“Disturbing Our Comfort Zones!”

“Disturbing Our Comfort Zones!”(Lk.14:25-33).
Preachers whose messages are trending are those of megachurches – especially tele-evangelists. Our generation see posting of ministers to big congregations as favour.
There is a need for deeper reflection to see if what we are boasting of today is actually what Jesus wants. Such reflections prompted those who started religious orders and monastic life. Such reflections give birth to revival movements and today’s NRMs (New Religious Movements).
Jesus was more of an itinerant preacher than a parish minister. What we consider to be the cost of discipleship was said to the “large crowds that were travelling with” him. If he turned to them, this means there was a temporary stop, while he was addressing them.
Is it likely that when the people heard the hard conditions, some of them decided to withdraw?
The cost of discipleship is primarily about the choice to follow Jesus or not to follow him. But if that is so, does it mean he doesn’t care about those who weigh the terms and decide not to follow him?
All of life is about choices, but choices have consequences.
Passages like this one should provoke in us the need to want to go back to the old time religion of Jesus’ teachings.
Such teachings highlight the importance of the awareness of impermanence, self-abnegation, emphasis on radical commitment, renunciation of possessions, and prioritising the Lord Jesus above all else.
This is the choice we have. If you follow it, you become a recluse. But one truth remains: Whatever veneer we put on the rough wood, and no matter how sparkling the varnish transforms the furniture, that is not the cost of discipleship! It is the hypocrisy in which we have found comfort. The cost of discipleship is what disturbs our comfort zones. This is so because where prosperity gospel thrives and permanence is emphasised, cosr of discipleship collapses!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, help us to weigh the cost and yet decide to follow Christ. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
22/07/2025.