The Un-Disciple

October 13, 2013

The “Un-Disciple”

Luke 9:57-62                            NOT EDITED

SIS—Undiscipleship does not reflect a complete commitment to Christ and will not glorify God nor build His Kingdom.

In 1967, 7UP brought the phrase UNCOLA into the national vernacular. The UNCOLA campaign set 7UP apart from its competition and became part of a counter cultural that symbolized being true to yourself and challenging the status quo.  7UP wanted to capture the young, hip anti-establishment crowd.  It was a bold statement of a new attitude and set of values.

Not everyone switched of course and cola drinks still flood the markets.  The soft drink market generates about $300 billion annually, thought the trend indicates continuing sales may go flat.

the 7UP campaign was a unique way to set itself apart from the crowded cola market by highlighting what it “isn’t,” rather than what it “is.”  It is cool and hip to be the “un” cola.

Well, I’m not really sure how this came to make me think of what it means to follow Jesus, but it did.  In Luke 9, Jesus introduces us to the concept of the “Un-disciple.”  Unlike the positive vibe 7UP generated with the term “un-cola,” the idea of an “un-disciple” indicates a discipleship that lacks fizz and falls flat.  Jesus condemns “un-discipleship” by presenting it in three different aspects:  the “Un-counted cost,” the “Un-buried corpse,” and the “Un-forsaken influences.”  These all add up to a flat, fizzless, fruitless, false disciple.

Let’s read this passage together:  Luke 9:57-62.

I’m afraid that most church-goers that consider themselves Christian disciples exhibit more of the characteristics of “un-discipleship.”  This is not a pleasant thought that gives us warm fuzzies, but if Jesus saw a need to discuss this issue with His original disciples, we’d be wise to take a look at it also.

First, Jesus points out that an “Un-disciple” has a problem with

1.  The “Un-counted Cost” (57-58)

⁵⁷ As they were traveling on the road someone said to Him,  “I will follow You wherever You go!” ⁵⁸ Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky  have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

Years ago, the beloved preacher and scholar William Barclay said of this passage:  “It may well be that we [the church] have done great harm to the [Kingdom of God] by letting people think that church membership need not make so very much difference [in a person’s life.”  In other words, church membership need not cost very much in regard to one’s time or treasures, or deepest affections.

Jesus accomplished the greatest miracle that will ever take place in the universe:  He died to make salvation “free” for all who will simply bow down and love Him.  That really need not be so big a challenge—to love Jesus that is—for never has there been, nor will there ever be, a man in history more deserving of our love.  Jesus reached down from heaven and snatched us as a “branch out of the fire.”  He paid the awful price for our sin so that there is nothing left to pay.  Because of Jesus, salvation is free.

This is a great miracle—the greatest miracle!  But, I’m afraid that we as His followers have succeeded in performing an equally great miracle of sorts.  Jesus made salvation free.  We, the Church, have made it “cheap.”

A “would-be follower” of Jesus had just boldly declared, “Jesus, I’ll follow You anywhere!” Jesus then turns and looks this “would-be” follower in the eye and says,  “First, count the cost.”

Jesus was a master at thinning out a crowd.  Here we have a “would-be, enthusiastic volunteer” and Jesus seems to let all the air out of the perspective disciple’s balloon.  Jesus declared, “Following me will cost you everything.  You won’t even have a hole to crawl into like a fox, or a warm nest like a bird.”  What was Jesus thinking? Jesus was indeed, “thinking.”  He realized that that temporary enthusiasm is no substitute for thoughtful commitment. Jesus drew crowds everywhere He went—huge crowds!  The Lord realized, however, that simply being part of the “crowd” is not the same as being one of the “committed.”

We live in a nation that has grown quite soft.  We live in a culture that seeks immediate gratification.  We get impatient if our computer search takes more than a couple seconds.  We simply do not like to be inconvenienced in any way.  This attitude has seeped into church.  Maybe I should say, “poured into the church.”  People can get caught up in an emotional moment in church, especially at a particularly vulnerable time in life. They embrace the church in a fit of enthusiasm but when the first sign of commitment pops up, they are out the door.

Jesus described these type of “un-disciples” in a parable:

^{Mat. 13    20} The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

Now Jesus wasn’t being harsh or derogatory in any way.  Jesus was being brutally honest.  Following Him means “carrying one’s cross.”  The cross is an instrument of death.  The cross represents sacrifice, even ultimate sacrifice.  An “Un-disciple” fails to count the cost, fall away, and be in worst shape than if he or she had never started.  Hebrews warns us of the dangers of “un-discipleship” that fails to count the cost:

^{Heb. 6    4} For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, became companions with the Holy Spirit,  ⁵ tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, ⁶ and who have fallen away, because,  to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding Him up to contempt.

It’s not that these “un-disciples” lose their salvation, but that they never had it in the first place because their decision to join with Jesus was an emotional decision, not a spiritual one.  They fail to count the cost.

True disciples have to be good “accountants.”  Accountants are masters at working with numbers, analyzing costs, and projecting profits. Businesses rely on accountants to guide them in tracking numbers.  A good accountant is indispensable to a successful business. Accountants know how to “count the costs.” By the way, do you know what an accountant really is?  An accountant is someone who solves a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you don’t understand. My friends who are accountants know that is true!

It is a good thing to follow Jesus.  In fact, it is the best thing.  It is an eternal thing.  But, you must count the cost.  The first issue Jesus discusses in regard to the “Un-disciple” is the “Un-counted Cost.”

2.  The Unburied Corpse (59-60)

⁵⁹ Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” “Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.” ⁶⁰ But He told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”

Zombies are all the rage these days.  Zombie movies have become quite popular and a zombie even plays the lead in a Sprint cell phone commercial.  Seems being “un-dead” is not a hindrance to fame and fortune—at least not in Hollywood.  It is another matter altogether when it comes to being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

There is more to this passage than might being lying close to the surface.  Surely, Jesus was not suggesting that we should leave dead bodies unburied.  Neither was Jesus suggesting we should be disrespectful of our loved ones who have died.  Again, Jesus is not be harsh or derogatory at all.  Jesus is being brutally honest. 

What Jesus is really pointing to is “urgency” and priority.  Now, if we assume that the man’s father had really died and this was just not an excuse, then the man’s reason for delaying his obedience to Jesus seems most reasonable.  In Jewish custom in the Middle East, as in many cultures, the most important duty a son can perform for a parent is a proper burial. For a Jew, this goes directly to obedience to the “Fifth Commandment”: “Honor your father and mother” (Ex. 20:12).

Now some scholars suggest that this is just an empty excuse, and the father is not really dead.  Other scholars feel this request is genuine, but not well-founded because the father is not even ill.  The man is actually saying, “When I no longer have duties at home after my father dies I will follow you.”

Regardless of which point of view you take, the application is the same:  delayed obedience is disobedience.  Let me say that again, “delayed obedience is disobedience.”

Jesus used a very important custom in the Middle East—filial duty—to demonstrate the high cost of following Him.  For a true disciple, following Jesus is “top priority.”  For the “Un-disciple” following Jesus is a matter of fitting Him into one’s schedule.  For the “Un-disciple,” following Jesus is one duty among many other duties. 

I fully understand that the reality of life dictates that we juggle many competing issues in life.  We have personal issues.  We have family issues.  We have issues at work.  A hundred different voices all clamor for our time and energy like a gaggle of geese.  We can hardly hear ourselves think for all the noise around us.  We are like juggler in the circus trying to keep all the balls in the air, or like the juggler trying to keep all the plates spinning so none come crashing down.

Have you ever seen a “plate spinner.”  The juggler has about five to seven polls.  On top of the first pole the juggler starts a plate spinning.  Then he starts another plate spinning on a second poll, and yet another on the third poll.  Then he goes back and gives the first, second and third a spin while he spins a plate on the fourth.  Then he goes back and spins the first, second and third again while he puts a plate on the fifth.  Then he spins the fourth again while he puts a plate on the sixth, and goes back to spin the first and second that have almost stopped, then the third and fourth, while he puts a plate on the seventh.  All the while he is running back and forth frantically trying to keep all the plates spinning.  If he misses a plate for too long it comes crashing to the floor in a hundred pieces.

Life is like that.  Most the time there is a big pile of broken china at our feet as we try to keep all the plates of life spinning.

We all know the problem.  People die and need buried.  Children cry and need carried.  Couples fall in love and need married.  We get it.  Life demands a lot from us.  But, here’s the deal.  If you are an “Un-disciple,” every time another voice calls, you ignore the call of Jesus upon your life.  When Jesus is not “top priority,” He often falls at the bottom of one’s list of “things to do.”

Let me remind you that life is like a river.  If you don’t jump in with both feet at some point in that river, the opportunity will be gone forever.  A true disciple follows Jesus, daily.  Jesus reminds us,

Luke 9:23  Take up your cross daily and follow me

An “Un-disciple” always looks to tomorrow to obey the Lord’s call upon his or her life.  We cannot serve God tomorrow.  Tomorrow is only a mental construct, and idea.  For, by the time tomorrow comes, today will be yesterday—the opportunity will be gone.  Paul speaks to this in Ephesians 5:15-16:

¹⁵ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— ¹⁶ making the most of the time.

The word for time here does not refer to chronological time—as the passing of seconds on a watch—but of “strategic time” (kairos) which refers to an “opportunity.”

Just recently, Eastman Kodak Company filed for bankruptcy.  In this age of digital cameras nobody is really surprised that a company known for “celluloid film processing” is becoming a dinosaur.  Here’s something many people do not know:  the first digital camera was invented by a Kodak engineer, Steven Sasson, in 1975.  [SHOW PIC].  Kodak resisted the digital idea fervently, in favor of the tried and true “celluloid film camera.”  Kodak is going the way of the dinosaur because the company did not seize the day, or carpe diem, as they say in Latin.  They missed the opportunity of a lifetime by delaying the entry into the digital market.  Here’s the real kicker:  Kodak amassed about 1000 patents for digital cameras.  Today, almost all digital cameras rely on those inventive patents.

The second “Un-disciple” had issues with “Un-buried corpses.”  The problem was “delayed obedience” which leads to missed opportunities and outright failure as a disciple of Jesus.  Obedience to Jesus requires “urgency and immediacy.”

“Un-disciples” have “un-counted costs” and “un-buried corpses,” as well as

3.  Un-forsaken Influences (61-62)

⁶¹ Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.” ⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

This “Un-disciple” might seem to have the same issue as the one with the “un-buried corpse” but I think the matter is quite different.  With the “Un-buried corpse” we are talking about legitimate life issues.  We were talking about choosing the “best from among the good.”  This is not the case with the third “Un-disciple.”  In fact, I think it is quite the opposite:  he is choosing the worst among the bad.

His family represents “his old ways.”  It represents what he is comfortable with.  It could represent status quo.  It represents bad habits of the former life.  Think of this man’s statement in light of Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 4:

²² You took off  your former way of life,  the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; ²³ you are being renewed  in the spirit  of your minds; ²⁴ you put on the new self, the one created  according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

The essence of Christianity is “change”—eternal change that is both and event and a process.  Our transformation to true disciples of Jesus takes place in a moment in time when we accept the free gift of eternal life provided for us by the sacrificial death of the Lord on the cross.  Paul describes this instantaneous transformation:

^{2Cor 5   17} Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;  old things have passed away, and look,  new things  have come.

This is salvation as an “event.”  There is also the matter of the “process” of salvation, or what theologians call, sanctification—the process of becoming holy.  That’s what Paul describes as “taking off the old man of sin and putting on the new man of salvation.”  It is a wardrobe change, so to speak.

The third “un-disciple” was still wanting the “old garment” of sin.  He wanted his “old” friends and desired his “old” ways.  You might say, “he was stuck in his ways,” much like Freddy the Frog I spoke about last week that was stuck in a rut.  We’ve all heard the definition of a “rut.”  It is a “grave with both ends knocked out!”  Our old life is a life of death, like living in an eternal grave.

The focus in regard to this “un-disciple,” like the other two, is not to be harsh or critical, but to simply be honest.  One simply cannot follow Jesus and keep looking back over one’s shoulder, longing for the things of the world.  One cannot keep one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat and then be surprised when one gets wet! 

Any farmer knows—and I know because I’ve known several farmers—the only way to plow a straight furrow in a field is to pick a point across the field and focus on it.  If you try to plow by looking back over your shoulder, your furrows will be as crooked as a dog’s hind leg (something I’ve heard many farmer types describe).

One cannot be a true disciple by “overcoming bad habits!”  This sounds strange to many people because many people believe that this is the “goal of Christianity”—to overcome bad habits.  No, the goal of Christianity is to establish “new habits.”  When one establishes new habits, old habits just die from malnutrition.  This is what Paul meant when he said,

^{Gal5   16} I say then, walk by the Spirit  and you
will not [indeed, cannot]carry out the desire of the flesh.

“Un-disciples” fail because they fail to forsake the old influences of the flesh—the sin nature.  “Un-disciples” feed the old man and he overcomes the new man.  In fact, the “new man” never comes to life at all in an “Un-disciple” that still loves the “old ways.”

With a true disciple, as Paul said, “everything becomes new!”  There is a discernible, measurable, on-going transformation that all can see.  It’s like a farmer who visited a big city with his wife and son for the first time.  The wife was off shopping in some fancy shop, and the farmer and his son were waiting patiently in the lobby of their fancy hotel.  The little boy was mesmerized by all the wonderful sights.  He was trying to take it all in.  The farmer was not so impressed.  He was just reading the paper mostly oblivious to all that was going on around him.  One of the most fascinating sights for the little boy was the elevator in the lobby.  They were on the first floor so they never went on the elevator.  The little boys eyes were as big as saucers watching the shiny doors open and close.  People would get in, the doors would shut, and in a few minutes they would open again and new people would come out.  The little boy tugged on his daddy’s shirt and said, “Daddy, look at this neat thing,” referring to the elevator.  The Dad took a glance at the elevator.  The shiny doors opened and an elderly woman stepped on.  She was grey-haired and a bit unsteady on her feet, wearing a thick overcoat.  The doors closed.  A few minutes later, the shiny doors opened.  Out of the elevator stepped a stunning, tall, blonde-haired lady.  The farmer’s eyes got as big as saucers and stammering he said to his son, “Quick! son.  Let’s go get Momma and have her ride that thing!”

Discipleship is all about transformation.  “Un-disciples” long for the old ways of the flesh.  True disciples “put on the new man of faith.”

7UP thought they were really onto something when they came up with the idea of the “Uncola.”  That was something really special. It represented something new, good, and wholesome.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work the same way with “Un-disciples.”  Undiscipleship does not reflect a complete commitment to Christ and will not glorify God nor build His Kingdom.

Drink the Uncola if you will but don’t be
an “Undisciple.”

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