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“Counting the Cost”

Sermon by Peter Terpenning
September 5, 2004
Luke 9:23-27, Luke 14:25-33

            Imagine the scene in Luke: Jesus is journeying down a road somewhere north of Jerusalem. He is headed for the capital city for Passover. He knows or suspects that he is on his last journey and that he may die. But the crowd following, even his own disciples, are celebrating. These folks aren’t coming along to watch a crucifixion. They think, or hope, that Jesus as the Messiah is traveling to Jerusalem to start his new kingdom. So Jesus turns to them and tries to explain the harsh reality of who he is and what they are getting themselves into. He tells them to “count the cost” of what they are doing before they follow him! He tells them they must value following him more than they love their parents or siblings or children or possessions. If it comes to a choice, they must be prepared to choose God. He tells them that following him must be more important even than saving their own lives. They must be prepared to carry their cross and follow Jesus. He tells them two stories about people who counting the cost. You wouldn’t start building a tower unless you had the means to finish. A King wouldn’t go into battle unless he knew he could win. Neither should they follow Jesus unless they know what they are getting themselves into. This is not an easy road; one must be ready to sacrifice the dearest things in life. Count the Cost!
            Jesus says something similar in Luke 9:23: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” Jesus doesn’t want fair weather followers. Kind of like John Lenin’s line in the song, “Imagine”, “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can?” Jesus is asking his followers if the can even imagine what he is talking about. And of course, the answer is that they couldn’t. It was only later, after his death that the disciples began to go back and make sense of all the things that he told them. And then later, when the disciples themselves and Jesus’ followers were facing persecution and death, then they remembered these words and passed them on to others. If you are going to follow Jesus, count the cost. Don’t falter! Don’t fall back, for if salt loses its flavor, it’s good for nothing, not even for fertilizer or compost.
            What is being asked of us here? Is it enough that we become a little nicer and give some of our resources to charity?  A writer I was reading this week asked if there is a difference between the teachings of Jesus and the common aspirations of middle class Americans. Can we save our lives, hold on to them and still be followers of God? Since we are talking about counting the cost, maybe we should ask what faith costs us. Are we primarily seeking to acquire, to take, hoard, own and protect our lives and our families? Or are we primarily seeking to give and to serve? In this passage, Jesus pretty clearly says that the purpose of life is not to serve ourselves and save ourselves, but to serve God and take care of others.
             This teaching is not easy to hear, but it is clear! However, I have a couple questions. The first one is; is this teaching about living in poverty and leaving home and family? Do we have to be ascetics living in the desert to follow God? It is a common thing, for example, in India, for a Hindu as they get older and have finished raising their families and had their career, to give it all up and live very simply, traveling around and seeking only God. These pilgrims, usually men, but not always, live amazing lives of discipline and sacrifice, seeking to find deeper faith. Are these people living out Jesus’ ideal of taking up your cross, leaving family and possessions and following God? There are mystics of all faiths who make great sacrifices to seek the presence of God. And what about those people who don’t give up their families and possessions, is it possible to be a follower of God and not give up everything? I think something else is going on here. This teaching is not calling us all to be hermits, it is asking us to re-orient our lives toward God and away from self gain. For some, this takes a radical sacrifice and life of poverty, but for others it can be accomplished within the structure of family and society. But it will be more difficult. Jesus is asking the question he asks over and over again: are you serving God or mammon? God or self gain? You can’t serve both.
            But my other question is this: Why? Why are we worrying about this? Why are we reorienting ourselves? Is it out of fear? If we don’t follow Jesus in this way are we in danger of going to hell? I guess we are worrying about this since Jesus told us to. This is one teaching that appears in all the Gospels, several times, and is radical enough that I bet Jesus really said it. So if Jesus was who he said he was and if God asks us to count the cost then perhaps that is reason enough.
            However, I think for most people who are truly able to reorient their lives away from self gain and personal success to following God, there is something deeper going on. The early disciples and followers remembered this saying and followed at great personal sacrifice because they had met Jesus! There was something about Jesus. These people had, I believe, what amounted to mystical experiences of the presence of God, and as a response, were willing to take up their crosses, face death and loss of self. The same is true of those today who make faith the most important thing in their lives.
            There’s story that is much told about a man who comes to a teacher seeking the way to enlightenment. But the teacher will not take him on as a student and he tells the man he is not ready. Each week or so, the man again approached the teacher, asking to accept him as a student. But each time the teacher declared that the man wasn’t ready. Finally the man comes to the teacher and demands to know why the teacher doesn’t think he is ready, so the teacher takes him down to the river. And when they get there the teacher suddenly grabs the man and pushes him under the water and holds him down there. The would be student struggles fights to get up to the surface, but the teacher holds him there until suddenly, at the last moment, when the man thinks he can’t hold his breath another second, he lets him up. “Why did you do that?” he sputters as he catches his breath. The teacher said, “When you seek enlightenment as desperately as you were seeking air, then you will be ready”.
            This is the attitude I think Jesus is talking about when he is telling his followers to count the cost. Once a person has an experience of faith; once we have glimpsed God or had a mystical experience, we gain this urge to get back to God. All it takes is a brush with truth, it’s like a faint odor, the brief sense of God’s presence – that’s all it takes. Then one becomes consumed with the search for enlightenment. Then nothing else is as important. We become consumed with an insatiable hunger, a thirst, a need to wake up. That is the attitude Jesus was talking about-this is the reorientation - to focus not on self anymore, but only on following God.