{"id":22089,"date":"2020-05-27T09:58:16","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T13:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/?p=22089"},"modified":"2025-03-07T18:54:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T22:54:55","slug":"the-cost-of-discipleship-vs-the-cost-of-foolishness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/the-cost-of-discipleship-vs-the-cost-of-foolishness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cost of Discipleship Vs. the Cost of Foolishness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Willard is responsible for one of the most significant paradigm shifts of my life: realizing that the “cost of discipleship” is actually lower<\/em> than the cost of non-discipleship.<\/a> In other words, discipleship to Jesus is the best “deal” we get as human beings.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If the gospel is actually good news, how could it be any other way? It is an amazing bargain that any sober-minded “shopper” would jump at. When we can see it clearly, it will seem too good to be true. Being with Jesus to learn from him how to be like him is the most remarkable opportunity any human ever gets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Learning from fools<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Today in morning prayer<\/a>, our lectionary had us read Luke 14:25-35<\/a> together, where Jesus tells parables about a tower builder and an embattled king. In many English Bibles, this section is titled “The Cost of Discipleship,” or something similar. So I always thought these were pictures of disciples who were “counting the cost.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But as Andy Crouch points out in an incisive article<\/a>, this is exactly opposite of Jesus’ point: “Jesus\u2019 first hearers would have known that label was exactly backwards. For these stories are not about disciples, but fools.”<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Think about it: the tower builder doesn\u2019t have enough money to finish his project. The king doesn\u2019t have enough troops to win the battle. These aren\u2019t models of discipleship, they\u2019re models of foolishness.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

These are pictures of people who can’t possibly pay the costs of the projects they’ve undertaken, people trying to gain security through their own resources and strength, ambitiously building monuments to their own ingenuity and ability. It\u2019s a picture of people trying to become well-liked enough or rich enough or powerful enough to secure a place for themselves. It\u2019s the tower of Babel all over again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In other words, Jesus is saying, “Stop your foolish pursuit of security and reputation before you go spiritually bankrupt! Can\u2019t you see you\u2019ll never be able to complete your project? You’re being lied to. You\u2019re throwing your life away on a false dream that you\u2019ll never be able to pay for. Give up this foolish tower-building and war-mongering, and come follow me instead.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"The\r\n
Pieter Brueghel, the Elder (ca 1525-1569), Turmbau zu Babel (Tower of Babel)<\/em>, oil on wood, 1563<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Count the cost of discipleship AND the cost of foolishness<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Which is exactly the same point Jesus is making when he says, “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their life?”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The life you “give up\u201d to follow Jesus is like an ill-fated tower-building project that won\u2019t work out anyway. Leave it behind! It\u2019s much<\/em> more costly to keep on trying to finish your tower, because in the end you\u2019ll fail, you\u2019ll forfeit your life for a half-baked tower.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To paraphrase Dallas Willard: “If you think it\u2019s hard being a disciple of Jesus, you should try living the other<\/em> way.” This is exactly what Jesus was saying in these stories: living to make a name for yourself or secure your own future is way too expensive.<\/strong> Stop now before you ruin yourself utterly. Jesus was talking in these stories about the cost of non-discipleship, and it\u2019s breathtakingly high.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Learning from Jesus how to really live<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In contrast, living as a disciple of Jesus means that you begin to understand what living really is. You “find your life,” as Jesus tells us. Yet another Willard quote gives us a picture of what we gain<\/em> as disciples of Jesus:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

What an astonishing vision! The water of heaven flows through our being until we are fully changed people. We wake each morning breathing the air of this new world; we experience a new consciousness, and our character is transformed. We drop our deceitful practices, our insincerity, our defensiveness, our envy, and our slander, and we move outward toward others in genuine love.<\/p>\r\nFrom Revolution of Character<\/em><\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It isn\u2019t “costly” to obtain this kind of life, you simply give up the old life and receive the new one as a gift. Those who engage in it aren\u2019t spiritual heroes, they\u2019re just responding to the deal of a lifetime, now that they can finally see it clearly. It\u2019s the treasure in the field. Of course<\/em> you sell everything to buy the field. There\u2019s a treasure in it!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dallas Willard is responsible for one of the most significant paradigm shifts of my life: realizing that the “cost of discipleship” is actually lower than the cost of non-discipleship. In other words, discipleship to Jesus is the best “deal” we get as human beings.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lead-like-jesus"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Cost of Discipleship Vs. the Cost of Foolishness - Gravity Commons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We often think of the cost of discipleship as a high price that "elite" Christians pay to follow Jesus, but that's not actually what Jesus says about it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/the-cost-of-discipleship-vs-the-cost-of-foolishness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cost of Discipleship Vs. the Cost of Foolishness - 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