(Mark 5)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Protestant theologian who taught in the United States before World War II. When Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in the early 1930s, he found himself opposing the rule of the Nazis. Eventually, he was executed for taking part in a plot to kill Hitler. Before he died, he wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. In it the theologian explains that there is no such thing as cheap grace. Rather, it will cost one to be a Christian.
Some people are unwilling to pay the price. In the gospel today the Geresene townspeople show no interest in Jesus since he already cost them two thousand head of pigs. Too earnest businesspeople, they cannot appreciate Jesus’ restoring to sanity one of their townspeople, but only take note of their losses.
What does it cost us to follow Jesus? A half hour’s sleep in the morning? Maybe we have to eat our words rather than lash out at some perceived unfairness? Whatever it is, it is a bargain. What we expend is not ours to begin with, but a gift from God. What we receive, is eternal life – the joy of Jesus’ eternal companionship.
