Luke 14:25-35

The Cost of Discipleship

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost/Proper 18C

September 4, 2016

Now, this life of faith is not easy.  We have been spoiled in the United States so often because our culture has matched up fairly close with our faith.  But we are seeing things move farther and farther away from Christ and His Word. And as our culture does this, we are going to be faced more and more with the radical nature of what it means to be a disciple and a follower of Jesus.  And keep in mind, that this life of faith finds both its source and its goal only in Jesus.

And so Jesus tells these crowds who follow Him, both then and now, what this life entails.  Here, Jesus speaks of three things in regards to discipleship that we are going focus upon this morning: hating family, carrying the cross, and leaving possessions.

Hating Family

The use of the word hate is not a call to not love our father, mother, wife and children; it is not a call to harm our family, or wish them ill; it is a call to heed the 1^st Commandment. We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things – and that includes our families. This is simply Jesus saying that your relationship with God comes first above all other relationships. There’s a reason why the 1^st Commandment is first: all the others flow from our relationship to God. This is why Scripture summarizes the 10 Commandments to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor. You cannot love your neighbor if you do not love God, or rather know the love of God.

Does this mean that we can have no relationship with our families or that they don’t matter? Of course not. As we look to the teachings of Jesus on what it means to follow Him we see that it would be impossible to follow Him and not have deep meaningful relationships. But it does mean that our relationships with each other are transformed by our relationship with Christ. Our relationships with everyone from family to neighbor, happen in light of, and because of, our relationship with Christ. And this relationship, we are assured, will cause discord. Christ promised, repeatedly, that persecution will come to those who follow Him; there will be those in the world, those who are counted as friends, and those who are family who will reject us—that is the cost of following Jesus.

Carrying the Cross

And there’s more. Jesus continues by saying “whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be My disciple.” He then goes on to speak a couple of parables concerning this and counting such a cost – of a man building a tower and a king going off to war. The point of these, as Christians, we build our lives on the firm foundation of the teaching of Jesus and the Church. Through Baptism, God brings us into His family and a new life with Him. Baptized, we are crucified to the world and the world to us. Here and now, the disciple of Jesus loses the world and gains only a cross. This brings war against the devil and our sinful flesh.

Theses parables illustrate the point that one would never begin this new life without the resources to complete it.  And let’s face it, we don’t have those on our own. There’s no earthly foundation that will not crumble.  We don’t rush off into this spiritual war thinking that we can win it ourselves. The enemy is fierce and we are outnumbered. The only way to win is to carry the cross Jesus carried and to follow Him, for He is the One who knows the terms of peace (Luke 14:32). So again, Jesus makes His point that the crowds are in need of Him. For He paid the cost by His blood and He is our cornerstone. He builds His disciples up, supplied only by Word and Sacrament.

Renouncing Possessions

Lastly, Jesus warns of that those who do not renounce all that he has cannot be His disciple. This is a common theme throughout the Gospel of Luke because possessions are one of the greatest threats to discipleship.  Things can all too easily become a god. Being a disciple of Christ means the readiness to give up anything and everything if duty to God calls for it. All that we have belongs to Him already anyway.

Jesus then leaves his hearers with one final image of salt. There is no in-between with salt. Salt is either salty or it isn’t. There is no “sort of” salty. If it isn’t salty it isn’t really salt and it should be thrown away.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as baptized children of God, the Lord sets before you today life and death, good and evil. This is not to tempt you, for the Lord tempts no one, but to teach you of the radical cost that Jesus went through to make and keep you as His disciple.  So with the crowds in our Gospel text we go where Jesus goes for wherever Jesus goes there is life and there is goodness as we live in a world surrounded by death and evil.  Following Jesus we learn the way to God and the way of God.  His way leads through death and grave to eternal life.  You have been baptized into His way, and kept in His Way by His Word and Sacrament. 

It’s for this reason that we are called to be His disciples, to continually come to Him to share in His Word, His life, His mercy, love and forgiveness and to share that Good News with others.  Thus being a disciple of Jesus is not a single event but a lifelong endeavor, it’s not a few minutes or hours a week, but a daily repentance and faith in the Son of God.  Being a disciple of Jesus means being where Jesus is. During the week that means serving your neighbor with the love and life of Jesus through your vocation as empowered by His Word.  And most importantly that means regular attendance in the house of the Lord, receiving the benefits of the great cost of His sacrifice upon the cross through His Word and Sacraments.  Psalm 26:8 “Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where Your glory dwells.” There is life and there is goodness in this place not because we are here, but because Jesus is here to give us these things.

*some of this was adapted from sermons by Mike Hanel and Tony Sikora, as well as insights from concordiatheology.org.