Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26“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. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28For 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? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or 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? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
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Over the last few weeks we've been talking about stepping into ministry here at the church, or in our language "saying yes" to what you sense God calling you to do or be involved in.  We watched Jesus calling the first disciples: follow me- he said and Philip. Following Jesus was a no brainer- affirmative- Yes! Then we saw the conversation between Nathaniel and Jesus; when Nathaniel comes to know that Jesus is the real deal, the Messiah, he also says yes- but with a period. Then last week we read about the encounter with the risen Christ that Paul experienced that left him so confused the text says, he went blind for awhile until, with the help of others, he could sort things out.  His yes, came with a question mark. 

But in today's scripture passage, we see a Jesus who, instead of calling people to follow, seems to be thinning out the crowd.  He turn to the followers and sees the little "yes" over each of their heads with various punctuation marks and asks them to check themselves- what exactly are each of them bringing with them on this journey? Let's read the passage together.  

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26“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. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28For 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? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or 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? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Come on Jesus, that's a bit rough.  I can imagine that many in the crowd that day must have been a little shocked- I know I would be.  I mean, I'm already following- I'm right behind you Jesus, Take my life and let it be, (thank you choir).  This makes me a little uncomfortable- I've already said yes. Why, after Jesus spends time gathering disciples, many who left homes and families and jobs, now ask them/us to think twice? 

To answer this question we need to take apart the passage a little bit, and read it in context.  (fade out) This is really important, by the way, when we are reading any passage from the Bible- to understand first of all that these words were written to a particular group of people in a particular time and place, with a specific purpose and meaning.  The author of Luke was a physician. He or she (and there's just as much evidence out there that Luke was female as male) was writing to a Gentile, or Non-Jewish audience, probably finalized in Rome.  Dr. Luke was not in the crowd that day, and did not meet Jesus face to face.  Luke gathered the information for his 2 volume Luke/Acts from "eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed down."  It's important to remember as we read scripture, that the translations we have under our leather bonded gold trimmed bibles, have been translated.  Jesus spoke Aramaic. Luke wrote in Greek, in some cases to Latin, then to old English, and finally modern English.  Dr. Luke, like any investigative reporter, had a lens through which he wrote.  Since Luke was a Gentile, he focuses on Jesus's ministry to the non-Jewish community and other 'outsiders;' the marginalized, the sick, the outcast. (fade in)

And this is not to say that the scripture is not God inspired- its not to say that we doubt its authenticity or even it's life changing ability.  What I am saying is that we need to read any text in more than just modern english, and that not all scripture is meant to be taken literally. (We can talk more about this after service if you like- downstairs) 

So back to the passage.  Here are the words Jesus speaks to the crowd, according to eyewitnesses. "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."   Hate is a strong word. But what Jesus is asking is less about disliking, as we moderns see hate, and more as a preference for.  Jesus is asking them to get their priorities in order.  He's letting his followers know that building a better world, following the call of Christ, means the emphasis is no longer on gaining advantages for yourself and for your family.  It's not about collecting things to make life better and easier for you and the ones you love- its about making life better for everyone. 

The crowd on the road to Jerusalem needs to know that.  Because radical discipleship means things probably wont be easy.  Count the cost, Jesus says.  Discipleship, following, saying yes, means that God comes first in your life- before own own desires, or the desires of your family and friends.  "this call to discipleship is radical, implying that those who follow Jesus are not going to be making decisions based on “what’s best for me,” or even “what’s best for our marriage/family/children.” It may mean living in that “dangerous neighborhood” or attending a less achieving school, because a gracious presence is needed there. It may mean living more simply because one’s resources can be used better for others. It may mean making unpopular choices despite the protests of one’s family. This is real and critical engagement that Jesus is talking about, a stark contrast to the typical depiction of “the happy Christian home” where one’s faith is demonstrated by how committed on is to providing every possible advantage to one’s own." (1)

And then Jesus gives them two analogies- one about a building project and one about a battle.  Check yourself- make sure you're up to the task.  But then, Jesus ends this small pep talk with this- 'you can't become my disciple unless you give up all your possessions.' 

OK so take a breath.  The word possessions is modern english, but the word form from the Greek is a sense of possessing.  If we want to be . disciples we need to give up 'possessing.'  What would life look like if we didn't feel we owned things- that everything was simply on loan to us.  And this goes beyond things, right? We have as sense of ownership to most everything we encounter.   And lets play this out- what are the things we have declared ownership or possession of? Homes, land, our children, for sure.  We somehow believe that God has given our families to us, when in reality our children, our parents, our spouse belong to God.  Our own bodies do't belong to us- they belong to God. Nature- the land, the . trees, water, air- all belong to God... Think about the implications of that, and what it means as far as our personal and corporate actions.  Think about the change in lifestyle, in shift in focus that would have to happen in our heart, mind, and spirits .  Think about how differently we would care for all of creation, all people, even ourselves.  Giving up the things we talked about last week; judge-mental-ism, ego, violence, 

And instead of bringing those things with us, Jesus is asking people to bring with us a cross- a knowledge that this road will not be easy- picking up a cross, I believe means bringing an awareness that in order to be a follower of the teachings of Jesus, there probably will be suffering. Jesus's actions, his thoughts, his focus- bringing in the outsider, walking humbly, showing mercy- its counter cultural, its anti capitalistic, and it is dangerous.  Living it out lead Jesus to his cross.  

Time for another breath. Maybe two.  Because this isn't all Jesus asks us to bring with us when we say yes.  We also bring with us an identity of who we are in Christ. You heard Pastor Jen read it- we are children of light.  Children of the day.  We walk in light, with the light of God in us. 

(1) D. Mark Davis-  http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2013/09/holy-hating.html