St. Peter’s day: The cost of discipleship
Referring to John 21:18-19, the Church historians state that Peter was stretched out by his hands, he was dressed in prison garb, he was taken where no one wanted to go (a crucifixion), and was crucified. He was said to be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the way that the Lord Jesus Christ had been.
Dietrich Bonheoffer in his book, the cost of discipleship said “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son: ‘Ye were bought at a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
On the contrary he says that “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without Church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” It is in this perspective that Jesus told his disciples in Luke 14: 27 “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be
my disciple.” Dietrich Bonheoffer was hanged on the gallows on a concrete slab at Flossenburg Concentration Camp. His final words were these: “This is for me the end, the beginning of life.” Both Apostle Peter and Bonheoffer give us a reflection of paying the cost of discipleship. As we celebrate St. Peter’s day, what is our challenge?
God is not calling us to die the way Peter did. He is calling us to a life of sacrifice where Christ is loved, imitated, lived out and reflected deeply in our families. Marriage is a gift of grace to us which cannot be enjoyed without discipleship. It is a reminder to the fathers and husbands to be true to their calling as family heads to love their wives the way Christ loved the Church. To sacrifice time, money, pleasure and invest their lives in Christ alone who will in turn teach them to love their families. Without discipleship we encounter domestic violence, immorality, drunkenness, broken marriages, pain, co-habiting.
Families have no love because love is from God and all men who do not love God have no measure of love to offer to their wives. True love is sacrificial. To love one must first love Christ.
The Very Rev. Canon Dr. Rebecca Nyegenye
PROVOST