Tne Cost of Discipleship - LUKE 14: 25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Commentary

A few weeks back, our gospel started with Jesus telling us; “Do you think I have come to bring peace? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

I think that was one of the weeks you were on lockdown, so I am going to steal a few thoughts from that message. The first obvious question is; “What happened to that loving Jesus we have learned to trust?” Two weeks ago he was telling us he was bringing division, and today he is telling us we must hate our father and mother. What is going on here?

I would start by suggesting we pay particular attention to the first and last phrases of the entire reading. Jesus is not preaching to his disciples. In fact, one could ask whether he is preaching at all. We are told he is traveling and large crowds are traveling with him. I can imagine him walking along with his disciples, and he turns around and there is this huge crowd following. It was probably a little like the local pastor showing up on Christmas evening and looking out at the overflowing church wondering, who are all these people and what do they think they want? I can imagine Jesus being a little bit frustrated. Maybe a lot frustrated. He has been telling people over and over and over that the kingdom of God is not of this world, that we must love others as well as we love ourselves, that we can not love both God, and possessions. He has gone so far as to tell people that getting in to heaven is like getting through the eye of a needle. He has tried his best to teach that you can not know God if you do not know the spirit, yet here is this crowd, acting like they are out for a picnic and hoping he is going to feed them. No wonder he is frustrated.

So notice what he does, or maybe doesn't do. He doesn't tell them all to sit down so he can preach to them. He just turns around right there in the middle of the road, and out comes these words. First we have to hate both people and life. Second we have to carry a cross, and third we have to plan what we are doing like a king about to go to war. He ends up with “SO THEREFORE, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” As if this were somehow a logical conclusion of everything else he has just said. I can't see that it is. In fact I can easily imagine someone in the crowd saying to his neighbor, “The rabbi has been out in the sun too long!”

So that all said, what are we too get from this message. First, I think we can safely expunge anything to do with hate. We simply know that is not part of the message of Jesus. On the other hand, we do have a choice to make. We are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind. In other words, God is to be first in our life. Before fathers and mothers and wives and children. If we have to make a choice, we have to choose God. That is a weighty demand. But it is a big difference from hating.

Now what about this business about building a tower? I think to make sense of this we need to skip ahead to the last sentence. While it comes out of nowhere in this particular excerpt, we are certainly familiar with the concept. We know we can not love both God and possessions. That theme is consistent. But again, I think we can safely tone down the wording a bit. Remember he is talking to a crowd he is trying to discourage. He is not talking about entering the kingdom of God, but rather following him in the moment. He is not talking to mothers caring for children or children caring for parents, he is talking to a crowd off on a lark. They need to get serious about what they think they are doing.

And on that thought I think we can come back to ourselves. None of us can become a disciple and remain a materialist. We know that. Yet, we insist we are disciples. To the materialist point, we say yes, but. But I need some clothes, and I need a house, and I need a car, and, and …. So now, the king going to battle may not be so far off the mark. We know if we want to put God first, we are going to be in a constant battle with materialism. So it may be a very good idea to sit down and think it all through. What battles can you win, and what battles can you not. How are you going to arrange your life so you have the best chance possible of prevailing. I think this is the most important point for us to get today. We say we are disciples. How exactly are we going to make that happen?