3: The cost of discipleship

Let's examine Matthew 4:18–20 again where Jesus called his first disciples:

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 

When Jesus invited Peter and Andrew to follow him, they left their livelihood (nets and other fishing equipment) and began following Jesus around Galilee. Was this irrational exuberance on their part? What about their families? How were they going to support themselves? Are they crazy?

The same thing seems to have happened with James and his brother John, for they left their father Zebedee in their boat and immediately followed Jesus (Matt 4:21–22). And later on Matthew, who worked as a tax-collector, rose from his table and left his business behind in response to Jesus saying "Follow me." I can just imagine the chaos as Matthew probably left money on the table which people rushed forward to grab! 

Were these people nuts? Or just highly irresponsible? It reminds me of a song I used to sing back in the latter days of the Jesus Movement:

They say I am a dreamer, blind and cannot see

That life consists of living only to earn money

Well, if that's what I am Lord, won't you care for me?

I only want to be like the man of Galilee

It also reminds me of how my own dad reacted after I met Jesus, quit university right before the end of my final undergraduate year of Physics, and turned down a four-year scholarship I had been offered to pursue graduate studies in Astrophysics at a prestigious university. I had left everything for Jesus: my career plans, hopes and dreams. And my father's reaction? "You're nuts!"

What's wrong with all these people? Why did they drop everything and decide to follow Jesus?

A calculated decision

While some Bible expositors suggest that Jesus' words "follow me" had some kind of divine power over their hearers, I don't think that's true. In Luke 9:59 for example, Jesus invited a man to follow him, and the man responded by saying he needed to go bury his father first. So clearly Jesus' invitation didn't have the same kind of effect on that man as it did on Peter and the other first disciples. 

To really understand what made Peter and the others "leave everything and follow him" we have to try to harmonize the different stories in the four Gospels. But this is not easy, for the Gospel authors have sometimes rearranged the order of events to support the thread of the narrative they were trying to communicate. For example, in Matthew the healing of Peter's mother-in-law occurs after Peter receives his call to follow Jesus (see 4:18–20 and 8:14–15). In Luke however, the healing story precedes Peter's call to discipleship (4:38–39 and 5:1–11). 

One can't be certain of course, but I think perhaps the full story of how Peter started following Jesus may have gone something along the following lines:

Peter's brother Andrew had responded earlier to John the Baptist's call to repentance. Peter was aware of this, but his own heart was hard as he didn't want to admit his sins. Andrew later brought Peter to meet Jesus, but at this point Peter continued to run his fishing business while he listened to the stories that were circulating about the marvellous things Jesus was doing. The stories aroused his curiosity, but they also aroused his conviction of sin because he had seen that Jesus was clearly a more godly man than himself. 

But then his mother-in-law got ill with a serious fever and Peter, at his wit's end, went and found Jesus who had been teaching in the synagogue (Peter probably played poker Friday evenings and slept in on Saturday mornings) and begged Jesus to come and help. Jesus quickly came and healed her, and Peter started thinking deeply about his life as he saw Jesus healing other sick and demonized people who came to Peter's house that evening. 

Sometime later Jesus was teaching a crowd by the lake, and he asked Peter who was nearby cleaning his nets if he might use Peter's boat as a platform. Peter obliged, and over the next few hours his conviction of sin probably intensified as he listened to Jesus teaching the crowd. "I know my brother Andrew wants me to follow this man," he may have thought to himself, "but I'm not ready yet because Jesus can probably see right through me what kind of man I am." 

When Jesus finished teaching, he told Peter to let down his nets to catch some fish. Peter replied, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." Note that by calling Jesus "Master" Peter was recognizing that Jesus was someone who had God-given authority and power that one should respect. At this point the miraculous catch of fish occurred, the boat started to sink, and Peter fell at Jesus' knees and cried out, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" Jesus quickly replied with gentleness instead of condemnation: "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." Peter, realizing with wonder that Jesus loved him and that his sins had been forgiven, joyfully gave his life to God and started following Jesus. (Matt 4:18–20, 8:14–17; Mark 1:16–18,29–31; Luke 4:38–39, 5:1–11; and John 1:35–42)

I'm reading a lot of course into the text, but there are some gaps in the Gospel stories, and I think the above reconstruction of Peter's story is at least plausible. 

My point however is that Peter must have made a careful, reasoned decision when he responded to Jesus' invitation to follow him. Having heard what Jesus had been teaching, and having seen what Jesus could do, Peter must have given some thoughtful consideration before becoming Jesus' disciple by weighing the pros and cons of following him. Then, as Gunnar Payne once said to John Wimber while he was patiently explaining to John the way of salvation, "The apple will fall when it's ripe." 

Peter's time had clearly become ripe. 

Counting the cost

Jesus in his teachings makes it clear that there's a cost involved in becoming his disciple. And the more you want to follow in his footsteps, the more it's going to cost.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:25–33)

Those are strong words. Hate my own father and mother? Hating myself, yes, that I can understand, like dying to self. But also my wife and kids? Paul says husbands should love their wives just as you loved the church. Surely you must be exaggerating, speaking in hyperbole, right?

"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (vv. 34–35)

I'm trying to hear you, Lord, and I'm trying to understand. What else do I need to know concerning the cost of being your disciple?

"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matt 7:13–14). 

Lord, I do want to follow you, I do want to be your disciple, to be like you. What exactly do you mean when you say that the way is hard? 

To understand this, let's examine again where Jesus says that a disciple (servant) is not above his teacher (master) only this time we'll consider the verses in their context:

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15:18–20)

"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household." (Matt 10:24–25)

That doesn't sound like fun. Is there some kind of upside to following Jesus?

---> Go to chapter 4