Walk in Wisdom – Gleanings from Scripture

From: Luke 14.33 / So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

How much are you worth? Not in the esoteric sense – but to YOU? What’s your
price? What will you sell out for? How much are you worth? That’s what Jesus is
asking us to consider in Luke 14.25-33. The upshot of which is – we sell
ourselves for so little. When it comes to showdowns, very few of us in this
culture today are ever asked to actually give up a family member to follow
Christ. Sure, it has and does happen. But its not the norm. Most who come to
Christ in the context of an unsaved family might experience some
uncomfortability – but total loss? Not many. I have a few Jewish friends that
have come pretty close. I lost a job once. A crummy one though. Maybe I’ve not
held the same friends – or at least as close. But that too really wasn’t all that
bad. But real loss? Having a spouse leave because you follow Christ, or being
disinherited by a parent, or truly cut off by your kids or a sibling? Again, I’ll bet
not too many of us. But let’s move it further down the line. Let’s take it to where
Jesus wants us to. For thinking in these categories for us doesn’t connect as
much as it would have in His day and culture. Being tossed out of the
Synagogue and treated as a leper was a very real consequence to His hearers.
But I fear it isn’t the loss of the big things like family and social status we sell
out for most. If you’re anything like me, you sell out way before that. We tend
more to sell out for stuff – petty sins. We’ll follow Him all the way until we have
to forgive someone of something they’ve done against us, or until we feel the
pinch of an unmet desire. I’ll walk with Him right up to the door of my favorite
temptation. I’ll be right there beside Him until I have to sacrifice a bad attitude,
respond kindly to slight, bless when reviled, endure when persecuted or entreat
when slandered (1 Cor. 4). If it means I’ll have to miss the Super Bowl for
Church, make time for daily spiritual disciplines, put up with people who irritate
me or I don’t have enough in common with – then I’m for sale. I’ll moan and
groan against God and His evil providences, justify my perturbations, excuse my
unwillingness and save the Cross for jewelry. How much are we worth? Whatever
we cannot bear to lose – that, is our purchase price.