No Discounts with Jesus

7 September 2025  Luke 14:25-33

“Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost…? Luke 14:28

There are no discounts with Jesus. There is never a 50% off sale, no early-bird specials. The cost is always the same.

Everything.

Some are called to a radical expression of this, and they decide to give everything away, to own nothing, to keep nothing, to give up the gift and companionship of marriage, the gift and heritage of children. Most, however, are called to use everything they have to serve the mission of Christ. So, their homes are little outposts of the Kingdom, their marriages are microcosms of the love Jesus has for the Church (cf. Ephesians 5:31-32), their time is dedicated first to their witness to Jesus, their income too. They neither do, nor earn, nor spend anything that is in any way opposed to the mission of Jesus. Monks and nuns are not the only disciples of Jesus, but all disciples understand the cost.

Everything.

Of course, we receive Everything, too. We receive the life of Christ Himself, the “pearl of great price,” and we can receive it every day if we want. Our lives, for that reason, always have meaning and purpose. We are delivered from nearly all confusion about what the right thing to do is, and our neighbors can trust us with things of immense value to them. We will certainly receive the life of Jesus on the last day, and that is Heaven. But the cost is always the same.

Everything.

The Bible tells many cautionary tales about people who have tried to receive all the benefits of the life of Christ at a reduced price. There are those who say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets” (Luke 13:26). We came to Mass, and attended all the Church suppers. It is rather like the person who said to a great scholar, “So and so says he was a student of yours,” to which the scholar replied, “He attended my lectures, perhaps, but he was never a student of mine.” Attendance and attention are not interchangeable terms, and to those who confuse them Jesus always says, “I never knew you.” There are those who receive the Eucharist, but in their hearts are unaware or unconcerned that the Eucharist is the life of Jesus. St. Paul warns them, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord…. For anyone who eats and drinks without perceiving the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (I Corinthains 11:27-29). Not paying attention is one of the things the Bible means by not counting the cost.

And the cost is always the same. Everything.

Of course, we receive Everything, too, and so the cost is an occasion for celebration, not sadness. The English word “carnival” comes from two Latin words – carni vale – which mean “farewell to meat.” In the Middle Ages families would eat up all the meat in the house the night before the start of Lent, when they would fast from meat as an act of repentance in preparation for the celebration of Easter. The farewell became a party, hence the English word “carnival.” It was a brilliant and healthy instinct to connect self-denial to celebration, because it kept their focus on the objective, which was Easter, the life of Jesus returned. And it keeps on being returned, every day at every Mass all over the world.

The gift, like the cost, is Everything.

There are no discounts with Jesus because there is no knock-off salvation, no economy class heaven. That’s all there is to it. That’s Everything.