Costs and Rewards of Discipleship
© 2023 C. O. Bishop
(Explication of Hymn “So Send I You” by Margaret Clarkson
Introduction:
Last week we introduced the idea of discipleship as being the natural result of salvation. Saved people now belong to Jesus. The result ought to be that we willingly serve Him and follow Him. I want to examine that concept more carefully, especially considering both the costs and the rewards of discipleship:
Two Hymns From Canada
In 1954, Margaret Clarkson wrote a hymn, “So Send I You.” She was a believer, and she worked as an elementary school teacher, in logging and mining camps in northwestern Canada. She felt very isolated there, as a Christian. Sometimes she was the only Christian there. Sometimes there was another believer with whom she could fellowship. But later, teaching in public schools in towns back in Eastern Canada, she felt just as isolated. She was also in constant pain: She had suffered from migraines since babyhood: (Her first words, according to her mother, were, “my head hurts!”) Arthritis eventually crippled her so badly she could no longer work.
In light of the hard circumstances under which she served, she reflected on the meaning of what Jesus said in John 20:21 …“As My Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Her lyrics reflected the potential cost of discipleship. That is not a “wrong” perspective: Jesus warned His disciples to “count the cost!” He wanted them to know in advance that the cost of true discipleship can be very steep. BUT, He also revealed that the promised rewards would be commensurate with their service.
So… let’s have a look at what she wrote:
The 1954 Lyrics
Lack of Present Fulfillment
So send I you to labor unrewarded;
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown;
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing;
So send I you, to toil for Me alone.
To whom do I belong? Who am I actually serving? It is entirely possible that the people I am trying to reach will show zero appreciation for the service I offer. They may reject everything I say, and disdain my friendship or my offers of help. Jesus served faithfully. But those He initially came to reach also rejected Him. John 1:11 says, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”
For Whom are You Suffering?
So send I you, to bind the bruised and broken;
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to weep, to wake;
To bear the burden of a world a-weary;
So send I you, to suffer for My sake.
In Philippians 1:29, the apostle Paul said, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake”
We know that we are to care for the lost, and to reach out to them: and we don’t mind that. But, we don’t like hearing about “suffering,” and that sort of thing. People told us, all our lives, that “being a Christian means I should always be happy!” Remember Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet.” He spent much of his life, grieving over the people to whom he was sent, as they consistently rejected everything God said through him.
A man once declared from the pulpit, “Church is supposed to be fun!” (Well, I really hate to “rain on his parade,” but I don’t see “fun” as being one of the expectations for church, in the Bible! Can it be fun? Sure! But is that a “core value” for the church? No!)
We gather for mutual encouragement, for corporate prayer and worship, for teaching, and training in discipleship! Sometimes all we can do is grieve together…but it is still encouraging to us all, because we know we are not alone in our grief, especially in company with other believers, but in fact, we are never alone at all! The next stanza reflects that truth:
In Whom do we find comfort?
So send I you, to loneliness and longing;
With heart a-hung’ring for the loved and known;
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one;
So send I you, to know My love alone.
You see, Miss Clarkson was feeling completely isolated, but she had the sense to know that she was not alone: She was simply relying on the Love of Christ alone! She was far away from her family and friends, and living in extremely rough conditions, but she learned to lean on Jesus and His Love for all her emotional needs. We need to come to grips with that same dependency.
In Whose direction will we place our confidence?
So send I you, to leave your life’s ambition;
To die to dear desire: self-will resign;
To labor long, and love where men revile you;
So send I you, to lose your life in Mine.
I don’t know what Margaret Clarkson had originally considered to be the “plan” for her life: she earned a college degree in teaching, but teaching in that logging camp and the later loneliness of the various schools, was not part of her plan. She evidently came to grips with the question. She believed that God had sent her there for the purpose of ministry, and she wrote many of her poems and hymns during those hard, lonely years.
How will we deal with those who treat us as Enemies?
How do we respond, when there is deliberate animosity against us, and against Christ and the message of the Gospel? Margaret Clarkson concluded the 1954 version of the hymn with thoughts on that question:
So send I you, to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see.
To spend, though it be blood, to spend and spare not;
So send I you, to taste of Calvary.
The Cost of Discipleship
Consider what it cost Jesus to bear the burden of Sin for the entire human race: We can read in 2nd Corinthians 5:21 that he “became sin” for us. He did not become a sinner: He became Sin. The eternal, holy, righteous God became “God in the Flesh”…the “incarnate God,” for us. But, He had to take the final step of becoming the object of the wrath of God as He poured out His Judgment upon Jesus, in place of the Human Race. Without His final act of “self-emptying,” as described in Philippians 2, we would still be lost.
Following Jesus eventually will cost something. In Luke 9:23, Jesus said “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross daily and Follow Me!”
It was reflection of the Cost of Discipleship that inspired Margaret Clarkson to write that song in 1954, along with many other poems and hymns. She was in constant pain, and four years later, after surgery to fuse most of her lower spine, was forced to retire, due to crippling pain.
The 1963 Lyrics
But, in 1963, nine years later, after talking with numerous missionaries, Miss Clarkson realized that she had left out the potential rewards of Discipleship. So, she wrote a new set of lyrics to the same tune.
We may feel that the second set of lyrics are “more encouraging,” or we may instead be offended that “someone wrote ‘feel-good’ lyrics to a serious song about discipleship.” But it was the same author! She had simply come to understand and embrace the other half—the eternal part—of the story of discipleship! Here it is, still reflecting on the call of Jesus:
More than Conquerors
So send I you — by grace made strong to triumph
O’er hosts of hell, o’er darkness, death and sin,
My name to bear and in that name to conquer —
So send I you, My victory to win.
We are not sent as helpless lambs, feebly tottering toward inevitable defeat: Romans 8:35-37 says that, in all of the perils of this life, “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!” Does that make it easy? No! Stephen was the victor while he was being murdered! Paul and Silas were the victors while they were in the Philippian prison, bleeding from the beating they had received! We need to see things from God’s perspective!
We Carry a Message of Life, Liberty, and Hope
So send I you – to take to souls in bondage
The Word of Truth that sets the captive free
To break the bonds of sin, to loose death’s fetters —
So send I you, to bring the lost to Me.
Jesus said in John 8:32, “…ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” In Philippians 2:15, 16, we are told that we are to “shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life…” Regardless of circumstances, we are his ambassadors! Bring people to Jesus! He sends us to “bring the lost to Christ” by means of the Gospel: not to “bring them to church, and hope someone else can persuade them.”
In Whom do we Find our Strength?
So send I you — My strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,
To prove My pow’r, My grace, My promised presence —
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
Paul was weakened physically by injuries and possibly disease: but in 2nd Corinthians 12:10, his conclusion was “therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I Am weak, then am I strong.” Notice that he did not claim he liked being mistreated, nor that “pain doesn’t hurt!” Pain does hurt! Persecution is not enjoyable!
But Paul found that when his natural abilities and strengths were laid aside, so that the only thing upon which he could lean was the grace of God, then he was actually far more capable and effective. In John 15:5, Jesus said, “Apart from Me ye can do nothing.” Notice that he did not say, “you cannot do as much…” or “you can’t produce as good a quality.” He said, “Apart from Me ye can do nothing!”
We know the eternal result: We submit ourselves to Him, to be the tools in His hands: to be His voice, His hands and His feet. And we expect that the fruit of our lives will turn out to have eternal value.
What is the Ultimate Expectation of a Faithful Disciple?
We speak of “going to one’s reward.” That is an accurate description of what a disciple can expect. Salvation is not a reward: it is a gift. Romans 6:23 says, “…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
But; reward is earned. Reward is the result of service. Salvation is a gift, given on the basis of faith in the shed blood of God’s chosen sacrifice…faith in Jesus, alone.
The Reward of Sin
If an unbeliever dies, still unforgiven, they receive the wages of sin, also described in Romans 6:23. If a disobedient believer dies: one who was a true believer, but one who was either unconcerned (or perhaps was simply untaught) about a walk with Jesus, and who was unwilling to absorb any of the cost of discipleship, then the reward is minimal, but, (always providing that the original faith was genuine) salvation is still theirs.
The Rewards of Discipleship
But a genuine believer sees that the logical response is to desire to be part of the “agenda” of Jesus. They want to be on His team, and to be following His will. To them, He says,
So send I you — to bear My cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear My voice, “Well done, My faithful servant —
Come share My throne, My kingdom and My crown!”
That is the ultimate expectation of Discipleship. If you are a believer, God says you are already seated with Him in the throne. He says you are already part of the Body of Christ, and will share in His glory. But He also says there are Eternal rewards beyond this minimal promise. What are they? He does not tell us any details, but we know enough about Jesus to know that His reward will more than amply repay any toil or suffering we may encounter here in this life.
“As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you.”
Jesus has already demonstrated what true discipleship entails, and the early believers followed in His footsteps. So, what can we conclude about these two sets of lyrics for the same song?
Notice that Both Hymns tell the Truth:
One hymn tells of the daily, painful, grind, and the potential cost of discipleship. The other tells of the ultimate victory, and the reward for service. Both are speaking of reality: but the second reality is to be our eternal perspective. Don’t lose sight of the goal!
In Philippians 3:13, 14 Paul said, “Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul did not claim to have “arrived!” He continually strove to walk with Jesus so as to receive the reward for faithful service. We can do that, too!
Lord Jesus, please grip our hearts with the urgency of the Gospel and the fact that this life is our only chance to work with You in fulfilling the will of the Father who sent You. Remind us constantly that “as the Father sent You, Jesus; You have, in turn, sent each of us!