Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 14 verses 25, and
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them . . . 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
Last night we had a deacons meeting and we recognized our newest deacons who have been serving for a year now. Prior to their ordination, they went through six months of training and I told them I hope they felt that we had prepared them adequately for all that the task of being a deacon at our church demands. The word deacon means "servant" or "minister" and being a deacon is often inconvenient, always time consuming, and just plain hard work. Servanthood always is.
And so is Christianity.
When the crowds came in masses to Jesus he explained to them what would be demanded. "Count the cost," he said. In other words, he wanted them to know that following him would not be a walk in the park.
A man willing to turn the crowd away by speaking of the cost of discipleship is a truly free man. He knows his legitimacy in this world is not based on the size of his following, or the roar of the crowd, or really being successful in the way the world thinks of it at all. His legitimacy is based on faithfulness to the call of God; and so he wants his disciples' to be also.
There's an old hymn, "I have decided to follow Jesus . . . Though none to with me, I still will follow."
Jesus will take that one faithful follower over a crowd of half-followers every time. Every. Single. Time.
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