Russ' Ramblings

Luke 9:57-62

There was a Mercedes-Benz dealership not far from where we lived.  It was between our house and the church building.  So we passed it with great frequency, to say the least.  Every once in a while, my father would stop, park our car, and browse the cars on the lot.  I didn’t know cars.  I liked our old Chevy.  It was big, sleek, and had “roll down the window” air conditioning.  Those German cars didn’t impress me much at all, but my father liked to look at them.  He told me how well they were made.  He talked about how long one would last.  Anyway, he would look at them for a while and then we would get in our Chevy and head down the road.  One day, I asked him why he didn’t buy one, since he liked them so much.  I mean, I could tell that he would have liked to have one, and maybe even dreamed of cruising around town in one.  He told me that it was a matter of cost.  So, we could have gotten one if it just didn’t cost quite so much.

It is really a bummer, when cost gets in the way.  If you think about it, cost gets in the way a lot.  Imagine how much “junk” we would buy if it wasn’t for the cost.  What kind of house would you have if it were not for the cost?  What kind of car would you buy if it were not for the cost?  Where would you travel if it were not for the cost?  It seems to me that we might do a lot more things and have a lot more things if it were not for the matter of the cost.  Now, before you get yourself all twisted-up about costs, think about all the junk we have in spite of the cost.  Generally speaking, we find a way to get the things that we really need along with most of the things at the tip of our want list.  One of the large businesses, especially in the urban areas is the storage business.  No longer do we have enough room in our houses to store all of our junk, we have to rent storage spaces to get it out of our way.  Our garages are so full we can’t get our cars in them.  Our attics are so full that we might ought to worry about ceilings collapsing.  We have even filled our backyard storage sheds.  Still, if it were not for the cost, we might buy more “junk”.

Three men were in the company of Jesus and found themselves confronted by that old demon, cost.  Each one of them had some fine qualities.  Still, cost reared its head and challenged the enthusiasm that might have otherwise grown.  Whether it was a lack of a place to call home, having to let go of hindering people, or even separating from typical tasks, there was and is a very real cost.  Jesus wasn’t discouraging the men from being his disciples.  He just let them know that there was a cost.  From there it was in their hands.  I don’t know whether any of the three finally paid the price, but they did learn what it was.

I am sure that Mercedes would have been nice.  We kept the Chevy.  Jesus offers an even better value, worth more than the cost.