Amy C Walters

The Cost of Discipleship | Luke 14:25-35

Jesus had every influencer’s dream–a huge crowd of people following him. Until one day when he challenges them with some startling words, calling them to consider the cost of following. Casual following of Jesus can be dangerous. He wants intentional disciples.

We’ve come to a rather strange story in the Book of Luke. Jesus has a large crowd following him. And to many people, this might seem like great success. If you’ve got a huge crowd, then people love you, people want to listen to you, you’re very influential. People today make a career out of building up a large following and influencing them to buy or do things. They’re constantly looking for ways to draw even more people into their audience.

But Jesus seems to be sending people away. He intentionally turns to the following crowd and says some startling things. 

One of the first questions I ask about a Bible story is what is the tension or the problem in it? And the interesting thing about this one is that there’s no tension until Jesus brings it. Jesus is the one creating the tension and the discomfort.

Three times in this story, he says, “You cannot be my disciple.” He talks about hating your family. He talks about execution devices like the cross. Why such harsh language? Why push people away? I think if we look at the two brief parables that Jesus tells, we get an understanding of why he’s doing this. 

The first parable is a really short story about someone wanting to build a tower. What does that person do before he builds the tower? He sits down to estimate how much money it will cost to build it. There are very few details in this story, so it’s interesting that it mentions that he sits down.

Then there’s the king who’s about to go to war against another king. And what does he do before he goes to war? He sits down to consider whether he can, with 10,000 men, oppose the one who’s coming against him with 20,000 men. Again, there are very few details in this story, but it does say that he sits down to consider. 

So sitting down to think ties these two stories together. Jesus wants his crowd to think about what they’re doing, to think about following him, to be intentional in what they do. 

If you know even a little bit about physics, you know the rule: objects in motion tend to stay in motion, objects at rest tend to stay at rest. We tend to just continue doing what we were doing, and it takes an outside force to change that status.

So Jesus is being that outside force to change the crowd’s momentum. He’s signaling to them that they can’t just float downstream as his followers. It takes intentionality to be a disciple. 

Think about the consequences presented in this story of not considering the cost. What happens when the builder and the king don’t stop to consider what they’re doing? With the tower, if the man lays the foundation but can’t finish, everyone will ridicule him. Also, if he’s stopping in the middle of construction, it’s probably because he ran out of money. So bankruptcy is another consequence. 

What about the king going out to war? If he doesn’t stop to do the math for what he’s up against, he’s going to be defeated. He will lose the battle and maybe even his own life. 

There’s even a brief illustration of salt and losing its saltiness. “It’s not fit for anything, either the soil or the manure pile. It is thrown out.” Uselessness is another consequence of not considering the cost. 

How would things be different if the tower builder and the king did consider the cost? The builder might think, “Okay, this is gonna be a really expensive construction project. I need to devote all of my money and resources to this. I can’t spend frivolously on other things. I need to focus my time, my attention, my money on this to get it done.” The builder is going to approach that project very differently if he has sat down to consider the cost.

The king is going up against 20,000 men with 10,000. If he decides that yes, he’s still going to go for this, then he’s going to have to be very strategic about it. He’s going to gather all the resources he can to win the battle. 

Both men live very differently if they’ve sat down to think about it, because they know it’s going to require everything that they have. 

We know from Luke 9:53 that at this point, Jesus is looking ahead, preparing for Jerusalem and death on the cross. Those who are traveling with him need to know that this is not going to be an easy road. If they keep just drifting along without some intentionality and thought and decision, they’re going to run into some serious consequences. Because the examples in this story show us that casual following is dangerous.

The consequences are ridicule, bankruptcy, defeat, death. Jesus is heading toward his own death. If his followers have not stopped to consider that this might be costly for them too, then they are going to be blindsided by those costs and not able to withstand them.

Our key truth for today is that Jesus wants intentional disciples, people who have thought about what it’s going to cost and have chosen to follow him anyway. 

Such people have already made up their mind to stick with Jesus. God doesn’t care about having lots of followers. He doesn’t care about being popular with people. He wants people who have thought about it, know that there are risks, and decide to follow him no matter what the cost.