The Cost of Finishing

Most of my adult life, I have employed a phrase, ‘finishing well.’  Just from an observational perspective of observing the big crowd out there, however, it would be good for people at the beginning of their Christian walk to count the cost of just finishing, even if they do not finish as well as they had hoped.

In the very famous discipleship passage about the ‘cost of discipleship’ in Luke 14, people rarely quote verses 28-30, where Jesus recommend that we sit down and pull out the calculator.  It is possible to anticipate up front what the completion cost will be. We must do that in a spiritual sense.

Jesus is quite brutal in His advice-giving.  There are relational costs, financial costs, material costs, and the costs of going to war spiritually. We typically employ common sense in every aspect of our lives, but we generally miss the very practical expense of following the Savior.

In Jesus’ discourse, we measure immediate costs—leaving family and possessions. The holistic nature of ‘the call,’ however, is about total life-management and finishing what we start. It is a long-haul ethic.

Just two chapters earlier in Luke 12:48, Jesus illustrated the Master’s brand of accountability–to whom much is given, much will be required.  We rarely anticipate ultimate judgement or final accounting in our daily measurements. 

In an instant society, we function in the immediate, the short term. Even our discipleship ethic is cast in short-term language, ‘picking up our cross daily. ‘ There is good reason for this. Jesus told us to think this way (Lk. 9:23).  However, here in this passage in Luke 14, the vision is total.  It is total project cost-management.

Having a total vision, one that is enduring with the finish-line in view, is tough for those of us who live in a drive-through world.  Yet, we are commanded to ‘sit down first and count the cost.’  Before we decide to finish well, we have to first decide just to finish. We need to do this up front and early. 

To cap off the difficulty of this logic, we return to the opening line of the pericope.  “Now great multitudes went with Him…” (25).  He wanted to separate pretenders from followers, whittle the crowd down so to speak. 

This type of enduring litmus test is not visible by initial decision-making in a local church. Real disciples separate themselves out by sitting down and doing the cost-analysis and living a long-term process of following.

In any project, it is typically the last 10% that is the hardest.  Try to get a builder to come back and finish the last touch ups on a build that is done but not finished.  Good luck with that. 

Yet Jesus is encouraging us to anticipate setbacks and failures.  We must resolve to finish. We decide at the beginning to be a total follower.  He gave us that example.  Ultimately, He rose from the dead and demonstrated what finishing well looks like. It is quite glorious, full of wonder and satisfaction. It is imagination-capturing. We need to resolve to finish.