The Cross of Discipleship

This sermon was preached for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost by Pastor Ted Carnahan on Saturday, September 6, 2025.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, Jesus wasn't very nice again. I don't know if you noticed, but he was not being sweet and easy and gentle with the people who were following him in our reading this evening.

Instead, he has multitudes of people following him. They're from town to town, and they've all got different reasons for following him, but not all of them are good reasons.

A lot of them are interested in the miracles. They're there for the entertainment. They want to see the amazing things that Jesus is able to do. And as they follow him around, they want to see more miracles.

Some of them are looking for miracles for themselves. A lot of others are looking for miracles just because they're interesting and entertaining and they kind of show you something pretty cool.

Some people are honestly there for the free food. Jesus is making, you know, multiplying loaves and fishes, and it's like, wow, you know, if I follow this guy around, I'm going to get fed. And that happens, and so they're interested in following him for that reason.

But a smaller number, a smaller core group, is actually interested in his teaching. They're interested in being his disciples.

Jesus' Challenging Words

He turns around to address them, and what he says seems like it's torn from the pages of how not to grow a movement 101.

First thing he says is, "If you do not hate your father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and even your life itself, you cannot be my disciple."

Well, Jesus, that's a hard thing to hear. First of all, he uses the word hate, and there is no way around that. Do not hate your father and mother. And it's like, Jesus, haven't you ever heard of the fourth commandment? "Honor your father and mother?" No, if you don't hate your father and mother, what's going on here? And your wife and children? I thought, so much for family values. Your brothers and sisters and life itself? To despise them, to hate them, is an unpopular message.

It's even worse. It doesn't sound worse. That sounds like the hard part to us. But what was actually worse is then he says, "And then if you do not pick up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple."

Now, Jesus has not died on a cross yet. A cross does not mean a symbol of God's victory over death yet. A cross is just a cross, an instrument of torture and death. It was used, say, the electric chair or lethal injection. It was used to execute criminals in the most brutal, painful, and obvious way possible, not just to kill the offender, but also to deter anyone who might follow after him.

And Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me." And in these things, Jesus says, "You cannot be my disciple."

And just when I thought I was feeling like maybe I had this discipleship and following Jesus thing down, he says something like this, and it's no surprise that a lot of people upon hearing this turn around and leave. He says things sometimes that put into stark relief our unwillingness to truly follow God.

The Concept of Cheap Grace

In our society, we have become believers in the gospel of what theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace.

Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian who was actually at the start of World War II in Harlem in New York and teaching at an American seminary. But as the war began, he caught one of the last ships to go back to Nazi Germany, because he knew that the Nazis would eventually lose and someone had to be there to bear the gospel to them once they had been destroyed. And so he went back.

He wrote a book. It's a favorite of mine. Sometimes the true title of it is Discipleship, but in the American English translation, it's called The Cost of Discipleship. And he wrote about this cheap grace, which infested the Western society, but also even more so infests our society now.

Cheap grace is not the grace of God, not what God intends for grace to be. And I'd like to quote him at some length here, because what he's written here is just brilliant.

“Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?...

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

The Tug of Costly Grace

Children of God, do you feel a tug at your heart? The tug that says, "My Lord has died for me?" You should. You should realize your sin. You should realize that you have been after simple and disconnected living, curved in on yourself, and focused on your own perspectives, your own priorities, your own prerogatives.

That you haven't loved your neighbor as yourself. That you haven't been connected to your community as God intends. That you haven't loved God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength.

And that your Lord Jesus Christ looked upon your sorry state of affairs and chose, decided to die for you. It is costly grace. Because it costs your Lord Jesus Christ his life.

And this costly grace is only for those who would follow him. And for those who would disregard it, make it a low priority, and put other things, even other good things, ahead of Christ, you will not have it.

After all, he calls you to hate father and mother, brother and sister, wife and children, even life itself, in comparison to your regard for God.

And those things are not bad. Brothers and sisters, mother and father, wife and children, life itself. These are not bad. These are good things. They are even God-given things. But they must be in their proper perspective. They must be in their proper place. And Christ himself must be in first place.

Your sports, your hobbies, your free time, your job, even your very future and your life. All these things are good. And God-given in their proper place. But if Christ is not first, then when you see him at your judgment, as all of us will, he will look at you and say, "I never knew you."

If you will not take up your cross and follow him, he will not save you. You will be what he calls unsalty salt. Unfit for any purpose.

The Struggle of Faith

Bonhoeffer, in the same book, puts it this way:

"When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the Spirit with every available weapon against the flesh."

The life of a Christian is not simply having the head knowledge that I have been saved from my sins to do. The life of a Christian is not perfection, but it is discipleship. To struggle against sin. To live for Christ. And when we fail to throw ourselves on his mercy, as on the mercy of a Father who loves us and stands willing to pay the price for us.

Following someone whose job it was to entertain you. Or to make you feel better about your sin. Or to coddle you when you whine. No, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

But that death is your life. That cross is his victory and yours. You see, he goes to the cross and he dies. And instead of death swallowing him up, life and victory has swallowed up death.

So that those who are in Christ, who are his disciples, who are willing to follow him where he leads, no matter where it takes you, that are willing to put him in first place, ahead of every other earthly priority and responsibility and pleasure.

Those who are willing to treat him as Lord and Master and pick up their cross to follow him, he promises you this. That it is already finished. That your struggle with sin and death is already over. And you have already won the victory. Because it has been won for you in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Promise of Grace

Here is the grace of God for you. Not that the Lord has simply paid the bill so that you might go and rack up another. But that your Lord has not chosen to discard you for your sin. Not thrown you on the soil or the manure. Not thrown you on the pile and set you aside as if though you are worthless. But he pays a ransom for you. He offers his very life in exchange for yours.

And everyone who seeks for him will find him. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened. You need only turn to him and say, as Thomas says when he puts his hand in Jesus' open side, "My Lord and my God."

And you turn to him and you will live. And when you live, it will change you. To be disciplined, to be a disciple of Christ, cannot leave you as you were. It will not be enough for you anymore to live as you once did. You'll have to. And you'll want to. Because this is what grace does. Grace changes us.

May you trust Christ and find his peace. May you be changed. In Jesus' name. Amen.