This sermon was preached on Sunday 25th February 2024 at All Saints Church, Oakham.

You can watch this sermon instead by clicking here. Beginning at 26:25.

Reading: Mark 8:31-38

Who is up for playing a game? Does anyone here remember a game called ‘The Price Is Right’? Fantastic. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, let me explain. It’s very simple. I will show you a few items and I want you to guess the price. It’s as simple as that. This morning, if anyone can get the price right within 10p, then you will win yourself a Malteser. Now let’s see if anyone can get the price correct.

The items and prices for our game are:

Aldi own brand paracetamol – £0.39

Nutella 350g, bought at Tesco – £3.20  

Dobble, bought at Tesco – £13 

Aldi chopped tomatoes – £0.35

Terry’s Chocolate Orange, bought at Tesco – £1.49 

Playstation 4 Controller, bought at Curry’s – £44.99 

We’ve now got one final price to guess. I want someone to tell me: what is the cost of following Jesus? What does it cost to be a disciple of Jesus? Does anyone know? You’ve all given me an indication of what you would pay for these items here from our game of The Price Is Right, but how much do you think it costs you to be a follower of Jesus? 

To help us answer that, could you please turn to the person next to you and ask yourself: how much does it cost you to be a follower of Christ? Or maybe start by asking yourself does it cost you? And if so, how much? 

Discuss this with the person next to you for one minute.

What did people say? How much does it cost you to follow Jesus? 

Thank you for your answers. And thank you for your honesty. This can be a difficult question for us to ask ourselves. I think we often have an idea of what following Jesus might cost us, but in reality, it never seems to cost as much. Why is that? 

Let’s look at what Jesus says to his followers, also known as his disciples. Let’s start by giving a bit of context. Jesus is talking with his disciples and he is telling them that he is going to die. He tells them that all the elders, chief priests, and scribes, basically all the leaders in the temple were going to reject him. To compare this to our context, this would be the same as the whole ministry team and the church PCC rejecting Jesus. These elders, priests, and scribes were going to reject Jesus, and as a result, he would undergo great suffering and would then be killed, and then rise again on the third day. And he said all this quite openly. 

Peter didn’t like what Jesus was saying about him suffering and dying. So, Peter took him aside and said ‘Stop saying these things. Jesus, you’ve got it all wrong.’ But Jesus became angry at Peter, and he said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan.’ Talk about name-calling. I think being called the Devil or Satan is pretty bad. 

But why did Jesus say this? It’s because Jesus was saying, ‘No, Peter, you’ve got it wrong.’ ‘You are being like the Devil trying to lead me astray. You are talking in earthly terms like people do and you are asking me to follow human ways and logic. But I’m trying to do things differently, to do things the way that God does things.’ Jesus carries on, saying, to his disciples that, ‘If you want to be my follower, you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.’ That is to say, you must turn away from your human ways and follow God’s ways. 

As Christians, followers and disciples of Jesus, we are called to do the same. We have to wrestle with this inner battle between the human ways we want to live or other people might tell us to live, and the way that God tells us to live. This could be the difference between lying to get out of trouble at work (or school), and being truthful and owning up to your mistakes and facing the consequences no matter how terrible they may be. This is what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus. We must choose the ways of God over the ways of people.

The term ‘disciple’ can get confusing as it is a term that we don’t use very often in everyday life. But the call to be a disciple, or a follower, is to become a student of Jesus. A student models themselves on their teacher and tries to follow their example. Think of how a piano student tries to copy their piano teacher’s playing so that they too may play the piano well. Or a dance student tries to replicate the exact moves of their dance teacher. In the same way, as students of Jesus, we are to copy Jesus’ example in order to become his disciples.  

But as we try to model our lives on Jesus, we must remember what Jesus came to do on this earth. Jesus came to die on the cross for us. He did not listen to his own wants and desires to run away from the cross; instead, he chose to follow God’s way, which meant he had to deny his own wishes and go to the cross to die for us. 

So when Jesus tells us that to follow him we must deny ourselves and take up our cross, he is saying that we must give up our lives, that is we must give up our human desires and control of our lives and surrender them to God and his will for our lives. This is what it costs us to follow Jesus. 

Now we know that God is good and that he will look after us in all situations. However, this does not mean that following God is an easy ride. Our prime example is Jesus. For him, following God’s will meant taking up a cross, which meant great suffering and ultimately his death. 

In this country, following Jesus will probably not cost us our lives. We won’t have to take up a literal cross and die for following Jesus. We are very fortunate in that regard because there are many places around the world where it is against the law to be a Christian and Christians in these countries can end up in prison and sometimes end up dying for their Christian faith. I’m sure their non-Christian friends might say, ‘Why do you insist on being a Christian when it will cost your life? Why not forget this Christian faith which is causing you nothing but suffering and death?’ These persecuted Christians go through this pain and suffering because they know that following God is better than following the world. They know that life with God is more valuable than any life that the world could give us. 

As I said, following Jesus will probably not cost us our lives, but it will cost us. We will have a cross to bear. What is your cross? It might be that our friends make fun of us, thinking we are weird or crazy for being a Christian. It might be time we give to prayer and reading the Bible when we would much rather be watching TV. It might cost us a job promotion because we are not willing to manipulate others or act selfishly to get ahead. Whatever it is, we each will have some form of cross to bear for following Jesus. Our faith will cost us in some way or another. My question is, are we committed with our whole lives to take up our cross to follow God, even if it costs us our whole lives, be it physically, financially, or socially? 

I asked earlier, how much does it cost you to be a Christian? We know that Jesus says that it costs us everything, but we know that, in reality, following Jesus might cost us very little in our lives. It might cost us two hours on a Sunday but then make no impact on the way that we live the remaining 166 hours in the week. Why do we do this? Is this the kind of faith that you want to have? Is this how you want to follow Jesus? 

I’ll be honest. That kind of faith and discipleship sounds pretty lame and lacklustre. It’s what the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes in his book ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ as cheap grace. It’s a faith that has no real meaning and value to our lives, or at most a little meaning and value. But a costly grace, a faith that is centred around our lives fully committed to Jesus, is a life full of the rich goodness of God’s love and presence in our lives. It’s a life that gives everything to Jesus, a whole life that says, Jesus I will follow you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week no matter the cost, because following you and being with you is worth it. It ultimately cost Bonhoeffer’s life as he died in a Nazi concentration camp for his faith. He could have run away from his faith to save his life, but he knew that he would be giving up the life that really mattered, life with Christ.  

Bonhoeffer famously said that ‘When Christ calls a person, he bids him come die.’^[1] As followers of Christ we die to ourselves and our own human desires to follow the ways of God. These are ways that are higher that our ways, greater than our human thinking would choose, and often the complete opposite. It’s not an easy path to follow the way of Jesus. It will require all of our lives, even when it difficult and hard like it was for Jesus to carry the cross for us. But we know that there is nothing greater or more valuable than following Jesus. The whole build up of Lent is to the celebration of Easter Sunday of Jesus’ risen and resurrected life that flows in us for all eternity. 

Do you know how much Jesus gave for you? [open arms] 100% of his life as he died. What are you willing to give God today? Are you willing to give up 100% of your life? Or are you holding something back? I encourage you to ask yourself why are you holding something back? What is keeping you from giving your life fully to God? It would be good for you to pray about it, either on your own or with someone. If you would like someone to pray with you then come find me after the service or someone else at church or a friend to pray with you. A life lived fully in God is the greatest thing in the whole universe, and if you haven’t discovered that for yourself, then I would love for you to discover that today.  

What does it cost you to follow Jesus? Everything. Is it worth it? Absolutely. There is nothing better or greater than following Jesus Christ. To be known and loved by him and to know and love him in return. There is nothing greater. So let us give all of our lives to Jesus so that we may be his disciples today and for the rest of our lives. 

Let’s pray. God help us to discover the joy and goodness of a life given fully to you. Help us to let go of the things that are holding us back from giving you 100% of our lives. Give us courage to take up our cross daily to follow you. Help us to know that even when following you feels costly, that you are fully present and alive in our lives. Thank you for loving us with a love that is greater than all we may face in life. May we know more of that love today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. 

If you have been enjoying my content, then sign up to my new newsletter to enjoy my latest content in your inbox and more.

---

^[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works 4 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 87.