16th
Sunday after Pentecost at Epiphany on
Grace,
mercy and peace to you through Jesus Christ who calls you to be his faithful disciples.
Amen.
Luke 14:25-33 Large crowds were traveling with
Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does
not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--
yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who
does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 "Suppose
one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost
to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation
and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30
saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or
suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit
down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming
against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send
a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has
cannot be my disciple.
What is your impression of Jesus? I believe that today it is fashionable to think
of Jesus as being gentle, kind, and mild-mannered. Because we think of Him that
way, and often only in that way, He can seem pretty one-dimensional. That's why
many young people have labeled Jesus as being “just a little bit boring.” Too often
we forget that Jesus had another side, a deeper side, a side that is sometimes difficult
for many of us to understand.
If you
listen to Jesus' words, really listen to what He's saying, you may find yourself
troubled. An example of this is found in Luke 14, where we are told that large,
adoring crowds were following Jesus. Listen carefully to what Jesus said to them,
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children,
his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. Anyone
who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Any of you who
does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
Did you
hear that? Jesus said you cannot be His disciple if you don't hate your parents,
siblings and even your own children. Now, I may dislike my sister because she is
the women’s basketball coach at the
"If anyone
comes after me and does not hate ..." "Hate" is not primarily a feeling word in
the Aramaic language, the language Jesus spoke. It is primarily a priority word.
It means to abandon or to leave aside; the way a sailor needs to abandon a sinking
ship or the way a general needs to leave aside distracting things to win his battle.
Whatever contradicts or prevents discipleship is to be hated, not just disliked
or disapproved. That holds true even if the immediate family is involved. A person
may love his mother as his mother, yet at the same time hate his mother as one who
stands in the way of his discipleship.
I know
many Christians hearing Jesus words try to minimize them, try to change them, even
ignore them. They say, “Jesus just wanted the folks in the crowd to know that following
Him would mean they would have to make a commitment. But I don’t think Jesus really
meant all that stuff about hating people.” That's what some say.
Others
feel very uncomfortable with Jesus' words. They're uncomfortable because they prefer
to think of God as a Divine ATM machine. You punch in your code with a personal
prayer, tell God what you want, the connection is made, and you get your heart's
desire. Folks, it's foolish to believe that the Creator of the Universe is our Valet,
our
A lot
of people might not like it, but Jesus was serious when He said, “If you don't give
up everything, you cannot be my disciple.” The disciples thought He was serious.
They left their boats, their places of business, their families, and they followed
Jesus. Two thousand years of martyrs have thought Jesus was serious. History has
two millennia filled with Christian parents who were betrayed by their children;
20 centuries of Christian children who were exiled from community, family, and friends
because they loved the Christ. Are we really ready to tell them that Jesus was just
exaggerating and that they didn't have to go through all that? Jesus knew what He
was saying. Jesus meant what He was saying. He meant every word that He spoke to
the crowd that day.
You know
He was serious, and quite frankly, you don't like it, do you? Some of you hearing
Christ's criterion for discipleship, say, “That's wrong. I can't follow anybody
who tells me I'm supposed to hate. I might be lonely; I might feel lost; it will
be expensive; it will be difficult; it may put my life in danger.”
Jesus
is telling us to count the cost of our discipleship to Him. Sadly, we are often
comfortable with Jesus as long as we don’t have to sign our name on the dotted line;
as long as we can waffle on keeping the commandments; as long as we aren’t expected
to sacrifice, surrender or show any kind of stewardship.
A mountaineer
was noted for his marksmanship. When asked about his expertise, he said that it
was rather simple: "I just fire a round into a large tree and then draw a bulls-eye
around it." Most of us want our discipleship to come so easily and so cheaply. We
like “Scattershot Christianity.” We
really don’t appreciate Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a Lutheran in Nazi Germany,
telling us, "When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die."
Count
the cost of being Christ’s disciple. Unless you do this you will be like the builder
who can’t finish his tower or like the king who can’t win the war. When the going
gets tough, allegiance to Jesus will grow cold. Half-hearted commitment won’t do.
Building the tower or winning the war are grand monuments of commitment to the Lord.
Indifferent, unenthusiastic, compromising discipleship fails to glorify God.
The mark
of a great leader is the demands he makes upon his followers. The Italian freedom
fighter Garibaldi offered his men only hunger and death to free
Church
tradition says that Andrew died on a cross; Simon was crucified; Bartholomew was
flayed alive; James, son of Zebedee, was beheaded; James, son of Alphaeus, was beaten
to death; Thomas was run through with a lance; Matthias was stoned and then beheaded;
Matthew was slain by the sword; Peter was crucified upside down; Thaddeus was shot
to death with arrows; and Philip was hanged.
The demands
that Jesus makes upon those who follow him are extreme. Christianity is not a Sunday
morning religion. It is a hungering after God to the point of death if need be.
It shakes our foundations, topples our priorities, pits us against friend and family,
and makes us strangers in this world. We sing, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."
But, we must come to see that on many occasions he is not our friend but an adversary
to our sinful nature. Christ is an enemy to the world around us.
Jesus wants
you to count the cost of following Him. Be serious and committed. That means giving
up a Packer game for a fellowship event or evangelism effort. It means giving an
extra hour of your time for Bible Class. It means budgeting the money in your home
better so you can have more to give to God’s kingdom work. It means giving the same
kind of care and attention to God’s house of worship that you give to your house
– regular church cleaning, painting walls, laying carpeting, spending money, replacing
old, out-of-date, or broken church and school items with the kind of new items you
put into your own home. It means coming to worship every Sunday, not just when it
is convenient. It means telling your employer you’ll be late for work or you’re
not coming in on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night because you have a prior commitment
to Christ’s church.
God is
allowing us to do amazing things at Epiphany and WLS. We can no longer be part-time
disciples, putting down our cross when it is too heavy, and refraining from following
when it costs too much. Imagine what God could accomplish with us if we were full-time
disciples, carrying our cross, counting the cost and remaining committed and consistent.
We have to get out of our comfort zone. If we want the church to grow, absent members
to return, neighbors to attend, and God’s kingdom to increase, we have to do the
work. We cannot sit idle. Carry means work. It won’t happen unless you are working,
struggling, sweating, giving, and sacrificing for your Lord. Martin Luther said
it well: “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is
worth nothing.”
Jesus
knew that following Him would always cost His followers. Eleven of the men who were
closest to Him would have to make a decision; share the Savior with the world or
stay put. He was telling them in no uncertain terms, their job was, by the Spirit's
power, to leave their old lives behind and share the story of salvation with a sinful
world. Ten of those disciples who heard Him that day, would be martyred – some in
the most terrible of ways.
They would
not be the last. Even today, throughout the world, Christ's blood-bought brothers
and sisters are being persecuted, prosecuted and murdered. And if by God's grace,
you are not being tortured or trapped, raped or robbed because you follow the Savior,
that hardly means you will have a life of ease. When the Holy Spirit brings you
to faith in Jesus, it is almost a certainty that you will, from that moment on,
have some choices. A promotion may be within your grasp. All it will take is to
plant a little lie here or there, a little lie and a denial of your discipleship.
Perhaps you think you've finally discovered true love. Sadly, part of the formula
for living happily ever after is you must deny your discipleship. You might think
that you've found the formula for acceptance by your peers. Nothing stands in your
way of being one of the group – except that to be received by them, you must deny
your discipleship. Jesus wanted everybody to know that following Him has a price.
The cost
for us following Jesus is nothing compared to what our salvation cost Him. Jesus,
the perfect Son of God, was born in a stable. There was no room for Him anywhere
else. Nobody was ready to move over; nobody ready to say, “Here, take my room.”
Then, as a Baby, somebody tried to kill Him. That was for you. As He grew, He lived
a perfect life. He had to live a perfect life. If He had sinned, He would have failed.
“No big deal,” you think. Do you know how many times leading a perfect life meant
Jesus would have had to stop playing with some friends; how many times Jesus couldn't
join in gossiping or complaining? Jesus was the Son of God, but His must have been
a lonely life. That loneliness was for you.
When Jesus
began His ministry, in compassion He healed many who were sick. Soon, healing the
sick was all some wanted Him to do. He fed the hungry, and soon feeding the hungry
was all some wanted Him to do. When He refused to put on morning, afternoon, and
evening matinees, the crowds became angry, many left. This desertion He endured
for you. When He went back to His hometown, they tried to kill Him. His family tried
to bring Him home because they thought He was crazy. This was for you. The religious
leaders tried to trick Him, tried to murder Him.
Jesus,
when He prayed in the
Understand
that Jesus does not demand that you become His disciple. On the contrary, He who
only gave, warns what might happen if you do. Still, how can you not follow Him?
How can you not say, “My Lord and my God?” How can you not say, “Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief?” How can you not say, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner?” Count
the cost. Be a committed, enthusiastic, faithful disciple of Christ. Be the disciple
of Him who gave up everything, so you might have everything. Amen.