The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
Lesson Plan:
1. Introduction (v 25)
2. The Price of Loneliness (v 26)
3. The Price of Cross-Bearing (v 27)
4. Counting the Cost - Two Parables (vs 28-32)
5. The Price of Entire Self-Surrender (v 33)
6. When the Price is Taken Back (vs 34, 35)
Lesson Setting:
Time: Probably January, A.D. 30, during the Perean ministry of Jesus, early in His last three
months.
Place: Probably on the way to Jerusalem, with great throngs, for a feast.
Inductive Study of the Lesson:
a. Read the lesson, Luke 14:25-35, and compare it with the parallel passages, Matthew 10:37, 38;
16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:50.
b. Read Christ's prophecy of His own crucifixion, Matthew 20:18, 19; John 18:31, 32.
c. Read Paul
on cross-bearing, Galatians 5:24; 6:14.
d. In illustration of verse 26 read Deuteronomy 13:6-9; 21:18-21; 33:8, 9; also Revelation 12:11;
Acts 10:24.
e. As an example of how Christ would have His disciples count the cost see Matthew 20:22.
f. For a
commentary on verse 35 read Hebrews 6:4-12; 10:26-39.
g. For the covenant of salt see Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5.
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:25
1. Introduction
What started Christ’s talk about the cost of being a Christian? – His own great popularity. After the feast and the Sabbath, Jesus went on His journey through Perea toward Jerusalem “great multitudes” (v 25) going with Him. They were on their way to the yearly Passover feast at Jerusalem. Jesus went before them as a leader, and “turned” to talk to the people by the way. “Christ’s constant effort was to sift the crowds that gathered round him. So here great multitudes are following him, and how does he welcome them? With a steady hand he drenched with cold water the two easily kindled flames. Was that because he did not wish them to follow him? He desired every soul in that crowd for his own, and he knew that the best way to attract is sometimes to repel; and that a plain statement of the painful consequences of a course will quench no genuine enthusiasm, but may turn a mere flash in the pan into a purpose that will flame through a life” (Alexander Maclaren). “Rice Christians” in China are those that become converts for the sake of getting food in famine times. Happily there are very few of these, if any; and the Boxer massacres proved how magnificently real Chinese Christianity is. But where Christianity is popular and influential, as in America and Europe, there is always danger that men may follow it from false motives, or carelessly, as one often follows a crowd. Our study is to find out what real following of Christ is, and what it involves.
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:26
2. The Price of Loneliness
v 26 ... “If any man come to me.” What did Christ mean by coming to Him? Coming “with a view to close and permanent discipleship” (Expositor’s Greek Testament). Many come to Jesus in the same way they might come to an ordinary Jewish rabbi, to learn something about Jewish religious customs. They would forsake one rabbi for another on slight pretext in the same way the Greeks of Athens, always eager to hear some new thing, were inclined to move about from one philosopher to another. Jesus did not wish followers from mere curiosity; not does He today.
What severe test did Christ apply to His would-be followers? – They supposed (and His miracles largely confirmed the impression) that a grand ole good time was coming. They were going to keep their sins; there was to be good living for everyone; their enemies were going to be smitten down; they were going to be men and swine indifferently, as they had been before; and Christ was going to lead. To such a crowd it was necessary to speak strongly. “The ‘hate’ is adopted in strict accordance with our Lord’s habit of stating the great truths which he uttered in the extremist form. It was necessary that they should be uttered in such a way as to seize and dominate over the imagination of mankind forever” (Farrar). Matthew 10:37 gives the saying in this explanatory form: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Whenever any human love comes in competition with divine love, there is to be not one single moment of weighing; for our earthly loves are but so many silver steps leading us up to the great golden love of God. We learn how to love God by learning how to love our earthly parents. We ought to begin by loving on earth, and then love all the way up.
Illustration: In the first century it often happened that, in order for a Christian to be true to Christ, it was necessary to give up an idolatrous wife or husband, father or mother. Children must be abandoned for death in the amphitheater. Within our own lifetime the alternative of death or the denial of Christ has been presented to many Chinese and Armenians, and praise God many chose Christ.
Illustration: “If the river is to have any scour in it that will sweep away pollution and corruption, it must not go winding and lingering in many curves, howsoever flowery may be the banks, nor spreading over a broad bed, but you must straighten it up and make it deep that it may run strong. And if you will diffuse yourself all over those poor, wretched worldly good, or even let the rush of your heart’s outflow go in the direction of father and mother, wife and children, brethren and sisters, forgetting him, then you will never come to any good nor be of use in this world” (Alexander Maclaren).
Christ said (Mk. 10:29, 30) that whoever made this choice of himself in place of father, children, wife, and other dear ones, and worldly goods, would receive both his dear ones and goods back again in this life, and eternal life in the world to come. Many a child has won his parents to Christ by his firm and loving stand for his Savior. Many a wife has thus won her husband and many a husband his wife. How has this saying of Jesus Christ been misunderstood and misapplied? Men have thought that Christ forbade the enjoyment of human relationships, instead of the subordination of them to Himself; and so they have left the world of men and lived as hermits in the wilderness. Men and women have inflicted upon themselves all kinds of tortures and privations. When any bigot or ascetic chooses to use these words as though Christ put a cold hand upon human affection, he is utterly and entirely wrong. Not with the eye of a cynic or of a stoic is any enjoyment scorned or rejected, but only as duty and love fix their eye on something higher and better.
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:27
3. The Price of Cross-Bearing
In all three years of His public ministry, at the beginning, in the middle, and now at the end, Christ compared the Christian life to bearing a cross. From where came this metaphor of cross- bearing? “Jews, especially in Galilee, knew well what the cross meant. The supporters of Judas and Simon had been crucified by hundreds [Josephus, Ant. XVII.x.10]. The person to be crucified carried his own cross, or at least the cross-beam, to the place of execution” (Alfred Plummer). The cross with us has become a figure of speech and a jeweled ornament, but with Jesus it was a hangman’s rope and much worse, a shameful and terrible death. What did Christ mean by cross-bearing? Some take it to mean that a disciple must go against his liking simply because they are his liking; that something is gained by abstinence from what is pleasant, or by doing what is disagreeable. But cross-bearing is nothing of the kind. To take up the cross is to be ready for suffering in the cause and obedience of a crucified Savior. When our will crosses Christ’s will, the attempt to bring the two parallel is a cross; when they are brought parallel there is no more a cross. Note the revised version, “his own cross.” All must bear the cross, but not all the same cross.
Why must each of Christ’s followers bear a cross? – Because the servant must be as his master; because if Christ, with infinite resources, found no other way to win the world, we cannot expect to; because what is worthwhile costs, and nothing is more worthwhile than character; ours and that of others. To shirk the Cross is to miss the Kingdom. The heart’s blood of the follower is needed as well as the blood of the Lord. The soul must be poured out if souls are to be saved.
Illustration: There can be no cross without love, and no love without its cross. The mother watches night and day, because she is the mother. Every David weeps for his Jonathan. Patriots love their country, and are therefore willing to do die for it.
Illustration: The botanist points out how one portion of a flower is sacrificed for the welfare of the flower as a whole; how certain leaves patriotically perish to enable the plant to put on the full glory of the summer. The entomologist finds the same principle in insect life and polity. For example, little of the intense activity of the bee is on account of its own pleasure: its gifts, habits, industry, mainly design the benefit of the species. It appears to be a law that, whenever large numbers of living objects, whether animals or plants, congregate together, some of them are modified for the benefit of the rest. The fine saying of the Japanese Samurai, “To be defeated, therefore to conquer,” begins to be intelligible.
In what way are we to bear our crosses? – (a) Gladly, rejoicing, counting them not a burden but a glory. “A life of strenuous battle, of climbing up the starry ways, a life which gives rather than gets, and surrenders rather than seeks – that is the life we want” (R.F. Horton). (b) Humbly, with no thought of self, but of others.
Illustration: A man once remarked, “It seems all one can do is to make his mark and die”; to which an old and wise preacher replied, “It is not necessary to make your mark. All one needs to do is give things a push.”
Illustration: We may humbly, but confidently, expect that the cross which is laid on our shoulders will become in some sort a tree of life, whose leaves will be for the help and healing of some troubled or doubting soul.
Illustration: What the poor need is not our money – it is us. When they have us, they will have and receive much more than our money. We are not to consider the worth of those for whom we bear our crosses: the weaker or less worthy one is, the more need and help should be given.
Illustration: “Skilled physicians sacrifice themselves ministering to patients intellectually and morally destitute. Nurses of distinguished mental and moral merit take their life in their hands that they may ameliorate the lot of the sick and dying poor. The choicest members of the family circle suffer what no language can express through their burdens and renunciations for the black sheep” (Watkinson). Bearing the cross always means the willingness to die, if need be, for the good of others.
Illustration: Among the letters sent home from Valley Forge during America’s war for Independence, one of the most affecting was that of a little drummer-boy to his mother. After describing the hardships of that memorable winter, the cold and pitiless wind, the hunger and nakedness which the army endured, he concluded with the simple and touching words, “But, mother, it’s our duty, and for our duty we will die.”
What are the rewards of cross-bearing? – (a) We shall not be looking for rewards. It is possible for a man to be so taken up with serving God that he never stops to ask for his own happiness; but as he goes on he is happy, though he never thinks of it. (b) And yet there is no joy equal to what we find in cross-bearing. The satisfaction which arises from real self-denial is precious. It is rich in quality and broad and deep as the ocean in amount.
Illustration: Years ago, in a London auction mart there was a sale of jeweled medals celebrating valor on many fields. No one could wear these prized distinctions, whatever price he might give for them. Immortal badges must be personally won on fields of battle. Such will be our honor if we bear our crosses with Christ. “If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.” The chief reward of cross-bearing is that it leads others to the cross of Christ. Teaching that leads to saving others is a great deal better than teaching which only prompts saving self.
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:28-32
4. Counting the Cost – Two Parables
Why did Christ want all His followers to count the cost of discipleship? – Because ‘forewarned is forearmed.’ The Christian is sure to meet many difficulties. If he expects them, he is likely to prepare himself to meet them. By what little parable did Christ illustrate the necessity of cost- counting? He compared the Christian life to the process of building a tower, a lofty structure, as something distinguished from the world and attracting attention. It was common to build towers in vineyards, Isaiah 5:2. They were, as now in Syria sometimes, quite pretentious, 30 feet square and 50 or 60 feet high, serving as a pleasure house, a summer retreat, and also as a shelter for the watchman and husbandmen. To put up such a building would require a plan, and counting the cost, in a land where materials were not always near, and laborers are incompetent.
If one laid the foundation and had no means to finish, on-lookers would “mock him” (v 29). The Greek for ‘mock’ signifies ‘to sport as with a child,’ hence he, a man, ‘is in child’s play.’ “An unfinished tower is specially ridiculous: height is essential. Jesus here appeals with characteristic tact to one of the most sensitive feelings of human nature – shrinking from ridicule. Who would care to be spoken of all his days as the man who commenced a tower and could not finish it?” (Expositors Greek Testament).
Illustration: Such uncompleted buildings, open to all the winds and rains of heaven, with their naked walls and with all which has been spent upon them utterly wasted, are called in the language of the world, this man’s, or that man’s Folly. Perhaps the Lord intended an allusion to that great historic tower, the mightiest failure and defeat which the world has ever seen, the tower of Babel.
By what other parable did Christ illustrate the same thing? – By a parable not relating to an ordinary person, like the tower-builder, but to a king, that is, to men of ambition, men of large affairs. That king (Christ may have had in mind Herod Antipas, going to fight against his father- in-law, King Hareth, whose daughter he had so greatly wronged), is represented as having only 10,000 soldiers, while his antagonist has 20,000. Manifestly the wisest course of the weaker king is to propose terms of peace. Some have thought that the stronger king represents the forces of the evil one; others that he represents God. However this may be, the main point is the warning to count the cost before we embark on any enterprise.
What is the result in our life if we do not count the cost of all undertakings? – Temptations assail us, a great army, and we have not provided ourselves with force sufficient to meet them. Sorrows come upon us and overwhelm us. Death rises in our path, a grim spectre before which we feel powerless. Our own consciences condemn us, and we have before us the certainty of a trial before a Judge who knows all things; what will be our recourse on that day? How may we count the cost of Christian discipleship? By determining that Christ shall be all in all for us, as our lesson goes on to say. Self-renunciation stands at the threshold of the school of Christ.
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:33
5. The Price of Entire Self-Surrender
What is the sum, therefore, of Christ’s requirements of His followers? – All; All that he hath, all that he is.
v 33 ... “forsaketh” means “bids good-by to.” We must not expect to see it again, or care to, unless Christ invites it. He may never require us to give up a possession or a desire. The great surrender consists of absolute willingness to give up all.
Why must Christ require this surrender? – Because “the forsaking of self is the underside of faith” (Maclaren). It implies and proves complete trust in Christ, and nothing else can prove it. What is involved in the entire surrender that Christ requires? Immediate and thorough separation from everything, every act, and every person that would hinder our following Christ. We must not be held, either by being possessed by others, or possessing aught. There must be a clean severance from all entanglement, and an utter uncompromising abandonment of ourselves to Him. What are the results of making this complete renunciation? A peace that passes understanding. Our lives are for the first time in harmony with God and His plans. A joy that is full of exultation – joy in Christ’s companionship and love, and in the new love for man. Power that we did not dream of before – power over temptation, power with other men, power with God in prayer. And all this constantly growing, as we go on in the Christian life.
Scripture Reading: Luke 14:34, 35
6. When the Price is Taken Back
To what did Christ compare the Christian? – “salt” (v 34), a substance (mainly obtained from the Dead Sea) held in high value by the ancient Jews, a part of every sacrifice, an emblem of the covenant between Jehovah and His people. “Owing to its purifying, sustaining, and antiseptic qualities, salt became an emblem of fidelity and friendship amongst Eastern nations. To have ‘eaten of his salt,’ and thus partaken of his hospitality, was (and still is) regarded by the Arabs as a token or pledge of eternal amity” (Hasting’s Bible Dictionary). Why did Christ compare the Christian to salt? “It is the very nature of Christians to season those around them” (John Wesley). They bring out the best that is in people. They purify the world. Like salt, the Christian works quietly, gradually, and inconspicuously. As salt, however pure and pungent, can do no good unless it is brought into actual contact with corruption, we are to see that our salt really touches the evil that is around us.
Illustration: In former days men built monasteries and thought that they could lay up in definite places a store of salt for the preservation of the world. We all know how soon the salt lost its savor when it was removed from the actual corruption which it was meant to cure.
How can the Christian salt lost its savor or saltness? – By losing the spirit of self-surrender and getting that of selfishness. As outside influences (mainly dampness) spoil the salt, so the outside influences of worldliness spoil the Christian. Soon there comes to be no marked difference between the Christian business man and the worldling, or the Christian and the worldly woman in society.
What is the good of savorless salt? – “It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill” (v 35). “It is neither earth nor manure” (Expositor’s Greek Testament).
Illustration: Dr. Thomson, in The Land and the Book, tells how a merchant of Sidon brought over an immense amount of salt from the marshes of Cypus, and, to cheat the government of a small percentage of duty, transferred it to the mountains. “Sixty-five houses were rented and filled with salt. Such houses have merely earthen floors, and the salt next to the ground was in a few years entirely spoiled. I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the road to be trodden under foot of men and beasts. It was ‘good for nothing.’”
What becomes of Christians that are false to Christ? – “wherewith shall it be seasoned?” (v 34) “There is no obstacle in the way of a penitent returning to the fountain of all power and purity, nor of the full restoration of the lost savor, if a man will only bring about a full reunion of himself with the source of the savor” (Maclaren). But those are the strict conditions.
Why did Christ close His discourse with these solemn words: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear?” (v 35) Because the truths He had been uttering were of the greatest importance for all His hearers. They disclosed their dignity, danger, and possible doom. They apply to every Christian now as then, and they call for our most earnest heed.
