September 4, 2022
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if there is enough for its completion? ...In the same way, anyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
A surprising challenge. A famous Lutheran martyr, Bonhoeffer, wrote a telling book, ‘The Cost of Discipleship.’ The title itself echoes the challenge Jesus put to the crowds who were seeking and following Him. The gospel cost Jesus His life, for us. As we claim discipleship, we learn not to hate, but to make sure our relationship with others does not interfere with or block our relationship with God. Nothing should get in the way of that basic requirement.
We might summarize the first commandment God gave to Moses and the first part of the great commandment of Jesus simply by stating: ‘God comes first in my life.’ The Spanish speaking people use this expression continually, ‘Dios primero.’
by Rev. William J. Reilly