“Any one of you who does not renounce all he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33
But wait—don’t we say the gift of grace is free? Why does he say here that it costs all we have? (And the parable of the Pearl of Great Price says the same thing allegorically.) But in the passage before that, he tells a story about a great feast that the invited guests refuse to attend, so the host throws open the doors and invites all the riffraff from the streets.
So it’s free, or it costs. Which one?
Both—it’s free. And it costs.
The Interstate highway system is (mostly) free, but there’s a cost to driving on it: auto maintenance, gas, taxes. Food banks are free but there’s a cost to stocking and maintaining them. Oxygen is free, but there’s a cost to breathing it, as every breath puts your body to work and the body eventually wears out.
Not perfect analogies, but there’s a cost to everything, and it’s not the same as the price. Sometimes the two can be wildly disparate, as when a one-dollar lottery ticket nets $50,000. Or when a $50 investment nets nothing. We can’t pay a price for grace because it is literally price-less. But the cost is steep: all you have.
I can’t pay. But I can “renounce.”
Not just my possessions (some of which I work hard for), but my assumptions, my pretentions, my affections, my time. And it’s not a once-and-done deal, either: cost is something that must be continually reassessed. From my side, not his. He has already priced in my weakness and wavering, but I can be poleaxed between desires. I have to keep asking, Is he worth this sacrifice? These funds? This time? This life?
In Daniel Nayeri’s memoir, Everything Sad Is Untrue, the author tells how his mother, a Sufi Muslim in the top ranks of Iranian society, converted to Christianity and, as a result, had to flee for her life with her two children in tow. When asked why she gave up so much for a religious belief, her reply was simple: “Because it’s true.” Almighty God had sent his own son to die so that she might live forever with him–why wouldn’t she sacrifice all she had for that?
Is he worth it? He is.
O, thank you for this, Janie B. Cheaney. There are those, like the Muslim woman, who have given all to follow Jesus. My paltry sacrifices seem not to measure up.
Beautiful Janie!