Take a Long Look at Discipleship
Luke 14:25-35
Pentecost 13 (Proper 18)
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel reading Luke 14. I thought I would get your input on some messages that I was thinking we could put on our church sign. Here is one suggestion. “Hate your father and mother and wife and children and come follow Jesus”. Here is another suggestion. “Come to St. John’s Lutheran Church so that you can deny yourself and bear a cross”. What do you suppose would happen if we put those messages on our sign? The words are quite shocking. They are not words that we would normally put on a church sign. But when we look at our text for today we see that they are indeed the words of Jesus.
We are always going to be tempted to try and water down the words of our Lord. We often like to soften certain Bible passages that contain messages that are difficult to hear. Even pastors are tempted to sand the rough edges off passages in the Bible so that people are not offended. We tend to like a soft and fluffy Christianity that promises fun, and happiness. People like a church that talks about success and prosperity in this world rather than hearing about suffering and cross bearing. In our reading for today, Jesus talks about discipleship. I am sure you have noticed that they are not soft and fluffy words. He does not speak about success and prosperity in this world. Jesus gives to us a real depiction of what it means to follow Him.
Luke tells us that Jesus was heading towards Jerusalem. As He going to Jerusalem there were large crowds who were around Him. There were people in the crowd who no doubt wanted to see another miracle. Others in the crowd were excited about what Jesus would do to defeat the Romans. Our Lord knew that many in the crowd had the wrong idea on what it meant to be His disciple. Our Lord turned to the crowd and said these words. “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”. What Jesus is saying is that we all need to take a long and hard look at what is means to be His disciple. We all need to take a long and hard look at what it means to be a follower of Christ.
He uses the examples of building a tower or a king going to war to illustrate His point. If you are going to build a tower you would first sit down and figure out if you have the money and resources to build such a thing. You would look to see if you could indeed build the tower. If you did not have the resources you should not build the tower because you would look like a fool with an unfinished building. It is the same with the king going to war. If a king wanted to go to war with another king he would first have to sit down and see if his army is big enough to win the battle. The king would have to figure out if going into battle was the wise thing to do. If not then he should make plans for a peace treaty. The point that Jesus is making is this. If you want to follow Him then you need to take a long look at what it will cost to be His disciple. What we will find is that being a disciple of Jesus will sometimes be delightful, sometimes hard but always a blessing.
Being a disciple of Jesus is sometimes delightful. Looking at the world with biblical glasses with Christ at the center of our lives is a wonderful thing. The Lord has forgiven us and made us His people. He is always with us. He hears our prayers and answers them. As disciples of Jesus we receive the wonderful blessing of God’s Word. It is a glorious thing to be in God’s Word. It is God’s Word that comforts us. It is God’s Word that gives us purpose. It is God’s Word that tells us that this age that we live in is an evil age but we have nothing to fear because we belong to the Kingdom of God. Being a disciple of Jesus is delightful because we see the majesty of God and the grace of God.
Being a disciple of Jesus is delightful. Being a disciple of Jesus can also be hard. That is the message that our Lord gives to us in our reading for today. It is a message that many Christians in America don’t want to hear but need to hear. Sometimes being a disciple is hard. Jesus tells us that being His disciple means that we are to hate our mother and father, spouse and children. In other places in the Bible Jesus does tell us to love and care for our family to be sure. But what He is saying here is that we should not put our family above following Him. There are Christians around the world who face pressure from their own families to renounce Christ. Sometimes the family will threaten the Christian and sometimes try to kill them if they do not turn away from Jesus. There are many Christians in the world that face threats from their family and being shunned by their family because they are a Christian. There are many Christians in the world that continue to follow the Lord even if it means their family rejecting them. We don’t often face that sort of thing in our situations but the words of Jesus still apply to us. As disciples of Jesus we are to place following Him even above our family. If being a confessing Christian means conflict in the family so be it. Following Jesus is more important. Our Lord is also teaching us that our family is first and foremost the family of God, where membership is by grace through faith in Christ.
Being a disciple of Jesus can be hard. Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow Him. That means we confess the Name of the Lord even if it means being mocked by the culture. We confess the truth even if it means persecution. We follow Jesus even if it means death. Indeed as a Christian we would die rather than renounce Christ. Being a disciple of Jesus can be hard. It means we struggle with our sins, and we wrestle with our sinful nature. We also renounce the things of this world. Recall what Jesus said. “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Our Lord is teaching us that our earthly possessions can be one of our greatest threats to discipleship. We are to love the Lord more than our earthly things.
What Jesus is saying in our text is that we need to take a long look at discipleship. What we will find is that being a disciple of Jesus will sometimes be delightful, sometimes hard but always a blessing. In the end being a disciple of Jesus is always a blessing. Luke tells us that Jesus was heading toward Jerusalem. He was going to Jerusalem to die on a cross. Our Lord sacrificed His life in order to save ours. He has wiped away our sins. He has defeated death for us. He has rescued us from hell and has opened up the Kingdom of Heaven to all of us. He has given to us life and salvation. He preserves our life right now.
Being a disciple of Jesus is a blessing. We have nothing to fear in this world because the Lord has overcome the world. His resurrection gives us the assurance of that. Because of Jesus we know that we are right with God. We know that the Lord looks upon us with love and compassion. We know that any suffering that we might face is temporary but the glory that we receive from the Lord will last forever.
Many in the crowd who were surrounding Jesus did not understand what it meant to be a disciple of the Lord. They wanted miracles that would make their earthy life easier and they wanted victory over the Romans. We sometimes forget what it means to be a disciple of the Lord as well. We like a soft and fluffy Christianity that promises fun and happiness in this world. That is why Jesus spoke to the crowd and why He speaks to us today. He tells us to take a long look at Christian discipleship. What we will find is that being a disciple of Jesus will sometimes be delightful, sometimes hard, but always a blessing. Amen