: 

25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Luke 14:25-33

Devotional:

This passage is tough for many people to wrestle with. If looked at without context or nuance, this version of Jesus and His teaching would be very controversial, especially since most of what we believe about family interactions and the ways we should value family in our modern “western” worldview stems from Judeo-Christian teachings. Why would Jesus be telling us that we need to abandon our family, our spouse, our children for Him? 

Let’s look at context first. During this teaching in Luke 14, Jesus is teaching lessons via parables. Parables are short story lessons, they are often exaggerations of themes most people would have been familiar with. The parable that precedes this one is about someone who plans a wedding that the guests all abandon. The host then decides to uninvite everyone and opens the party up to everyone on the street. That doesn’t sound like realistic behavior does it? No, because it’s hyperbole. It’s meant to be purposeful exaggeration. 

Now, knowing that, consider what Jesus is teaching His followers. He is showing them and us how our love for Him should look. We are meant to love others more than our own life, and even more so we should love our Heavenly Father.  We are meant to have such a love for God, and such a zeal for Him that by comparison our love for people should look like hate. To put it another way, our love for God compared to our love for others should be as the sun to a candle.  Should we love others? Yes. Should we love God more than others? Emphatically, yes! 

Additionally, we need to consider that there is a cost to being His disciple. Through this text He is trying to impress upon both the crowd and us that there is a cost to following after Him. This can also be difficult for our 2025 sensibilities. Many of us have never had to give up anything for something else. We live in America, where we can have everything we want. Because of this, lots of people believe that they can just add Jesus on top of their existing lives with their existing problems, and they are magically disciples. 

Jesus himself pokes fun at this idea, and challenges it. He likens it to someone who builds a tower but doesn’t consider the cost, and to a king who doesn’t consider the cost of going to war. We have to consider the cost of following Jesus. The cost is high. For you, the cost may be relationships. It could be rearranging your life around spiritual disciplines like worship, bible, and fasting. For others, the cost may be a career or a lifestyle. The cost might seem astronomical to you, or you might believe that the cost is not too high for you. Either way, the cost is never nothing. 

The cost also never yields nothing. This cost will always give us communion with God. This cost gives us relationship with a loving Father who is always there for us. The cost brings us eternal life. 

Count the cost, and find out what God has to offer you. I promise, you wont regret it. 

Response/Prayer: 

Father, help me to weigh the cost of following you. Help me to know what things I need to set aside to be all-in with you. Thank you for the ability to connect with you and I pray that you’ll transform me into a fully-formed disciple. Amen.