Yesterday, a friend admitted to me what it cost her to follow Christ. A successful nurse at the top of her profession, she heard the Lord call her to give it all up and become a volunteer nurse on the Mercy Ships, provide medical care to some of the poorest countries. For five years, she nursed on board, along the coast of West Africa, leaving behind family, friends, home, career, livelihood. Her love for her Lord and her obedience to him were so huge that all the rest paled into insignificance in comparison (vs 26,27).   

The feast of the kingdom is a generous and free gift for all; but it does not come cheaply. To enter the narrow door may well cost everything we hold dear. In many countries, to follow Christ may mean you are expelled from your family with a death threat hanging over you.  We need to remember to count the cost (vs 28,31). To do so is a wise move – salt is used in Scripture to represent wisdom – even though it might not be seen that way by the world (1 Corinthians 3:18,19). 

‘As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death … When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.’¹  

Jesus’ hearers were well aware of what it meant to carry one’s own cross. Many would have seen a criminal being forced to carry the cross on which he would die to his execution site. So this saying of Jesus isn’t exactly light or easy – it is meant to curb the enthusiasm of the crowds and get people thinking about why they are really following him. He even shocks them by implying that they will need to commit to him more than to their own family and he compares discipleship to carrying an instrument of public and shameful execution.

It is foolish to undertake the building of a tower, or to go to war, without carefully thinking through what it will take to finish the endeavour. In the same way, many begin to follow Jesus without fully weighing up what this will require of them. The great danger is that they will then abandon their faith when they realise all that it will cause them to lose. It is better to consider this cost, carefully, at the very beginning and maybe decide not to embark on the journey than to start enthusiastically and then wane in faith during the expedition.

Often, especially in the West, Christian faith is a ‘mile wide and an inch deep’. We know so much about Christ but, when push comes to shove, our commitment to following him sacrificially lacks real substance and vigour. The Christian life is not trouble-free: it is full of great joy – but also of painful loss and cost. Discipleship is an invitation to death.

Is your faith in Jesus superficial? Jesus’ challenge is to either turn back, or go deeper. To follow Christ means total surrender to him, even to the point of death. Be sure you’ve counted the cost of discipleship thoroughly so that your faith won’t waver when it becomes painful.

¹ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, Shepherd’s Notes, Christian Classics (Holman Reference, 1999), p99