Luke 14:25-33
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem because the time of His death is approaching. He was accompanied by His disciples, whom He was teaching and preparing, but time was short. Hence, Jesus’s radical call. It was absolutely necessary for them to leave everything behind and be prepared for their own death if they are serious about following Him and about going with Him to Jerusalem.
There were also large crowds accompanying Jesus as He journeyed towards Jerusalem.
Jesus was also teaching these crowds.
Those who were already following Jesus needed to be taught the nature of true discipleship. They needed to be fully aware of what following Him costs.
Following Jesus demands full and total devotion to God.
Jesus was so fully devoted to His mission that it meant abandoning and being rejected by His home town and His family. For those who must leave their family behind to be able to fully follow Jesus it could be perceived as hating one’s family in the eyes of some.
Jesus tells us that to be His disciple means carrying our cross and following Him.
He is giving His disciples advance warning.
The road they were following Jesus down is expected to end in death, and they must prepare themselves.
Full devotion is described by and measured by what future is being committed to.
As usual, Jesus gave examples in order to help His disciples and the crowd understand the importance of fully evaluating the cost of following Him.
It was not a decision to be made lightly. Each person in the crowd and each disciple needed to consider whether they could follow Him to the very end, leaving everything else behind.
“None of you can be my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
Jesus is entirely serious in saying that those following Him to Jerusalem must not be encumbered in any way.
But, if we look at other contexts and situations, does Jesus require every one, every disciple, every where and in every time to abandon family and possessions and run headlong towards death for Him?
If we look at the rest of the New Testament we can discern that the answer to this question is no.
The rest of the New Testament portrays faithful disciples maintaining family relationships and retaining possessions.
There are the apostles who travelled with their wives as they travelled far and wide on missionary work. The members of the church who had homes and possessions, with which they supported the church and the work of Peter, Paul and the other apostles.
It is important, however, to reiterate that these converts held their possessions loosely and were willing to give them up for the good of others and to support the Gospel mission.
It is also important to realise and accept that the requirements Jesus placed upon those wanting to follow Him on the road to Jerusalem will be required to be fulfilled should the circumstances dictate.
All followers of Jesus must remind themselves constantly that following Him faithfully could require the full sacrifice of family, possessions and even life itself. Those Christians who do not encounter or experience that extreme sacrifice must ensure that their family, possessions and life do not become so dear to us that they draw us away from full devotion.
Discipleship IS costly.
It demands continuous giving – giving time, giving energy, giving attention, taking initiative, making sacrifices, facing opposition, losing privacy, embracing obscurity, even shedding tears.
The making of disciples is not just sharing the Gospel, but sharing our own selves, gladly, for the souls of others. It means giving, giving, giving, giving and even more giving.
It is more blessed to give than to receive. So it also is with the hearts of disciples. It makes me happier for you to have my time, energy, attention. initiative, than it does for me to keep them to myself.
The crowd who were with Jesus on the road were interested enough to be following Him. However, they hadn’t fully grasped the implications and cost of discipleship. The same is true for many today. Throughout the world, both in churches and out, are crowds of people interested in Jesus but who do not really grasp the full implications, cost and commitment of discipleship for themselves.
And it is to such as these that Jesus is speaking to here. Those people who are willing to follow Jesus and learn from Him but only as long as the cost to them is not too high. Casual followers, followers who are here today but gone tomorrow.
Jesus points out that this is a total misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian and He strongly addresses this misunderstanding.
We are to put Jesus first, to put our love for God above everything else in our lives.
The Christian life demands strength to love.
The Christian life demands that we carry a cross.
The Christian life demands that we give up everything for God.
There is only one person who has ever managed to do this perfectly and, of course, that is Jesus Christ Himself. He is our model – our example. We are to imitate Him, or in the words of Thomas A Kempis we are to develop “The Imitation of Christ”.
Growth in discipleship is ultimately growth in becoming more Christlike in our thoughts and actions.
And that involves sacrifice and hard work.
Are we ready to count the cost and become the disciples Jesus wants us to be.
It’s a choice we must make.
Not only that but we must keep making that choice
every
single
day!
Just because 