This material was first published by Redemptorist Publications
and is included here with their permission.

Luke 14.25-33

Counting the Cost

We’ve been following Jesus, my brother and I.   But tonight we’re having a re-think.  It’s not that we don’t want to travel with him.  Anyone who’s heard him or seen him in action wants to see and hear more.

But today he gave us a warning about going any further with him. He said we’d have to give up everything we had if we really wanted to be his disciples – everything.  And he wants us to work out what that would mean for us.  He wants us to think of our relationship with him as being more important than any other relationship in our lives.

So we’ve been talking, thinking, trying to reach a decision.  We could ignore what he said, carry on as we are and see what happens.  We could do as he says and make him our number one priority over everything we own and all the people we love.  Or we could turn round and go home now before it gets any harder to leave him.

We could ask you “What would you do?” but we’re all different.  Only you know what you’d have to leave behind and how hard that would be for you.

So we decide and we go to Jesus early in the morning, while it’s still dark, and we ask him to count us in please.  He grins and suddenly looks years younger and, you know what?, it doesn’t feel as if we’ve lost anything at all! 

Prayer:    Lord Jesus, help us to trust your love and to offer you all that we have and all that we are as we learn to become your true disciples.  Amen.