Is the Cost Worth It? (13th Pentecost / Proper 18C)

Guillermo Arboleda
6 days ago
5 min read

A sermon by the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, written for and delivered at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Rincon, GA, on Sunday, September 7, 2025, which is the 13th Sunday after Pentecost (RCL Proper 18, Year C).

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2564/a-roman-boys-rite-of-passage/

Primary Bible Reading(s)

(Click on September 7, 2025, to see all of the Lectionary Texts)

Luke 14:25-33 (NRSVue)

25 Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Is the Cost Worth It?

By the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, Program Manager for New Starts, ELCA

“Now large crowds were traveling with [Jesus]” (Luke 14:25). Imagine being one of the people in the crowds. You have already decided to follow Jesus, at least for a bit. You are compelled by his preaching and teaching about God’s abundant grace and new life in the Reign of God. You’ve left your home and walked with him and his disciples from one town to the next. You’ve made some sacrifices. You are pretty committed. Then Jesus stops in the middle of the road, turns around and says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).

After asking people to hate their relatives and their own lives, Jesus warns his listeners not to follow him without counting the costs. Don’t be like someone who starts a construction project and runs out of money before finishing it. Don’t be like someone who arrogantly fights a losing war. If you’re going to follow Jesus, you’ve got to be all in and be willing to lose everything.

Yikes. How do you think you would feel? How do you feel now hearing those words from Jesus? When reflecting on this passage, one pastor wrote, “If you can’t say ‘Amen,’ let me hear you say ‘Ouch’” (Clark).

Why would Jesus say this? Why would he issue these stern warnings to people who were trying to follow him? What is the big deal about being a Christian? What are all these costs that Jesus spoke about? In the early church, these costs could actually be pretty clear.

In the Roman empire, society was very hierarchical. One of the biggest divisions was between citizens and noncitizens. Most of the residents of the Roman empire were not citizens. Citizens were usually people from wealthier, noble families or upper-middle class people who purchased citizenship at a high price. For example, Jesus and his disciples were not Roman citizens, though St. Paul was a citizen from birth. Male citizens were entitled to vote, to receive a trial if they were accused, and they were exempted from certain kinds of torture, including crucifixion.

How did you know if someone was a citizen? Clothing was a primary marker. Male citizens wore togas to formal occasions, to vote or participate in a trial, etc. When a man became a Roman citizen (either as an adolescent or as an adult after purchasing it), there was a ceremony for bestowing the toga virilis (toga of manhood). Importantly, if you were not a citizen, you were not allowed to wear a toga virilis. It was a crime to impersonate a citizen or “cross-dress.” A peasant or foreigner who wore a toga could be arrested, tortured, or even crucified.

But early Christians adapted the toga virilis ceremony into baptisms. The toga virilis is also called the toga alba (white toga). That’s where we get the word “alb” for the robes/vestments that we wear on the altar. In the early church, after someone got baptized, they would come out of the water and be wrapped in a white robe that looked an awful lot like the toga virilis or toga alba. But the church would bestow this honor on anyone – not just citizens and not just men. Women, children, slaves, prostitutes, poor people, people with disabilities, and more were all welcomed into the church and shown the radical love of God. They were treated with dignity and respect, and the church showed them the same honors given to noblemen. Not only that, but traditionally, a newly baptized Christian would wear their new toga alba for 8 days (until the following Sunday). During that time, a non-citizen Christian could be harassed, persecuted, arrested, beaten, or even crucified for claiming such an exalted status.

Jesus taught about the empire of God as a contrast to the empire of Caesar. In Caesar’s empire, might equals right, noble birth makes some people better than others, some get fair treatment and others are denied rights, and wealth and greed rule the roost. But in God’s empire, the first become last and the last become first, and the poor are blessed and invited to the great banquet. In God’s Empire, “there is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

That radical equality and inclusivity offended Roman (and Greek and Jewish) sensibilities. It brought new Christians into conflict with their “father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters” (Luke 14:26). It put them in danger of having to carry a cross unto death. It was life-changing and transforming in all the best ways. But it could also be unpopular, foolish, and dangerous to the rest of society. So Jesus warns his would-be followers, that there is no half-way discipleship. There is no middle ground between Jesus’ liberating, life-giving love and the oppressive ways of the empire. You can’t start building the Jesus tower and give up before it’s finished. So consider what this will cost you.

Like I said earlier, St. Paul himself was a citizen. He grew up in a wealthy, privileged family. He had the best rabbinical education available. He became a leading Pharisee. He could have led a comfortable life of scholarship, teaching, and continued persecution of the church. But instead he threw all of that away after an encounter with the risen Christ. He would be rejected by his kin, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, and more. The second half of his life would be filled with great suffering. But Paul believed that knowing Jesus was worth everything that it cost him. Late in his life, he wrote to the Philippians, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,” (3:8-9a, NRSVue). Paul had an intense loyalty to Jesus that superseded all his other loyalties and loves. May Jesus grab a hold of all of us in the same sort of way. And may we choose to follow him over whatever it will cost, because whatever it costs, Jesus is worth it. Amen.

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