Luke 14:25-33
Let us pray:
O God of love and glory, on this day, we come to you asking that your Spirit might be with us as we consider the critical decisions in life that we all must make. Lord, in these moments, may we feel your presence among us. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
I have to tell you, this scripture strikes fear in the hearts of any clergy who has to preach on this. Jesus always shows love to everyone, and here he is saying ‘hate your father and mother’. . . what is going on here?
Much of the Lucan Gospel is set against the backdrop of a journey. Jesus and his disciples were slowly but surely making their way to Jerusalem, where his reason for being would be revealed to all. On their way, Jesus continued the formation of his disciples, telling of both the blessings and the struggles in following him.
In the Great Commission, Jesus told us to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. But what does it mean to make disciples?
And more to the point, what exactly is a disciple?
Every disciple is a Christian, but not every Christian is necessarily a disciple. The term “disciples” occurs 269 times in the New Testament, while the word “Christian” only appears three times.
We must remind ourselves that Jesus is the face of God made visible, the wisdom of God revealed, and the One who daily challenges the quality of our discipleship.
In Luke 14, Jesus laid out His requirements for discipleship. Let’s look at one of them here: The disciple must love Jesus more than anyone or anything else, offering one of the greatest, most “slap you in the face” challenges he ever delivered.
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother . . . and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
In fact, not only once but THREE times – just in case we don’t get it the first time!
We were talking about this scripture in our staff meeting, and I was challenged to try and explain why Jesus says a disciple
“must hate his father and mother”
When all his other ministry was devoted to loving everyone.
Okay, I accept the challenge!
First, we must realize that this kind of “hate” is not an emotion – it’s an attitude of perspective. Keep in mind that the Greek vocabulary Luke used had relatively few words. So, the Greek word miseo can be translated as “hate,” but it also means
disregard,
be indifferent to,
or to love one thing less than something else.
In this particular instance, Jesus compares the devotion one would typically hold sacred only for family members and the commitment required to become one of his disciples. Jesus is saying, “
Love me more than you would even love your family, as important as that is to you. Love me more than whatever holds first place in your life, whatever matters most to you.”
Luke’s Jesus presumes we must be wholly committed to that spirit. Nothing – or no one – can be more critical than that commitment, not even life itself. And it’s certainly not something that comes easy.
Twice Jesus says we have to give up everything and take up a cross if we will follow him. The implication is that these people had not done that but had found it altogether too easy to fall into line behind Jesus.
Jesus says we must expect the loss of respect and association with those we feel the most affection for, family members. They will not appreciate the changes we have made in our lives.
Our lives may become seriously unstable, as outsiders might judge them. He suggests that the convert may become somewhat itinerant in a seemingly unsettled existence. Following Him would put demands on our lives and time that might alienate close family members, perhaps even turning them into enemies. Christ makes plain, and He wants our wholehearted, unreserved loyalty with no yearning to return to our former lives. It is in meeting challenges like these that the potential costs become realities.
Jesus is telling us what it would take then and now to be his follower. There is no soft sentimentalism; the disciple must be prepared to part with family, endure suffering, face the enormity of the task, and give up everything for the sake of the Kingdom.
As he teaches, Jesus’ words and wisdom reach out to us across the centuries and make us disciples if we listen and are willing to learn and commit ourselves to him today in every way. Just as Jesus’ teaching offered his first disciples an ultimatum of sorts, so does he extend the same choice to us.
We might do well to recall what the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said:
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
This single step can be a tiny one, not a quantum leap. Nevertheless, these small steps are necessary to move us toward the goal of professing and witnessing to Jesus with our lips and lives.
Since the journey of discipleship comprises countless small steps in the right direction and with the right motive. Full and selfless service to God demands our hearts and minds, not just our bodies.
Discipleship comes at a cost. But staying home and not answering the invitation comes at an even higher cost. A young man who was not a Christian asked a minister:
“Why is it that most Christians zealously chase after God during the first year or two after their conversion but then fall into a complacent ritual of church twice a week and end up not looking any different than their neighbors who aren’t even Christians?”
Perhaps one of the reasons we’re more comfortable just following rules and instructions instead of making decisions based on Christian principles is that we can mindlessly follow those rules. Someone else has already decided for us.
Instinctively, we want to back away from such harsh words. We do not want to be told there will be suffering and hardship if we follow Jesus. We are not ready for that any more than were the first disciples. They first resisted verbally,
“God forbid, Lord!” (Matthew 16a),
and later actively as they fell away from Jesus that last week. The idea of aligning ourselves with Jesus and his cause appeals to us, but we’d like to have it without so much cost.
It almost sounds like Jesus is trying to get people to stop following him! Have you ever heard Jesus be so negative? Ten times in these few verses, he uses the word “not” – three of those are in the phrase
“cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus has seen the crowds growing behind him, and he knows that some of these followers are only tagging along to see another miracle. Some are following only because they’ve been caught up in the mob mentality that has begun to develop around Jesus and his disciples. So he turns to the crowd and tells them,
“Unless you’re serious about following me, you might as well go home!”
But Jesus is not trying to get rid of followers. He wants them – and us – to know what is involved in being a true disciple. We need to know what we’re getting into when we say we want to follow Jesus because the cost is high.
Not only must we be willing to put Jesus ahead of all other priorities, but he also raises the price of discipleship even higher.
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,”
Keep in mind that, at this point in his ministry, his cross wasn’t even on the horizon yet. His original listeners would not have been aware, as we are, of the connection between this challenge and the suffering Jesus would soon experience at his crucifixion.
To them, taking up one’s cross was a general expression of accepting the burden of great suffering that would surely end in death. It was the same responsibility a soldier would carry going into war. If following Jesus meant taking up a cross, it meant staying loyal to him through suffering to death.
To be a disciple of Jesus, you must know that the cost will be putting Jesus first and everything else lasts. That starts when you say “Yes” to Jesus, and it does not stop. Ever. You don’t retire from following Jesus to live off the investment of your past discipleship. Every day starts anew. Every moment requires your total commitment. And if you aren’t willing to give your all, Jesus says, you cannot call yourself one of his followers.
The question you have to ask yourself is this:
Is it worth it?
Is it worth giving up abiding peace to live life on your terms?
Is it worth sacrificing a life penetrated by love to settle for having things the way you like them?
Is it worth cutting yourself off from faith that trusts in God’s overarching plan for your good to run your life the way you want to?
Is it worth giving up hope and the power to stand in the face of evil?
Is it worth saying “No” to God’s abundance so you can skimp on your meager resources? Because that’s what it costs not to take up your cross.
Jesus wants to give us abundant life, to deepen our relationship with him as we grow in faith. Jesus wants us to be his true disciples.
Something amazing happens when we say “yes” to following Jesus and surrender our will to his will. Bit by bit, we are changed. Each time we say, “yes, Lord, I leave behind everything to follow you,” we are re-formed. We are transformed, becoming more and more like Christ. We experience abundant life by God’s grace. And we discover that the cost of following Jesus that we thought we couldn’t possibly afford is worth it all. Because the price has already been paid out of God’s deep love for us, we receive so much more when we give our all to Christ!
Not very many people are willing to pay the price for following Jesus. Instead, too many continue tagging along on the church membership rolls as stagnant, uncommitted, dead weight.
Christianity was never meant to be just a “go-to-church” ritual. Anyone can come into a sanctuary and sit through an hour-long worship service. It is who and what one becomes beyond the Sunday worship service.
Christianity was never meant to be a one-sided religious ceremony. Christianity has always been about developing a personal, intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ – a relationship that is not built on doing but by being.
I want to tell you a story:
Several centuries ago, a wealthy nobleman in a mountain village in Europe wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He made a good decision. He decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or the church inside until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and marveled at the beauty of the new church. Everything had been thought of and included. It was a masterpiece.
But then someone said, “Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here. How will the church be lighted?” The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then he gave each family a lamp, which they were to bring with them each time they came to worship.
“Each time you are here” the nobleman said, “the place where you are seated will be lighted. Each time you are not here, that place will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God’s house will be dark”[1]
So this morning, as we celebrate this Eucharist, Jesus gives himself once more to us, and pours forth his body and blood on this altar out of love. Perhaps we should pray with great fervor that Jesus will give us God’s wisdom and the strength to say ‘yes’, and wherever Jesus leads, we will follow.
Let me ask you:
What if every church member supported the church just as you do?
What kind of church would you have?
What if every single member served the church, attended the church, loved the church, shared the church, and gave to the church exactly as you do?
What kind of church would we be?
As we come to this Table, prepared for all who desire to follow Jesus, he invites you to count the cost. Don’t come out of habit or because you want others to see you doing the right thing. Please don’t come to prove yourself righteous because none of us is righteous on our own. When you come to this Table, come to offer yourself, body, mind, and soul, to the One who died to save you, who rose again to redeem you, and who will come again to claim you as his own. When you come to this Table, having counted the cost, come as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, ready to leave behind everything you ever thought was necessary so that you can take up your cross and follow Him.
Amen.
Delivered at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 4 September 2022
[1] James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True, Dimensions: Nashville, 1994. pp. 117-118.
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