Count the Cost?

Mark 8:34-37   Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?  37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

We have this innate desire built deep within us somewhere for life.  We will go to incredible lengths to preserve life. And we should.  Life is a precious gift, not meant to be thrown away.  But sometimes we will actually inhibit the enjoyment of living life for the sake of preserving it.  Have you noticed that? 

And though I know Jesus was talking about eternal life in the passage we just read, it seems that the more insurance companies try to preserve life, the less fully life can be lived. Whoever wants to save His life will lose it.

There is something within us that wants to live.  That wants to thrive.  That wants to go beyond the everyday humdrum existence.  We want our lives to be lived…well, fully alive.  We long for more than just the day-to-day.  So many of us live for the weekends.   And we pack our weekends with  “fun” and “excitement”.  And then we go back to work on Monday worn out, but ready to exist until the next weekend.  And often we spend our lives in a dull meaningless existence, only waking up on the weekends to do the things we enjoy.

So for many of us, when we hear the words “deny yourself”, we think “I already have.”  Because in the back of our minds, we might think of someone who has more than we.

But that’s not what Jesus is talking about here.  Let’s look at that word deny.  It means to refute, refuse and renounce.   If we are talking about denying ourselves, it doesn’t mean just doing without something that we want or stopping ourselves from buying it.  It’s much deeper.  I believe that Jesus is calling us here to refute even the desires, to refuse to entertain the thoughts and even going so far as to renounce that desire in the first place.  Why does He call us to this?  First, so they don’t become a hindrance in our walk with Him. Secondly, I believe it is so we can take the resources that He has provided us and utilize them to bless others for the sake of the kingdom.

So deny yourself.  As one writer put it—Live simply so that others might simply live.

Next come those words we especially don’t like.  Take up your cross. It sounds so harsh and difficult.  And sometimes it is.  But 15^th century Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author, Samuel Rutherford wrote: Christ's cross is such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird.  I like that thought.

What Jesus is trying to do is free us from the expectations of the world.  He’s trying to help us realize that we don’t need to conform to the world’s demands, but instead, live life the way He designed us to in the first place.  Take up your cross simply means to live life in Christ, from God’s perspective and oftentimes counter-culturally.  This will mean that we will often be thought of as strange or bizarre, and Jesus said, the world may even hate us for it.

But Charles Spurgeon once wrote: “There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross- bearers here below.”

Whatever God allows you to bear, bear it with patience.  I’m not saying you can’t pray to be released from it, but like Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, we must come to the place where we are willing to pray, “Nevertheless—Not my will, but Yours be done.

If you try to save your life, Jesus said, you will lose it.  If you lose your life for the sake of the Gospel, you will find it.

Martin Luther said: A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.

Jesus never said the way would be without tears, or that it wouldn’t be hard at times.  But He did promise to be with us all the way to the end.  He promised that His very presence would hold us and carry us, no matter what we bear. 

Nathan C. Schaeffern puts things into perspective when he writes:

At the close of life, the question will not be,

"How much have you gotten?" but "How much have you given?"

Not "How much have you won?" but "How much have you done?"

Not "How much have you saved?" but "How much have you sacrificed?"

It will be "How much have you loved and served," not "How much were you honored?"

Jesus said we must count the cost if we are to be disciples.  How much will it cost?  Everything.  Your possessions, your family, possibly even your very life.  It’s the great irony of discipleship.  If you try to save your life, you’ll lose it.  If you lose your life for the sake of the gospel—if you invest your life for the sake of the gospel, instead of living it for yourself—you’ll save it.

Count the cost.   Deny yourself.  Take up your cross.  Follow Jesus.