Jesus taught that following him is costly - and likened it to being homeless.
Matthew 8:18-20 18 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 A scribe then approached and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." 20 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
Do we ignore Jesus' teaching that following him is costly?
Note: In the words of German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance* ... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship (following Jesus), grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." The practice of filling churches with "followers" who are willing to "pray a prayer and feel some guilt", but are unaware that following Jesus is costly results in dead faith. Jesus doesn't want our churches filled with dead faith, he seeks out followers who understand they will be following him to the homeless places.
*The repentance that is required of Jesus' disciples is often reduced by our misguided culture to a list of rules to follow, but that would make Jesus' followers no better than Pharasees. The repentance that Jesus is teaching is a turning from going one's own way (a way of self promotion) to following Jesus to the hard places (a way of self sacrifice - homelessness).
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