So large crowds are following Jesus. Jesus turns to them and tells the crowd that to be his disciple they have to hate father, mother, spouse, children, brothers and sisters and life itself. He adds that unless a person will carry their cross and follow Jesus they cannot be his disciple. How can Jesus say we have to hate our close relatives and our own lives to be his disciple? Elsewhere Jesus tells us to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. He even calls us to love our enemies (Luke 6:27, 10:27). Clearly we are to love others as ourselves, but even more so we are to love God with all that we have and with all that are within us. Jesus also says that to serve two masters is to hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other (Luke 16:13). Evidently, Jesus is calling his disciples to follow him with the same level of devotion reserved for God Himself. Jesus is calling his disciples to love him as they love God and he will have no rivals. Matthew helps us to bring this all together? Matthew says that ‘whoever loves father or mother more than Jesus is not worthy of Jesus, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Jesus is not worthy of Jesus (Matthew 10:37).
This total allegiance to which Jesus is calling his disciples requires that we ‘count the cost’ of following him. After all we don’t want to water down our commitment so that we become poor examples, rather than a positive witness. So Jesus gives two scenarios in which potential followers are to sit and evaluate the cost of entering into a serious venture. In the first scenario you sit down and determine if you have the resources to build a tower. If the foundation is laid but the job is not completed due to a lack of funds, then those seeing the unfinished structure will mock and ridicule you (14:28-30). In the second scenario a king about to go to war sits to consider whether he is able to oppose the one coming against him with twice the number of troops. If not, he’ll send a delegation and ask for terms of peace. This followed by Jesus exhorts to his audience that they must give up everything to be Jesus’ disciple (14:31-33).
Again, we find Jesus calling followings to the highest level of commitment. All other relationships by comparison are like hate by contrast to the loyalty Jesus requires. He even calls us to be willing to die for him (14:26-27). Discipleship means allegiance to Jesus above all other claims. Disciples must be prepared to deny themselves and count the cost to avoid being like the foolish builder who runs out of funds or the army commander fails to evaluate the strength of the army opposing him. This section ends with words about salt being good, but when it loses its saltiness it isn’t even good enough for the soil or the manure pile. To start only to abandon the cause in tough times is like salt which has lost its taste and cannot be made useful again.
Why would anyone seeking followers for new movement make such extreme demands
upon potential followers? Do you want to follow Jesus? You’ll have to put Jesus above
family, give up your possessions, and pick up the implement of our own
execution and follow Jesus! While Jesus is not denying the importance of family,
he is saying that everything else must be put at risk for the sake of the
kingdom. Followers of Jesus may be called to give up everything for the cause in
order to overcome the opposition. The two pictures, the tower and the battle, both paint vivid pictures of the commitment needed.
Note that Israel was to be salt of the earth. They were to be the people through whom God’s world was to be kept wholesome and life was to be desirable and tasty. First century Israel was given this all-or-nothing challenge to either be the ‘salt of the earth’ or face their own ruin in devastating battle (A.D.70). This was true of first century Israel, but it is also a call to all the ‘followers of Jesus’ from any age to give Jesus our total allegiance. Our relationship with Jesus must be foremost and this is why the story ends with Jesus’ exhortation that if we don’t renounce all that we have we cannot be his disciple. (Luke 14:33)
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