June 27th, 2018

It was 1997 when the very first “Priceless” commercial came out. A dad takes his son to a baseball game. “2 tickets: $46, 2 hot dogs, 2 popcorns, and 2 sodas: $27, 1 autographed baseball: $50, real conversation with a 11 year old son: priceless. There are somethings money can’t buy. For everything else there’s mastercard.” This commercial was very successful simply because it spoke something true about our life.

​Today’s gospel reading somehow echoes this commercial. How much is the cost of discipleship? How much is the cost of following Jesus and becoming his disciple? Well, we might just want to say, “Priceless!” But the gospel reading seems to tell us the opposite. Jesus says, “None of you can become my disciples if you do not give up all your possessions.” (Lk. 14:33) Based on Jesus’ saying, the cost of discipleship is not priceless. It costs all you have. So, if you actually calculate all your possessions, you can come up with an estimate.

If we just focus on that particular saying of Jesus, I’m not sure if there’s anyone who can become his disciple. It’s much easier for one who has absolutely nothing in his possessions.

At this point, I’m not sure if Jesus is telling us to literally sell all our possessions. And I’m not so sure if Jesus really wants to us to hate our family, and even life itself. I suspect Jesus ever taught misanthropy, a general hatred or dislike of humankind. This tells us one thing that we cannot just focus on one verse. We have to see the whole picture.

Two parables Jesus talks about give us a hint about the nature of his discipleship. Its message is quite simple. Do the math! Before you do anything, either building a tower or waging war, see if you can really succeed. With what you have, can you finish building a tower? With what you have, can you win that war you’re about to start? Do the math before you do anything. Be realistic!

Then, here’s a question about the discipleship. With who we are and what we have, can we become Jesus’ disciples? Is it possible? Let’s do the math. Are we good enough? Are we morally innocent? Have we done enough for the poor, the oppressed, and those in suffering? What good have I done to suffering parts of the world? Can I buy that discipleship as if it’s a gym membership? If we seriously think about who we are, what we do, and what we have, it is utterly impossible to become Jesus’ disciples. We are never good enough to be like Jesus on our own. Our desire to have more and more is far from the life of Jesus. We might try so hard to be morally and religiously perfect and almighty as if we are a god of our own, but we will fail eventually. This is actually the bad news to us.

The good news, the gospel is that we don’t have to do anything to become Jesus’ disciples. Two parables of Jesus tell us, “Don’t start something you can’t even finish.” With the discipleship, don’t you ever attempt to become Jesus’ follower by being morally and religiously perfect. We know we can’t! What God in Jesus said is there’s no transaction between Jesus and us. There’s no business deal of selling and buying between God and the entire humanity. Get rid of that idea of understanding God’s relationship with us as some kind of transaction.

We don't put up a price tag on Jesus' discipleship. We don’t put up a price tag on Jesus’ death and resurrection. We cannot purchase that discipleship. The only thing that we CAN do to become his disciple is to accept that we have no way to earn it, we have no way to earn God's grace. Trust that God's grace is always and everywhere available to you and all else. Regardless of how much you try to be your own god, or how hard you try to be morally perfect and religiously competent, you won’t get it that way. Simply notice and acknowledge that God manifests God’s grace in Jesus to us and the entire humanity. God loves you, forgives you, and accepts you in Jesus no matter what. No hidden fees to that God’s love, forgiveness, and acceptance of the entire humanity. God walked into this broken world of ours in Jesus to love without ceasing and forgive all the past, present, and future sins.

How much is the cost of discipleship then? It costs you nothing because all you have becomes useless. Nothing to pay for. You don't buy it by selling all you have. You don’t get it by giving up all you have. There's no transaction. No exchange. It's free. The discipleship, first of all, is freely given to all, God's grace is free. Free of charge. Once you accept that free gift, and if you really accept that free gift with all your heart, all your possessions don't mean much. It’s not only incomparable to the joy of the gospel, but is an obstruction to that joy of being a disciple. Nothing can be better than God’s grace freely given to us and the entire world in Jesus!

Remember that free gift of God, which is God's grace to all (salvation, new being, new creation, no need to work for it to earn it). Start from there. Start your relationship with others from there. Start your self-understanding from there. In God’s unconditional embrace of us, we find ourselves as loved, accepted, and forgiven. In that same divine embrace of all, not just Christians, we find others as loved, accepted, and forgiven.

To accept that free grace is to depend on God, trust in God, to refuse to serve myself as a god of my own. This acceptance throws at us our own death to our selfish wills and egos. It cracks open the hard shell of our egos. It forces us to face our own death. Death to our ego that tells us we are a god of our own life, that we can somehow manage our own lives without God’s mercy. Faith, trusting in God’s unconditional love is death to our ego. And there’s the resurrection. Some theologian said, there’s only one ticket to salvation, to the resurrection. It’s death. God raised Jesus from the dead. God raises those who are dead. It's death you face after accepting that free love and grace of God in Jesus. And it’s also the resurrection you face after death of your own ego. This is the nature of our baptism in Jesus.

So, this act of acceptance is a party. It’s the good news! Don’t you love that God throws a party at us? And we seem to struggle to enjoy that party. Too good to be true? Too hard to believe? Why do we just want to hold on to the bad news when that news no longer exists since the good news removed it already? Can we with praise and thanksgiving love this God revealed in Jesus?

With our acceptance and trust in this love, we tune our own wills to God’s will. Self-denial, not suicide. Self-emptying, not self-fulfilling. And selfless, not selfish. This is the way to carry the cross and follow Jesus.

This morning all of us are invited to this divine party called the Eucharist. Come to God’s Table as a disciple who confesses that s/he has no way to earn anything, but trusts in God’s unending and unconditional love manifested in Jesus of Nazareth. Come to God’s Table as a disciple with empty hands, no possessions in those hands, but carrying the wounds of Jesus on the cross. Come and enjoy this divine feast, for it is free. And of course, the cost of discipleship is not just priceless, but FREE to all!