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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Nineteenth‑century French engineer and economist Jules “Du‑pwee” is credited with the creation of the concept of “Cost‑Benefit Analysis”, a method later formalized by English economist Alfred Marshall and others (Wikipedia). Whether formally or informally, we all likely practice forms of “cost‑benefit analysis”, when considering such things as making a major purchase, taking a family vacation, or having elective surgery. Essentially, we ask ourselves whether the benefits of a particular course of action exceed its estimated costs. Jesus, as it were, invites such a cost‑benefit analysis of discipleship in today’s Gospel Reading. And so this morning we consider that Reading under the theme “Discipleship’s Costs and Benefits”.
For today’s Gospel Reading, we have moved forward from last week’s Gospel Reading (Luke 14:1-14) in St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, skipping over the “fourth scene at a Sabbath Seder” (Luke 14:15-24), and picking up the continuation of Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem. We heard Jesus speak to the great crowds accompanying Him about what are often called the “costs of discipleship”: renouncing all that one has, loving Him more than family members and even one’s own life, and bearing one’s own cross and coming after Jesus. With two examples unique to St. Luke’s account—building a tower and waging a war—Jesus both called His hearers then and calls us today to give long and serious consideration to discipleship’s costs, on this occasion leaving unstated discipleship’s benefits.
One of the first steps in “Cost‑Benefit Analysis” is said to be listing alternative projects or programs (Wikipedia). Listing alternatives is easy enough in the case of discipleship: either we are going to be disciples or we are not going to be disciples. (Today’s Psalm [Psalm 1] similarly spoke of only two ways: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked, and today’s Old Testament Reading [Deuteronomy 30:15-20] similarly spoke of the choices of life and death, good and evil.) No step I saw listed for “Cost‑Benefit Analysis”, however, actually seemed to ask the kind of question that Jesus’s examples ask: whether one has enough actually to complete a tower, or whether a force of 10‑thousand successfully can meet a force of 20‑thousand. Jesus arguably is not talking about what we can do but rather what we cannot do, at least not on our own (Buls, ad loc Lk 14:25-35, 45). On our own, we cannot renounce all that we have. On our own, we cannot love Jesus more than family members and even our own lives. On our own, we cannot bear our own crosses and come after Jesus. By our own reason and strength we cannot believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or even come to Him (Small Catechism, II:6). When we give long and serious consideration to discipleship’s costs, we realize that we cannot meet them on our own. We would be as successful building a tower as were the people of Babel, who failed to build a tower with its top in the heavens (Genesis 11:1-9), so, unable to successfully meet the King Who will come to judge the living and the dead, we ask for peace (Luther, ad loc Gal 2:21 [1519], AE 27:242)—seeking forgiveness of our sins rather than the hell we deserve.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus calls all who have ears to hear to hear. So God calls all of us to repent (Buls, ad loc Lk 14:25-35, 44): to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. God’s call for us to repent enables us to repent. We can either reject His enabling call or act as He enables us. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin—all of our sin, whatever our sin might be—for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus Himself met all the costs of discipleship, and, in so doing, He also made up for our failures to meet them. Jesus renounced all that He had. Jesus loved God the Father more than His earthly family members (for example, Luke 8:19-21). And, Jesus bore His own cross for us. On His Cross, Jesus bore our iniquities and griefs (Isaiah 53:11, 4; confer Matthew 8:17). On His cross, Jesus made a way for us to heaven, successfully battled our enemies, and earned for us peace. As we trust God the Father to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, God the Father does just that: He forgives our sin. God forgives our sin through His Word and Sacraments, which also make us His disciples, meeting for us discipleship’s costs and giving us discipleships’ benefits.
Jesus’s riddle‑like mention of salt near the end of today’s Gospel Reading draws our attention to salt itself, and we may recall that salt was used in some times and places in connection with Holy Baptism, its exorcisms and its application of water and the Word that give us the forgiveness of sins, rescue us from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation to all who believe. Similarly, God forgives sins—and we might think especially of those sins that we privately confess because we know and feel them on our hearts—through our Father Confessors in individual Holy Absolution. And, we who are admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar in it receive bread that is the Body of Christ and wine that is the Blood of Christ, given and shed for you and for me, for the forgiveness of our sins, and so also for life and salvation. In all of these ways, Jesus builds His Church that prevails against the forces of hell (Matthew 16:18), making us His disciples, meeting discipleship’s costs and giving us discipleship’s benefits, transforming us that we might be true salt, useful for adding necessary flavor and preservation to the various communities in which God places us.
In today’s Epistle Reading (Philemon 1-21), St. Paul expects that Philemon, his wife Apphia, their son Archippus, and the church that met in their home would welcome back as a brother in Christ their runaway slave Onesimus, not because Paul compelled them to do so but out of the goodness Christ worked in them. We also live our lives as Christians in the various clear vocations that God has given us, not withdrawing from the world but serving our neighbors in the world (see Lutheran Service Book 853 and Zager in HS’98: Handbook, #879, 146). Enabled by God through His Word and Sacraments, we renounce all that we have, we love Jesus more than our family members and even our own lives, and we bear our own crosses and come after Jesus. Our suffering on account of being Christians may lead to our deaths, but we are not grieved by such cross and trial, for, as we will sing in the Closing Hymn, “Christ has made [our deaths] a portal / From the strife / Of this life / To His joy immortal!” (LSB 756:5)
The final step in “Cost‑Benefit Analysis” as I read about it is to adopt the recommended choice (Wikipedia), and then, over time, presumably reap its benefits. Through His Word and Sacraments, God calls and enables us to repent and believe. God meets for us discipleship’s costs and gives us its benefits. Discipleship has a number of benefits, both in this life and in the life to come (see, for example, Luke 18:29-30), but, to be sure, discipleship’s greatest benefit is eternal life. In the words of today’s Old Testament Reading, we choose such life, love the Lord our God, obey His voice, and hold fast to Him, for He is our life and length of days.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +