counting the cost

171:2.1When Je­sus and the com­pany of al­most one thou­sand fol­low­ers ar­rived at the Beth­any ford of the Jor­dan some­times called Bethabara, his dis­ci­ples be­gan to re­al­ize that he was not go­ing di­rectly to Je­ru­sa­lem. While they hes­i­tated and de­bated among them­selves, Je­sus climbed upon a huge stone and de­liv­ered that dis­course which has be­come known as “Count­ing the Cost.” The Mas­ter said:

171:2.2“You who would fol­low af­ter me from this time on, must be will­ing to pay the price of whole­hearted ded­i­ca­tion to the do­ing of my Fa­ther’s will. If you would be my dis­ci­ples, you must be will­ing to for­sake fa­ther, mother, wife, chil­dren, broth­ers, and sis­ters. If any one of you would now be my dis­ci­ple, you must be will­ing to give up even your life just as the Son of Man is about to of­fer up his life for the com­ple­tion of the mis­sion of do­ing the Fa­ther’s will on earth and in the flesh.

171:2.3“If you are not will­ing to pay the full price, you can hardly be my dis­ci­ple. Be­fore you go fur­ther, you should each sit down and count the cost of be­ing my dis­ci­ple. Which one of you would un­der­take to build a watch­tower on your lands with­out first sit­ting down to count up the cost to see whether you had money enough to com­plete it? If you fail thus to reckon the cost, af­ter you have laid the foun­da­tion, you may dis­cover that you are un­able to fin­ish that which you have be­gun, and there­fore will all your neigh­bors mock you, say­ing, ‘Be­hold, this man be­gan to build but was un­able to fin­ish his work.’ Again, what king, when he pre­pares to make war upon an­other king, does not first sit down and take coun­sel as to whether he will be able, with ten thou­sand men, to meet him who comes against him with twenty thou­sand? If the king can­not af­ford to meet his en­emy be­cause he is un­pre­pared, he sends an em­bassy to this other king, even when he is yet a great way off, ask­ing for terms of peace.

171:2.4“Now, then, must each of you sit down and count the cost of be­ing my dis­ci­ple. From now on you will not be able to fol­low af­ter us, lis­ten­ing to the teach­ing and be­hold­ing the works; you will be re­quired to face bit­ter per­se­cu­tions and to bear wit­ness for this gospel in the face of crush­ing dis­ap­point­ment. If you are un­will­ing to re­nounce all that you are and to ded­i­cate all that you have, then are you un­wor­thy to be my dis­ci­ple. If you have al­ready con­quered your­self within your own heart, you need have no fear of that out­ward vic­tory which you must pres­ently gain when the Son of Man is re­jected by the chief priests and the Sad­ducees and is given into the hands of mock­ing un­be­liev­ers.

171:2.5“Now should you ex­am­ine your­self to find out your mo­tive for be­ing my dis­ci­ple. If you seek honor and glory, if you are worldly minded, you are like the salt when it has lost its sa­vor. And when that which is val­ued for its salti­ness has lost its sa­vor, where­with shall it be sea­soned? Such a condi­ment is use­less; it is fit only to be cast out among the refuse. Now have I warned you to turn back to your homes in peace if you are not will­ing to drink with me the cup which is be­ing pre­pared. Again and again have I told you that my king­dom is not of this world, but you will not be­lieve me. He who has ears to hear let him hear what I say.”

171:2.6Im­me­di­ately af­ter speak­ing these words, Je­sus, lead­ing the twelve, started off on the way to Hes­h­bon, fol­lowed by about five hun­dred. Af­ter a brief de­lay the other half of the mul­ti­tude went on up to Je­ru­sa­lem. His apos­tles, to­gether with the lead­ing dis­ci­ples, thought much about these words, but still they clung to the be­lief that, af­ter this brief pe­riod of ad­ver­sity and trial, the king­dom would cer­tainly be set up some­what in ac­cor­dance with their long-cher­ished hopes.