Sacrifice
Most of us like to be with important people. Meeting a head of state or a government minister or a celebrity provides us with a much-coveted conversation topic. Knowing someone important, or even knowing someone who knows someone important, somehow seems to endow us with a halo of glory. It seems a natural desire to climb up the social ladder rather than remain near its base. Jesus' disciples were no exception to this unfortunate human trait.
How did some disciples (and their relatives) hope that following Jesus would enhance their status? What was Jesus' reply? Matt. 20:20-23, Mark 10:35-41. What does this attitude remind you of? Isa. 14:12-14.
Rather than promising His disciples material prosperity and social status, Jesus prepared them for a different kind of reality: Following Him is a costly business.
Read Mark 8:31-38. What do you learn in this passage about the cost of discipleship?
In his famous book The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the young German theologian who was martyred by the Nazis in 1945, emphasizes that divine grace does not come cheap. And following Christ is not an easy thing to do. It inevitably will involve suffering. Just as Christ said that He "must suffer," so must we. If we want to identify with Him in His life, we must also do so in His suffering and death. "To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity. . . . Only a man . . . totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross. The cross is there, right from the beginning, he has only got to pick it up; there is no need for him to go out and look for a cross for himself, no need for him deliberately to run after suffering. Jesus says that every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God."—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1965), p. 98.
| What is the cross that God has given you to bear? What has following Christ cost you? If your answer is "Nothing, really," maybe you need to take a closer look at how closely you are following the Master. |
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