The Cost of Discipleship
Christ Carrying the Cross, carved, painted and varnished wood with glitter mounted on painted corrugated cardboard with paper collage, painted stones and glitter, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson,https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/christ-carrying-cross-19736 click on image to link to the source.
As we enter the stream of events recorded in this gospel reading, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. The journey has taken on the flavor of a protest march. The crowds understand his preaching to pit Galilee against Jerusalem, Jews against Romans, peasants against power.[1] Jesus urges his admirers to consider the price of following him.
There are many areas of life in which we pause to consider the price of our investments. This past week I read an article about the escalating price of something nearly all of us want at some point in our lives, and that is a family home. Twenty-three years ago when I moved to Edwardsville, the median new home price in our country was less than $200,000. By the time my kids were graduating from college and getting married, it still was less than $300,000. Today, it’s more than $400,000. From my perspective as an aging homeowner, it’s incredible that young families are able and willing to pay that much for a home.
We naturally consider the financial price of our major purchases, but there are other activities for which we pay a price in currency other than dollars. Consider health researchers who spend years of their lives looking for a cure, or engineers who go down 100 different paths looking for the best solution to a vexing problem. Consider athletes who compete in high school or college. Consider musicians, dancers, and artists who achieve professional success. Again and again, these people show us that achieving something worthwhile is going to cost something.
In a religious context, we often think about the moral cost of our activities. The title of today’s sermon – “The Cost of Discipleship” – is taken from a book of the same name by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer is a pastor and theologian who was martyred in 1945 for participating in a plot to overthrow Hitler. This past winter, during our Lenten study, many of us learned more about his life and ministry.
Bonhoeffer’s witness has been influential in our stream of the Presbyterian tradition. We are indebted to him for helping to shape our understanding of two key concepts: “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Bonhoeffer wrote: “When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die. . . . Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves . . . the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship . . . . Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock . . . . It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”[2]
These words from Bonhoeffer have echoed in the back of my mind through the years, as my ministry has played out against the backdrop of world events. The problems of our time seem so daunting and overwhelming that it is difficult to know what to do. Bonhoeffer reminds me that there is a moral cost to doing nothing. I listen to conflicts rage about public policy, and I wonder how my words could have a positive rather than negative effect. Often I say nothing. I see hungry and starving people, and the problem seems so huge that I’m not sure what set of actions would make a difference. Often I do nothing.
Then, in my mind’s eye, I see a newsclip of a starving suffering child lying on a bloody floor. I see Bonhoeffer on the gallows; I see Jesus on the cross. And I know that the cost of doing nothing is a stain on my soul; it’s a sin in light of the world’s needs. I’m driven back to the truth of Edward Everett Hale’s simple resolution: He wrote, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.”
The cost of discipleship feels like a somber and difficult topic, so I want to highlight again one sentence Bonhoeffer shares about grace. He writes, “It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.” There I detect some good news. Why would anyone want to follow Jesus after his stern warning? Why would anyone invest in a family home? Why would an athlete train for a sporting event? Why would anyone listen to the call to pursue a profession that does not provide maximum comfort or income? Why would Bonhoeffer return from America to Germany to face the Nazis? Why would church members support a local food pantry’s capital campaign? It costs a man his life! It costs a woman her life! It costs a person their life! “Because,” says Bonhoeffer, “it gives a man the only true life.”
One more story. Teach for America is a non-profit organization founded 35 years ago that places new public school teachers in low-income communities. The organization has made a point of recruiting top graduates to move into some of the most difficult teaching contexts, offering special training and coaching along the way.
Pastor Will Willimon once wrote about a recruiting session he observed on the campus of Duke University. The recruiter closed her orientation with an appeal that went something like this: “I can tell by looking at you that you’re probably uninterested. This is one of the best universities in America, and you are all successful. You are here to become a greater success (in any number of high-paying professions). And here I stand trying to recruit (you) for the most difficult job you ever will have in your life …. I can tell, just by looking at you, that none of you want to throw away your lives on anything like that …. On the other hand, if there is somebody here who may be interested, I have (application packets) and will gladly speak to anyone interested. This concludes my remarks.” Then something unexpected happened. So many students remained to talk, that the recruiter ran out of packets. Willimon says that night he learned that people are hungry to give their lives to something more important than themselves.[3]
Willimon’s story reminds me, at a deep level, we can feel how we are created and placed on this earth for purposes greater than personal profit. Jesus’ warning to count the cost feels intimidating. But only by following the call of Christ to our proper place of service is our purpose truly fulfilled. Anything worthwhile is going to cost something. When we look deep inside ourselves, in our moments of clarity, may we rediscover the truth that we want to pay the price.
NOTES
[1] Fred Craddock, Luke, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990, p. 181.
[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.
[3] Summarized from William Willimon’s “The Price of Discipleship,” Pulpit Resource, 6 Sept. 1998, pp. 41-42.
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