A Price To Pay

There are many people in this world that wish to follow Christ, isn’t that true? How many people gathered here today wish to follow Christ? All of us here have the deep desire in our heart to follow our Lord and Savior. In fact, this desire was what motivated us to find a congregation where we begun to gather and this is all well and good. The problem that arises is that many begin to think that by regularly attending the services or events offered by the congregation they have done enough and that with this they serve and follow God. When we take the time to read and meditate in the scriptures, it is very obvious that we are all called to gather, but the sad reality is that this alone does not necessarily mean that we are following and serving God. Why do I say this? I say this because following Christ is very expensive, and not all are willing to pay the price. What price am I talking about? Let’s now turn to the scriptures that we will be using today, and let’s explore this theme.

Luke 9:57-62 - Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” 61And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Something that is very clear in these verses at first glance is that these three men felt a desire in their heart to follow Jesus, but here we also find a very valuable lesson about the price that we will have to pay when we decide to follow Him. Let’s examine these verses a little closer with the purpose of discovering the price that we will have to pay when we decide to follow Jesus.

Here we find that the first man said to Jesus “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” Why did he say this? If we think about this for a moment, I think that all of us here will reach the same conclusion that the reason why he said this was because this man, just as all of us, had heard about the wisdom and teachings of the Lord, and appreciated all of the good that Jesus had done and represented. Aren’t those the same reasons that brought us to Him? Of course they are, we started to follow Him because in Him we found the peace that we longed for, in Him we found the rest that we needed, in Him we found genuine forgiveness and love. How many can say praise God? What occurred next is that just as the man in this store we say that we Hill follow Him, and we do this without realizing that there is a very high price that we Hill have to pay. Look at how this is something that is very well reflected in our Lord’s answer when He said ““Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”. Tell the person next to you, there is a price to pay. As we can see, Jesus used himself here as the example. I want us to note very carefully that Jesus, the owner of everything that exists in this world; being the owner and creator of everything that exists in the universe; being the all powerful God, He did not have a place where He could rest. Why do we need to pat attention to this detail? We need to pay close attention to how the Lords answered because in His answer He warned this man, and warns us today, that to be his disciple there is a price to pay Let’s examine this a little closer to see if what I am saying makes any sense.

In this moment in time Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was fulfilling the mission that the Father had sent Him to accomplish. Now, the truth of it all is that when we accepted Christ and become His disciple, we can’t stop in the fact that we are saved. We can’t take refuge in this fact alone; we must work and do everything that is possible to expand God’s kingdom here on earth. Can you imagine what would have happened if Jesus had not taken the mission that the Father sent Him to do seriously? If this had been the case, then none of us would be here today.