I was required to take only one semester of economics in college (THANK GOD!). To be honest, I don't remember much, except for my round-faced, five feet something, pipe-smoking attorney for a professor and something about how costs are driven up in an economy due to a variety of factors. Just a few months ago, I had an economic flashback, when I paid $7.50 for a pound of bacon. Between the meat cooler and checkout counter, I was trying to understand how this could be--Was the factor or factors driving this the price of corn? Transportation costs? Health care? Labor disputes? Could pigs have possibly read H.G. Wells classic book, Animal Farm, and rebelled? Regardless of what factors were at play, I paid the price, because we were celebrating my oldest daughter's twenty-third birthday, and I considered the occasion more than worth it.
When it comes to the cost of being Jesus' disciples, we ought to consider what factors are involved which can cause the price of following Him to increase. In Acts 4:2, we learn that the first factor was annoyance. Those who chose not to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah and Savior of the world were "greatly annoyed because {Jesus' followers} were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." Like I do when mosquitoes are flying around my ears, these unbelievers did something about it--they arrested, jailed, and threatened the disciples to keep them quiet. Cha ching! Rising costs!
In Acts 5 we find a second price-increasing factor: jealousy. God was doing such an awesome work, adding multitudes of both men and women to the faith, that it was driving the cold and lifeless religious elites mad! Not liking what they were hearing and seeing, jealousy drove them to once again arrest and jail Jesus' followers. When the disciples told them they must obey God rather than men, "they were enraged and wanted to kill them" (Acts 5:33). However, they opted for more threats and added a beating to make their point. Cha ching! Price increase!
In Acts 6-7 we read of a disciple named Stephen, who learned that the most prominent factor which drives the cost of following Jesus higher and higher to be hatred. "When {the unbelievers} heard these things {spoken by Stephen} they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.... They cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. They cast him out of the city and stoned him {to death}" (Acts 7:54, 57-58a). Cha ching! Price through the roof!
This should not surprise God's people. Jesus had said, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you" (John 15:18). Make no mistake about it--identifying with, pledging allegiance to, and following after the Lord Jesus Christ will annoy and eventually anger those who reject who He is, what He has said, and what He has done. And because they cannot take it out on Him, they will certainly vent against those who are called by His name. Cha ching! The cost of following Jesus will increase.
Will Jesus' disciples consider the occasion of worshiping and serving the resurrected and ascended Son of God more than worth the cost?
In the next post, I will explore some Scriptural, historical, and contemporary examples of the costs of following Jesus, as well as believers' response to these increases.
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