THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me and for the gospel will save it.”  (Mark 8:34b-35 NIV)

As evidence that cross-bearing must become the true disciple’s way, Jesus offers His listeners the paradox of Mark 8:35. The “life” saved or lost is the Greek “psyche,” which includes a threefold dimension: “life,” “soul,” and “oneself.” Clearly, all three meanings are intended by Jesus’ declaration. The blatant expression of physical cost had already been highlighted by references to suffering and the focus on the cross, a device of physical torture. But here there is an additional sense of “life” as well.  A sense of individual identity, of “oneself” and the unique “soul” that animates every living person, is part of the natural desire of self-preservation that Jesus turns topsy-turvy with His words. Jesus’ rhetorical question, “What can they give in return for their life?” (Mark 8:37) leads His listeners to the conclusion that only “life itself” can be offered as an adequate response to the gift of life. For both the disciples and the crowds who had up to this point been enjoying a journey of triumph and miracles, Jesus’ new message was both sobering and hard to swallow.

Today the cost of discipleship is still sobering and hard to swallow... The final comment offered by Jesus, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulteress and sinful generation, of Him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father and the holy angels,” (Mark 8:38) reminds His listeners, and us, that whatever choice we make, for Jesus or against Him, there will be eternal consequences. 

-- Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe”

#6361

FOLLOWING JESUS

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?’”  (Matthew 16:24-26 NLT)

To follow Jesus Christ, who was betrayed, wept, bled, and died before He rose again, is to be at high risk of being taken where we had not intended to go. Eugene Peterson pinpoints the trouble with prayer: “We are often asked to respond in ways that we never intended when we first began to pray.”

It matters little where or in what century we are called to live out our Christian life. The witness of those who have gone before informs my own experience, telling me that we are often taken to places where we receive unwarranted accolades and to other places where we receive unwarranted suffering and pain. A disciple, one who chooses to be a student and follower of Jesus, is not a “self-made person” and is not on a personally designed journey… We choose to follow Jesus and then Jesus chooses where we will go. It is that simple.

The saving truth here is not that we are taken where we do not want to go, rather the saving truth is that we are not alone. There is One who leads us and who goes with us… While we may not choose the places to go, we can choose to remain with the One who sends us and there find comfort, companionship, grace, peace, and joy in Christ. 

-- Adapted from Rueben P. Job in “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God”

#6330