The Things of God: The Cost of Discipleship

Author: Joseph

Date: May 23, 2021

Yeshua asked His disciples who they thought He was, wanting to hear from their own confessions who they believed He was. God revealed to Simon Peter that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God. Upon hearing this, Yeshua said that Peter was blessed and then proclaimed that, beginning with Peter, He would build His community of believers (ekklesia; a.k.a. “church”). What a privilege! Yet, not even 10 verses later in this passage, Peter rebuked Yeshua for foretelling that He would suffer and die, which elicited this response from Yeshua, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me…” (Matthew 16:23). Why was there such a dramatic difference in the way Yeshua was speaking to Peter within such a short time?

The answer is contained in the rest of the verse quoted before. Yeshua told Peter, “…for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Matthew 16:23). Peter was focused on his own expectations and desires – that Yeshua would not die, but rather reign as King over Israel – and so to hear Yeshua speak of His death shattered those expectations. God had revealed to Peter that Yeshua was the Messiah and the Son of God, but once God revealed that Yeshua would also have to die, Peter was unable to accept this truth. Peter was ready to accept the idea of God as Messiah, but He was not ready to accept the idea of God as a Suffering Servant. But was it for the sake of Yeshua’s own well-being that Peter was worried? Or was Peter concerned about his own well-being? The verse that follow direct us to understand that it was the latter that concerned Peter.

Yeshua then addressed all His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life with lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). Yeshua addressed Peter’s fears directly by telling Peter (and the others) that in order to follow after Him, he must be willing to also suffer as He would suffer. Yeshua was not speaking figuratively – He would suffer a literal death on the cross, not a figurative one – and so His call to take up a cross was asking His disciples to be willing to do the same. Were they all destined to be crucified as He was? No. But they had to be fully willing and self-abandoned to the extent that they would accept crucifixion if God had chosen this way for them to die for Him. This deeply disturbed Peter, filling him with fear, and caused him to quickly turn his heart and mind away from the things of God in order to protect himself and feel “safe.”

When we focus on the things of God, on God’s interests, then we live as God’s people and even the greatest adversary or affliction will not overcome us (ex. Matthew 16:18). By letting go of our lives, yes, even willing to physically die for Him, we find eternal life in Him and nothing and no one can take that away from us. We have great victory by joining in the suffering of Yeshua and by living in self-abandonment through following Him. But we must not attempt to exchange this suffering and self-abandonment for comfort or worldly gain in this life. If we lose our soul by exchanging Yeshua’s call to us by instead living for this world, what does it really achieve? What do we really gain? We suffer eternally for this exchange and in death we carry none of the pleasures of the world with us. Whereas if we endure during our lifetime, we have gained all eternity in victory with Yeshua.

"The cost of following Yeshua is great..."

The cost of following Yeshua is great, but the time of suffering is short and the rewards are eternal. The cost of not following Yeshua is greater because the rewards are meaningless and temporary while the time of suffering is forever. Peter was greatly afraid of the cost and this made him stumble in his faith, but Yeshua did not lessen the truth of what it means to be His disciple because of Peter’s fear.

When you read these words from Yeshua, what do you think about your own walk of faith? Are you willing to suffer as Yeshua did and live in self-abandonment to God’s interests rather than your own?

What about when you share the Good News with others? Do you shy away from telling others that they will have to live a life of suffering for their faith in Yeshua?

Yeshua did not promise a life of comfort, but quite the opposite. He said that we must take up our cross and follow Him. He said that we must lose their life in order to gain eternal life. We will all suffer one way or another for Him when we truly become His disciples and give our entire life to Him. Be willing to do so and when you share the Good News, tell others that they must be willing to do so. For if we do not understand the cost of discipleship, then we have not really chosen to follow Him.

When we do not understand the cost of discipleship and we have not fully accepted His words for our life, then we have really only accepted our own desires and our own depiction of who Yeshua is. We have not accepted God’s desires for us nor the full realization of Who Yeshua is until we count the costs and pick up our cross to follow after Him. Peter would eventually fully accept what Yeshua told him that day and did become a faithful disciple who was willing to die for Him. Will you do the same and teach others to do the same as well?

Matthew 16:13-26

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org