pick up your cross

Estimated Costs

Posted on by Betsy

One of my daughters is building an addition to her house. The twins are finally old enough to separate, and Nana and Papa need a guest room that doesn’t involve stepping on Legos and maneuvering around a large kitchen play set and train table to get to their suitcases when they visit. We all sat down happily and talked with the builder about the specifics of this two-story addition. After drawings were completed, costs were estimated and then re-estimated, materials were ordered, and a very tricky electrical box was approved by the city to be moved, we are almost finished. The foundation was poured months ago and we just can’t wait for the result. No more sleeping in the play room!

I can’t imagine taking on even a small building project like this one without a lot of pre-planning, can you? I mean, how could you even know if the vision for more space was even possible without all of the measurements and calculations? Every good project begins with a serious sit down where costs are estimated.

Jesus used this same analogy when he talked to his large crowd of followers about calculating the cost of following him. You may be surprised at some of the language he used:

Luke 14 (Common English Bible)

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. Turning to them, he said, 26 “Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, spouse and children, and brothers and sisters—yes, even one’s own life—cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever doesn’t carry their own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Jesus was clear that everyone is invited to accept God’s invitation to come to him. But becoming a disciple of Jesus involved a different cost. Jesus had built his legacy and his ministry on redefining love and was audacious enough to suggest the being a disciple meant hating your former life. You couldn’t have allegiance to anything before your allegiance to Christ if you were willing to become his student-learner.

Every single hearer of this would have immediately understood the image of carrying your own cross. They had witnessed multiple crucifixions and watched wretched, beaten down criminals dragging their crosses to their crucifixions. Carrying your cross leads to humiliation, pain, and death. Before a man was hung on his cross, a cross was hung on him.

28 “If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when you have laid the foundation but couldn’t finish the tower, all who see it will begin to belittle you. 30 They will say, ‘Here’s the person who began construction and couldn’t complete it!’ 31 Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand soldiers could go up against the twenty thousand coming against him? 32 And if he didn’t think he could win, he would send a representative to discuss terms of peace while his enemy was still a long way off. 33 In the same way, none of you who are unwilling to give up all of your possessions can be my disciple.

Jesus’ stern words here leave no room for interpretation. Each of us bears a different cross but bear it we must. And all of us must abandon our personal seeking and striving for whatever had charmed us previously in order to walk this way with Jesus. Jesus instructs us to sit down and calculate the costs.

Remember that as he said these words, he was walking to Jerusalem toward his crucifixion. The crowd thought he was walking toward his new empire, but he knew the way he was going and the cost he would pay there.

The building of Christ’s kingdom is the work of Christ’s disciples. And like every building project, the cost usually comes in higher than originally anticipated. Jesus is calling! What price are you willing to pay?

New View

Losing Yourself

Posted on by Betsy

According to scientists, the average human head has approximately 100,000 hairs and about as many follicles. You are born with all your follicles and do not develop more as you age. Hair grows at a rate of half an inch per month, and we lose between 50-100 strands of hair each day … unless you are the parent of a teenager, in which case you can double that.

If you are wondering why we are talking about hair today, our Scripture makes the wonderful statement that God numbers the very count of hairs on your head. Isn’t that amazing? Granted he gets to skip over the baldies, but still, to think that he can know us in such finite detail is something to marvel.

Matthew 10 records Jesus’ instructions, encouragement, and admonitions to the disciples when they encountered great resistance to their public proclamations that Jesus is Lord. They were being bullied and persecuted for their faith and they struggled to stand up for their beliefs among all the nay-sayers around them. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever been put down for being a Christian? Take heart and read on.

Matthew 10 (The Message)

29-31 “What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.

God loves the tiny canary but he loves you even more. Read that again. He is the author of all creation and gave his only Son for our salvation, which proves his love for us. He pays attention to what we do and knows us down to the last detail. Does that encourage you or intimidate you? If intimidation is your answer, what are you trying to hide?

32-33 “Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I’ll cover for you?

34-37 “Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me.

This part of the Scripture takes a sudden turn. We’ve gone from the gentleness of being reassured of our worth to what feels suddenly threatening, as Jesus makes it clear that however we have treated him in our lifetime on earth will determine how he will treat us in eternity. Do you pretend you don’t know him when the going gets tough? Do you remain silent when your beliefs are ridiculed and disparaged by a secular society that has turned its back on God?

Are you in or are you out?

38-39 “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

It is important to note that this section of Scripture is peppered with an instruction to not be intimated by the world. In fact, in the passages that surround it, Jesus says “do not fear” three times in six verses. If we chose him over every other relationship on earth, there will be nothing to fear. The sharp knife that divides earthly relationships is Jesus’ way of helping us understand that we are called to make a radical commitment to him and learn to die to self so that we might live with him. Devotion to Christ must come before devotion to any person, place, or thing.

Where are you on this spectrum of public belief? Is God calling you to make your faith known?

Pick up your cross, and follow him.

God Loves us More than These by Michelle Robertson