Understanding the Cost of Discipleship under Jesus Christ (St. Luke 9:51-62)

In the name of the God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus

As the Indian Orthodox Church and along with other Churches and her followers prepare for the Feast of Ascension of Christ Jesus to heaven, we reach the Fifth Sunday after Pascha (Easter). The Gospel portion assigned today by the Church Fathers is from the Gospel of St. Luke. The context of the passage lies in between the two times Jesus sends out His followers to spread the Word of God and to work miracles. This passage also occurs after St. Peter’s confession of Jesus being the Son of God and from which point Jesus starts predicting about His death and resurrection. We can also understand from the Gospel, that by this point of time, the twelve disciples were very close to Jesus and there was internal struggles between them with respect to the position they want to hold among themselves. As the Church prepares for commemorating the Ascension of Jesus, we find in the Gospel portion read on Sunday, the first time St. Luke telling of Jesus’ departure, which pertains to the ascension of Christ.

Responding towards hatred (Luke 9:51-56)

When we come to the passage under consideration, we understand that Jesus has decided on going to Jerusalem (to undergo His sufferings) and He was willing to cross through Samaria, a place where Gentiles used to reside and where no Jew would pass through on his trip to Jerusalem. Samaria was the territory of the northern kingdom of Israel, where Elijah and Elisha had been active and its king, Ahaziah, had sent two sets of 50 men to arrest Elijah. Elijah had called down fire from heaven to destroy them (2 Kings 2:10,12). We find in the passage that James and John want Jesus to repeat the dose of punishment over the Samaritans and destroy the people. Why do they want Jesus to do that?

Due to the long standing racist hatred between the Jews and the Gentiles, there was a huge divide among the children of Israel and there used to wars between these two countries. And the normal motto among both the people were to hate those who hate them. Violence was the main solution used to hurt those of a diverse faith. We find the same theme reoccurring throughout history which has led to large scale mass murders and genocides. Due to this long standing hatred, the Samaritans did not receive Jesus when He wished to cross the place and James and John, intended to repeat the cycle of hatred against the Samaritans. But Jesus will have none of it.

When we look at the life of Jesus, we find that He always willed to do the will of the Heavenly Father and He was willing to follow His Father’s will, even though He would be rejected, hated and ostracized by the society around Him. He was not afraid of the rejection He would be facing, but He always looked towards the pleasure seen in His Father on completing the work assigned to Him. In this passage, we find that Jesus faced this particular rejection at the exact moment when He decided to go to Jerusalem to fulfill the wishes of His Father, which would lead to His humiliation and shameful death on the cross. But His eyes were not on the sufferings He would face, but on the victory that was prepared for Him, through the victory over death and culminating in His ascension.

If we were to place ourselves in the place of Jesus and if we were the ones who would be facing rejection, how would we react? If the rejection was from a group of people we did not care about, would we call down fire and brimstone on them, just like James and John? How about, if the rejection was from our own near and dear ones? What would be our attitude towards rejection and hatred thrown our way? Would we respond back in like hatred or respond back in love, just like Jesus did?

According to Luke chapter 9, the rejection of Jesus comes about precisely because of Jesus’ determination to fulfill his destiny. And somewhere in between our determination and our destiny there awaits the prospect of rejection for all of us. The destiny of Jesus had already been appointed and ordained by God. The crucifixion at Calvary and the resurrection on the third day were already a part of the divine design for Jesus’ life. But in order to reach his divine destination and achieve his divine purpose, Jesus had to utilize his own determination. He had a destiny that was foreordained, but he also had a determination to reach his destiny and to arrive at his destination. Divine destiny does not preclude, prevent, or lessen the need for human determination. God may prepare and ordain a place and a purpose for us, but we still must make the effort, exercise the will, and do the work necessary to accomplish our divine aim and to fulfill our divine destinies.

Many a times in our own lives, in face of rejection and blatant disregard for us and our faith, we tend to become incensed and forget about our divine duties and turn our backs on our persecutors in rage and curse them. And we also expect Jesus to give the nod to our sanctimonious assessment and let the judgment of God upon the unjust begin. In trying to reach our destination that has been set for us, is it really okay for us to lose our presence of mind and curse those who reject us? Is it okay for us to retaliate against their harsh words and deeds? In light of the rejection, let us understand the reaction of Jesus.

Jesus did an amazing thing in regard to those who had rejected Him. He did not strike back in vengeance. He did not argue with those who refused Him. He did not will the destruction of His detractors in the Samaritan village. Jesus did an amazing thing in regard to those who had rejected Him. Jesus did nothing! He did nothing! But in the nothing of Jesus, there’s a whole lot of something. Because when we’re being rejected in life, it takes more strength to hold our peace than it takes to strike back in anger and in vengeance. Jesus did nothing in retaliation to those who had rejected Him.

You and I have rejected others and have been rejected by others for the same reasons, but before we reject anyone because of the group to which he or she may belong, why not give every person a chance to demonstrate the content of his or her character apart from the assumed identity of his or her group? In doing so, we might discover that all white people are not racists, all black people are not lazy, all black men are not irresponsible, all black women are not welfare queens, all black students are not intellectually challenged, all liberals are not loose, all conservatives are not callous, all gay people are not perverts, all white Southerners are not rednecks, all capitalists are not greedy, all socialists are not communists, all Muslims are not terrorists, all Americans are not arrogant, all Israelis are not Zionists, all people who are pro-choice are not pro-abortion, and all church people are not hypocrites.

Cost of Discipleship (Luke 9:57-62)

After facing rejection and rebuke at Samaria, Jesus still moves on towards Jerusalem, albeit through a different path. And on the journey, people come to meet Him and promise to follow Him. But they have certain conditions before following Him. Are we able to place ourselves in the same shoes as those people who came to Jesus then?

Here we have the story of three men, three potential recruits for the Jesus movement, and two of them are put off by Jesus, and the third is summoned by him but with criteria that he clearly wasn’t willing to follow. When we look at our capitalist world where success means everything in life and everybody is looking for followers, be it in our work places or in social life or on social media sites. Everyone wants followers who would like their idea and share their ideas with others. I am sure, if Jesus would have been taught the business mantra of today 2000 years back, He would have a more distinct approach in getting followers. If Jesus had been trained in the world of business and wanted to recruit the best people, he would have sold his religious movement in a much more positive way.

Surely Jesus would have done better to tell His prospective followers all the wonderful benefits of following Him rather than painting a picture of how tough it would be…

Surely Jesus could have focused on the adventure of discipleship, the opportunities that awaited the disciples to change the world and a make a positive difference that would last for centuries. Perhaps Jesus could have focused on the opportunity to perform miracles in His name, the opportunities to travel and the amazing networking opportunities that would be available for personal development.

But Jesus does not do that. Instead, he paints a picture of discipleship that is about tough choices; discipleship as self-denial, the steep and rugged pathway, the way to death, not life. But the criteria for the Kingdom of God would not be the same as the criteria that we would use if we are building any organization, perhaps even a church.

Jesus’ response for His would-be followers is striking.  It’s not as if He rebuffs His would-be disciple — exactly.  It’s more a matter of making clear to him what he’s offering before he signs on the dotted line. Discipleship is costly. It is radically costly. It costs you everything.

The criteria of the Kingdom of God to be a disciple is not about the number of followers, but it’s about the depth of discipleship. That seems to be the crux of the passage. While reading the passage, at first glance, it would seem that Jesus was discouraging the people from following Him, but if we look at the whole story, I am sure that is not the case. I would not say that Jesus did not want them to follow Him, but He wanted them to follow Him after fully comprehending the cost it would place on their life and take discipleship seriously. So what are the principles we learn about the cost of truly following Jesus?

Having no earthly security

Many amateur followers of Jesus followed Him for the element of excitement and adventure that always surrounded Him. Who would not want to be around the Man Who could heal the sick, give sight to the blind, drive our demons and also had command over any large gathering? Even today, if we find a person holding such a charismatic nature, we would surely be drawn towards them. Such people sought personal gains of having large audiences of their own, getting wealthy, or being officials in the earthly kingdom of their hopes where Jesus was their king. Many among us still follow Jesus for that excitement and opportunity of gaining wealth and prestige in the society.

But Jesus won’t allow for that sort of misunderstanding for one moment: “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head”. The Word Who became flesh – He Who had flung stars into space and yet the King of glory had nowhere that He could call home: He had no earthly security, He camped out on the sofa-bed in Peter’s house in Capernaum, He had to borrow a coin to tell a story, He had to borrow a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. He was even buried in a borrowed tomb.

Jesus had absolutely no earthly security and if we are to follow in His footsteps, we are to be willing to give up any claim to earthly security too. Of course, that’s not the same thing as saying that we have to give away all our possessions but only that we are not to put our security in these things. And it’s not the same thing as saying that we have no security: we do. But the security we enjoy is in our relationship with our Father God, not in our amassed wealth or homes or possessions.

Of course, it is very easy to say that our security lies in our relationship with God. It’s easy to trot those words out without giving them much thought. But is it really true? Does the way in which we order our lives and live our lives truly reflect that?

This passage calls us to serious assessment of our priorities and where we truly find our security.

Having no earthly ties

We come across a second person in the passage and we see Jesus calling him to follow Him, but the man replies that he requires time to bury his dead father. But Jesus replies, “Let the dead bury their own dead”. This would sound harsh coming from Jesus. But let us try to understand the reasoning behind it.

Some scholars have interpreted that if the father had just died, the man would not have been out and about in the town but would have been performing mourning rituals instead (and these lasted for quite a long time in the Jewish culture). So it is entirely feasible that the man’s father hadn’t yet died and he was saying to Jesus, “I have family responsibilities; I can’t leave my father in old age: when he has died and I am free from my responsibilities, then I will follow you”. The man may have been delaying discipleship because of his domestic circumstances.

We might know the specifics behind the situation, but we do understand what Jesus is saying and it is quite hard for us to accept this:  that the call of God on our lives must come before anything and everything else; bar none. If we have to choose between earthly responsibilities and Kingdom responsibilities, then God must always come first.

Now, we need to be absolutely sure we hear this correctly because God does not call us to be irresponsible and just throw aside all our earthly responsibilities in such a way that may cause pain and hurt to others. He is not saying that being a Christian means that we don’t pay due attention to our families and our domestic responsibilities. Of course he doesn’t – that wouldn’t be the loving thing to do and the Gospel, ultimately, is all about love.

But if we really understand His words, what Jesus is saying to this man (and to us) is that, in order to be a His follower, we must sit more lightly to our earthly ties and be prepared to go wherever God wants us to and live lives of total obedience to His call.

Again, that is a hard thing to hear: we might think that we can do that and that we are prepared to always do that. But does the way we live our lives today truly evidence that? Does God come first in our lives in a really obvious, practical way in the choices we make?

Having no earthly distractions

And so we come to the final interaction Jesus had with a person who wanted to follow Him, but his only condition was to first say farewell to those at his home. Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

This request seems like a reasonable request from a man who wants to follow Jesus and would like to say goodbye to his family. But Jesus brings out the sharp difference between those who fix their eyes firmly on Jesus and those who want to look back, perhaps with an element of regret about what they are losing if they choose to live a life of discipleship. Contrast this man’s attitude with that of Peter, James and John, who just dropped their nets and followed Jesus.

If you want to follow Jesus – if you want to truly follow Jesus – there is no looking back. And that is why Jesus also told parables about counting the cost of discipleship before choosing to embark on that lifestyle. He would rather us not follow him at all than, at a later date, regret the decision we made and keep harking back to how things used to be.  If we want to follow Jesus, we must be true to our word. We must not be distracted by anything, we must not look back with regret. But we must give our lives wholeheartedly over to him

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, I understand that this passage is a difficult one to follow for many of us, myself included, and I always think back on these words of Jesus in my own life. But, this is the truth of Christian discipleship: that is costs us everything, we have no earthly security, no earthly ties, no earthly distractions that could possibly compare with the glory of our calling to follow Jesus.

That is truly authentic Christianity. Count the cost, Leave it behind, Don’t look back.

That is what Jesus said to these three men and that is the call He makes on our lives, every day. That’s the cost of following Him.

But of course, the cost of not following Him is even greater… Jesus said, “I have come so that you may have life in all its fullness”. If we don’t follow Jesus, we will never know fullness of life and the cost of that is far more than the cost of obedience.

It’s a choice that each one of us has to make…

Your brother in Christ Jesus

Jobin George