Counting the Cost of Discipleship

Preacher: Fr. Columba

Deut 30:15-20; Ps 1; Phlm (1-3)4-21(22-25); Lk 14:25-33

Today’s gospel reading reminds us of a hard truth: everything in this life costs something.

Work costs us. Relationships cost us. Education, hobbies, even our health routines all ask for our time, our energy, or our money. Sometimes they even cost us the people we love. Anyone who has battled addiction knows this too well. The appetite consumes everything until nothing is left but the wreckage.

Jesus speaks to us in that same language of cost. Following Him, He says, will cost us everything.

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14)

That word hate jars us. But Jesus is not commanding animosity. He is naming the tension that comes when His call collides with our comforts and loyalties. Following Him will divide households. It will put us at odds with the values of our neighbors and sometimes even our own instincts.

Think of it. To talk about loving your enemies at a Fourth of July cookout feels out of place. Our culture cheers for vengeance and victory. Christ calls us to forgiveness and peace. His words were divisive two thousand years ago and they are divisive today.

That is why Jesus presses us to count the cost. The faith is not a social club. Church is not a cultural add-on for weddings and Christmas services. To belong to Christ is to surrender our entire lives.

I think of this often in my own ministry. Like many clergy, I work a full-time job alongside priestly duties. Every sermon, every liturgy, every pastoral call costs time, money, and energy. The same is true for Bishop Kenny, who is always juggling projects, some of which take years to come to fruition. That cost is real. And it is no different for every Christian who seeks to follow Christ with sincerity.

Jesus warns us against starting without counting the cost. Like a builder who lays a foundation but runs out of funds. Like a king who marches into battle without the strength to win. We must weigh what discipleship will take from us because it will take everything.

But here is the heart of the matter. It is not only about giving away possessions. It is about giving away ourselves. Our heart, mind, and soul are to be handed over to Christ. This is the path of theosis, as the Eastern Church calls it, being made one with God. In the West we call it atonement, at-one-ment. In both languages it is about surrender.

The Christian life is cruciform. Jesus went to the cross, knowing it would cost Him everything. He tells us plainly: to follow Him is to carry our own crosses. For some, that has meant literal martyrdom. For all of us, it means living as if even our breath is His.

That is not comfortable. It is easier to cling to wealth, to pride, to resentment. But Christ calls us to the harder path, to pour ourselves out in love. And in that surrender, we discover true abundance. The abundant life Jesus promises is not hoarded wealth but radical generosity, not dominance but service, not hate but costly love.

So the question comes: have we counted the cost? Are we prepared to follow Jesus when it means loss? When it means tension with those closest to us? When it demands that we give up more than we planned?

This is not a switch we flip once. It is a covenant, a lifelong struggle, and a gift of grace. God is faithful in the wrestling. God’s Spirit reshapes us along the way.

But the call remains. Pick up your cross. Follow me.

The world does not need more churches that operate as social clubs. The world does not need more Christians who mold Jesus into their own image. The world needs disciples, real ones, who have counted the cost and found Christ worth everything.

Amen.