The Cost of Discipleship: Trusting Fully in Christ!

To truly follow Jesus Christ, we must consider the cost and put Christ above everything else. Therefore, discipleship requires. . .


Trusting Fully in Christ!

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (57 – 58)

The would-be or wanna-be disciple volunteers himself to be a disciple. His offer is open-ended—“I will follow you wherever you go!” Look at the parallel passage in Matthew 8:18 – 19 where the wanna-be disciple addresses Jesus as “Teacher.” It has been suggested that perhaps this individual equated discipleship to simply being a “student.” “Students in Judaism lived with their teachers to learn the Torah and see a model of a righteous life.” Hengel suggests that “to follow Jesus is more like following an Old Testament prophet than like studying with a rabbi.”

First, there was a great ignorance in this would-be disciple coming near. He presumed a self-calling. He wished not to simply follow Christ, but to thrust himself into apostolic honors. Hear what Paul writes about this in Hebrews 5:4—“No one takes the honor upon himself, he must be called by God, just as Aaron was.”

It is possible to follow Christ superficially. Remember that great multitudes were following Christ at this time. Every pastor would love to have that kind of congregation. Every ministry desires more followers. We, too often, measure success by numbers. However, as we discover as we study Natural Church Development, a healthy church is measured by both quantity and quality. But Jesus was different. Large crowds did not fool Him. He knew that many were following Him for selfish or superficial reasons. It was the exciting thing to do. Maybe you or someone you knew would be healed. But Jesus was not a false recruiter. He wanted to weed out those who followed Him for superficial reasons, because when the battle heated up, He knew that they would fall away and cause damage for His cause. So He turned to the great multitude and laid out these demands of discipleship.

Discipleship requires a denial of self. Discipleship requires a full commitment. There is no room for half-hearted disciples. None need apply and none will be accepted.

Cyril of Alexandria wrote… “The would-be disciple who claims to be willing to follow Jesus wherever he goes is presumptuous in his declaration, thrusting himself into apostolic honor without realizing that to follow Jesus is to take up his cross. For the Son of man to have a place to lay his head, the devil must be cast out.”

The true disciple will have to follow the same path as the Son of Man—it is a path of rejection. Discipleship requires fully trusting in Christ in the midst of rejection.