Luke 14:25-33

For those of us who are married we understand how we are asked at times to make radical vows in order to participate in the joys of a relationship. One cannot know the wonder of the intimacy that marriage offers unless one is willing to promise a life time of loyalty and love.  Now all forms of adultery and fornication seek to cheat on this structure of life. But really they do not offer true intimacy but only pale illusions of what can be experienced in marriage.

What does that have to do with our passage? Everything! Messiah Jesus had been attaching large crowds. For most of us in the business of “preaching” this is a good thing. Our success and failure rest on the number of people that we can gather to hear us teach. From a human perspective Messiah Jesus should be aiming at preserving and expanding this “large crowd” and enjoying that success.

Instead Messiah Jesus tests the loyalty and love of the crowd.  He does not want to support or encourage a “cultural Christianity” that is 2000 miles wide and 2 inches thick.  He does not want people thinking that they are disciples when they are just interested spectators. So He says some very radical things.

First He says that we must “hate” our families and own life in comparison with our deep love and loyalty to HIM. This really did not mean we must actively “hate” our family and ourselves. This idea of “hate” should be understood as “love less” (see Matthew 10:37).   To understand the use of "hate" in Luke we might reflect on an idiom that comes from the Hebrew bible. In Genesis 29:30-31, we hear that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah and that Leah was "hated" by Jacob. A similar use of the Hebrew word for "hate" occurs in D

In addition Messiah Jesus tells us that we must be loyal enough to Him to face the persecution of an ungodly government. That is what crucifixion was all about. It was about facing the wrath of Rome. Just prior to the birth of Messiah Jesus there had been a rebellion against Rome and they had crucified 2000 people outside of Jerusalem as a warning about what rebellion against the power of Rome could mean. Rome wanted the ultimate loyalty over those she ruled. Messiah Jesus is telling those who want to be disciples they must be ready to be persecuted, tortured, and killed rather than compromise their relationship with Him. He is their ultimate King. Our loyalty to Messiah Jesus and His teachings must come before our loyalty to our political parties, philosophies, and governments. Every Christian must be ultimately a monarchist. 

Not only does Messiah Jesus demand total surrender of our political lives but also of our possessions. Everything must belong to Him ultimately. Greed has no place in the disciples life and is in fact a type of idolatry. Now faith is a growing reality in our lives but this must be our direction. We must at least be striving to acknowledge that King Jesus rules all our possessions and they are His to command. 

Now most preachers push people to make emotional decisions quickly. Many times we try to make it sound as if following Messiah Jesus is a low cost and low risk type of relationship. This helps us to “make sales” and add to the number of people who are “converted”. We have all been at religious meetings where there has been a building up of emotions and at the end a strong appeal is made to make a decision to follow Christ. Messiah Jesus does the opposite here. He encourages people not to rush to a decision but rather carefully consider the cost. 

He says, wait a minute, think about what you are saying when you claim to be my disciple. Count the commitment of this relationship. This is a serious decision. Think about it a make sure you are ready to follow up on what you say. 

This is like going to marriage counseling before engagement. Don’t just romantically jump into this; think about the importance of the vows you are taking. Do you really want to spend the rest of your lives together? Is this really the person that you will want to grow old with? Are you really willing to never date any other person for the rest of your life so that you can be married to this person? These are huge promises and need to be carefully considered. But to decide to follow Messiah Jesus is an even bigger decision and promise. 

It seems as if Messiah Jesus would prefer either honest unbelief where people said they were not His disciples or “true believers” who are devoted to this relationship with Him hook, line, and sinker. He is calling for people to do some careful meditation about calling themselves “Christians” or “disciples” instead of just thinking these titles and the relationship they imply are cheap and light things that do not have profound meaning. It is clear that Messiah Jesus would not be a fan of “cultural Christianity” but is calling people to have real faith in Him. True faith includes the idea of love and loyalty. 

A book that talks about this need of significant faith is Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In that book he says:

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grac