No pain, no gain! No prize without a price!

Luke 14:25-33

Great crowds were following him. He turned around and addressed them as follows: “Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, more than his own life—otherwise he cannot be my disciple. And no one can be my disciple who does not carry his own cross and follow me. “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if he has enough money to pay the bills? Otherwise he might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh! “‘See that fellow there?’ they would mock. ‘He started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!’ “Or what king would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors and discussing whether his army of 10,000 is strong enough to defeat the 20,000 men who are marching against him? “If the decision is negative, then while the enemy troops are still far away, he will send a truce team to discuss terms of peace. So no one can become my disciple unless he first sits down and counts his blessings—and then renounces them all for me.

Food for thought!

When Jesus said this he was on the road to Jerusalem. He knew that he was on his way to the cross; the crowds who were with him thought that he was on his way to an empire. That is why he spoke to them like this (sometimes it is necessary to call things by their names). In the most vivid way possible he told them that following him is not fun. Many of us think that because we follow Jesus we are not to have problems in our life. Sometimes we have problems exactly because we follow Jesus. 

Another lesson: It is easy to follow Jesus as the great crowds in the gospel did and not be a disciple of Jesus. All can follow Jesus; few can be his disciple. To be a disciple of Jesus means: 1) loving Jesus far more than we do love our own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, more than we do love our own life; 2) carrying one's burdens / cross. 

Did you notice? Jesus does not say, "If you have a cross...;" he says, "And no one can be my disciple who does not carry his own cross and follow me." In other words, Jesus knows that we all have some cross / burden to carry. Instead of being carried away by our burdens, Jesus tells us to carry our burdens and follow him. Our burden is the price we will pay for our prize. 

In other words, if we're not willing to pay the price, then we don't know what we want; there is no prize without price. Behind everything we want in life, behind every achievement, there's a cost to pay; there's a cross. Without the cross there's no salvation because in life, no pain no gain.