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Jesus said: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. … So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33).
So, you call yourself a follower of Christ? How well are you at doing that?
Today’s Gospel reading follows Jesus’ Parable of the Great Banquet. In that parable, many were invited to just come and enjoy the feast, but those invited all alike began to make excuses. One man purchased a field and wanted to inspect it. That is, he wanted to make money. Another man purchased five yoke of oxen, and he wanted to see how they would be in the field. That is, he wanted to be busy with work. And another man had just married a wife, and so he was too busy to attend the feast. Excuse after excuse. The first pled necessity. The second, inconvenience. The third, pleasure. Each man originally invited was more attached to worldly things than going to the great banquet of God’s grace and thus, they found themselves excluded.
In today’s Gospel text, Jesus addresses the great crowds that accompanied Him. This is important to note. Since, Jesus was not talking with His Twelve Apostles. Today, He is talking with the masses that began following Him. Now, most in the crowd are there because they are curious. They came to watch the action of this Great Healer and Preacher. They wanted to learn, but they didn’t want to actually do. So, they are certainly interested, but they are not quite committed.
It is to this crowd that Jesus says, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).
In other words, the life we are called to live in Christ necessitates our active and uncompromising participation. True discipleship is not a spectator sport. True discipleship cannot be done wearing your pajamas while sitting on the couch. True discipleship demands participation. True discipleship is costly and active. This is shocking to our modern ears.
This is the cross that is laid on every Christian. The first suffering is the call of abandonment to the attachments of this world. As followers of Christ, He calls us to surrender ourselves to Him.
Jesus does not sugar-coat His Christian calling for us. He doesn’t say things like: “Now, I want you to be happy. I want you to have a well-paying job. I want you to be happily married with kids. When you have achieved these things, you can come and follow Me.” No! He doesn’t say that. He never sugar-coats His calling of discipleship.
Rather, Jesus says, “Anyone who does not renounce all that he has – including his very own self – cannot be My disciple.”
This is our Christian calling. This is how Jesus does evangelism. He says, if you want to follow Me, you must first count the cost. He says, “Don’t take your Christian calling lightly.”
You see, being a Christian means living a completely different life. It doesn’t mean that we can keep all our old ways and just ask for forgiveness from God later. Yes, we all need forgiveness, but we shouldn’t knowingly sin and then just ask for forgiveness later.
To be a Christian, Jesus says that we must break from our old allegiances. We must break from and renounce our own self-interest and cling to Him with wholehearted and single-minded faith.
So, let’s look into further detail on what Jesus teaches us in our Gospel text.
First, Jesus sets forth three conditions for following Him. The first of these three is that we must have a willingness to leave behind family ties including the tie to oneself. And this word “hate” that Jesus uses does sound harsh to our ears. This sounds so unlike Jesus. Doesn’t He say to love our enemies? Yes, He does.
But here, Jesus is using the word “hate” to shock us, His hearers, with this word to make us realize that nothing dare come before Him in the life of the disciple. Elsewhere in Matthew 10, Jesus says this, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). So, this isn’t a matter of “hate” but is a matter of putting anything – anything – before Christ. So, we are not to love family more than Jesus.
The second condition is to carry his own cross. What this means is self-denial. It means the sacrifice of one’s own will for the sake of Christ. It means being willing to accept whatever suffering might result from a sincere commitment to Christ and His kingdom. This means that by confessing Jesus as Christ could mean dying for that confession.
The third condition for following Jesus is the willingness to give up all earthly possessions. A rich ruler asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18) To that question, Jesus asked him if he had followed the second table of the Law: loving your neighbor. To that, the rich ruler said, “All these I have kept from my youth” (Luke 18:21). When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Luke 18:22). But when he heard this, he became very sad.
This third condition which calls for the willingness to give up all earthly possessions to follow Jesus was the demand that this rich ruler was unable to fulfill.
So often, people are so quick in following Jesus without first counting the cost.
In Luke 9(:57-62), someone said to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 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.” To another Jesus said, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow You, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Again, this is evangelism, Jesus’ style.
Today’s Gospel text is quite clear and straight forward. And it is troubling. This seems to be a bit much renouncing our family and even renouncing ourselves.
As 21st century Americans, it does feel a bit safe to have one foot on the dock and the other foot in the boat. But at some point, we have to make a choice. What if that boat starts to move further from the dock. Am I going to put both feet back on the dock, or am I going to put both feet into the boat? If you can’t make the choice, you are going to have a very wet future.
But we are Lutherans, so we don’t like making choices. The good news is that Jesus has made the choice. He has chosen you! He chose you before the beginning of the world as He would come and save you from your sins through becoming man in order to suffer and die for your sins, so that you by faith in Him would live forever.
Jesus chose you.
Yes, the Christian calling is a difficult calling. Yes, every day, Christ calls on us to renounce ourselves and renounce our self-interest. Every day, He calls on us to take up our cross, suffer ridicule for His sake and follow Him. Every day, He calls us back to our Baptism to say “no” to the Old Adam and to receive the new life that He only gives.
This is the calling of Jesus who set His face to Jerusalem to die for you. This is the calling of Jesus who denied Himself, who took up His cross and gave His life for sinners. This is the same Jesus who through our confession to Him forgives us of our double-minded devotion. This is the same Jesus who forgives us of our casual discipleship. He is the One who calls us. He is the One who was crucified, died, rose and ascended for you!
In the Divine Service, Jesus forms us as His disciples. So, as you hear His Word and receive His Sacrament, as you daily return to your Baptism, in your daily activities, the Holy Spirit works on you as He forms you and changes you. Through His Word and His Sacraments, Jesus leads us to renounce our old ways and follow Him. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
