Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “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. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For 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? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or 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? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions. (Luke 14:25-33, NRSV)
Have you seen the preview for this seasons running of Survivor? It is about Blood and Water, how family members will turn on each other, or will they? Would you betray brother, fiance, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend, daughter, niece, wife for $1,000,000? What do you think when you saw this, or read this? Reality TV has done some interesting things, and here we clearly see that family doesn’t matter…
But is this something new? Jesus in the above passage tells us we have to hate our family. In order for us to be a disciple of Jesus we have to:
- Hate
- Carry our cross
- estimate the cost
- give away all our possessions
Who can really do this? Jesus tells us though if we can not do this that we can not be His disciple. Specifically if we do not hate our family, carry our cross and give away our possessions we can not be His disciple. What does that mean?
Does that mean that unless I hate my mother and father, brother and sisters, spouse, children and all other relatives that I can not be a disciple? Or does it mean that I chose to not hate them, and therefore I can not be a disciple?
Or does it mean that I can’t carry the cross, or I chose not to carry it?
Or that I can’t give all of my possessions away, or I chose not to?
Do you see the difference? Do I really have a choice in this, are the requirements of discipleship something I can do on my own? If I can’t chose to hate my family, carry my cross and give up all of my possessions, does that mean I can’t be a disciple of Jesus? Later in Luke (18:26-27) Jesus says, “What is impossible for man is possible for God!”
So what is Jesus telling us? He is asking us to calculate the cost of what it means to follow Him. It is not easy and will take sacrifice. But life with Jesus is suppose to be easy, right we have to schedule our church events around everything else in society and make it easy on people. We can’t ask them to sacrifice. But isn’t that what Jesus is telling us here? It takes sacrifice, and focus.
Plus sacrifice isn’t anything we are not all already familiar with. How many of you who are parents sacrifice your time on weekends and week nights for sports games and practices? Or sacrifice your evenings and weekends for dancing classes and recitals? Or how many of you are putting in long hours in jobs you don’t necessarily love to secure your futures or just make ends meet? How many of you are spending money to join a gym or to participate in a diet program so you can lose weight or get healthier? How many parents sacrifice their own wants in order for their children to be dressed appropriately and have what they need?
We are not unfamiliar with sacrifice. And don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with the above sacrifices. But why do we do this? Why are we willing to sacrifice for our jobs, our livelihood, our children, our families, but not our God?
Here is a story from Mark Allan Powell in Loving Jesus
I remember talking to another Christian rock fan down in Austin, Texas. He was a Jesus freak, just like I used to be and still want to be, and I envied him. He was just living in the joy of the Lord, reading his Bible every day and praying to Jesus and speaking in tongues and playing Christian rock on his stereo. When I asked him abut church, he didn’t write it off, but he did say that he hadn’t been able to find a congregation where he felt like he fit in. “The church where I’m a member,” he said, “it’s like something out of an old back-and-white TV show. You know, Ozzie and Harriett or Leave It To Beaver. Everybody dresses up in suits, and they play this music that doesn’t sound like anything on the radio and the preacher talks about things that have nothing to do with my life, and, I don’t know, it’s just … boring!” So, he said, he didn’t go. I asked him about finding a different church, but he didn’t know about denominations and didn’t really want to get into all the different doctrines and stuff, so he just didn’t go anywhere. “Maybe when I’m older, I’ll get more out of it,” he said. “Or maybe the church will, you know, lighten up or something.”
Well, this time, I did give advice. I don’t know if it was good advice or not, but I thought about it overnight and then I got back to him:
“Do you love Jesus?” I asked.
“Yes, I do. I love him with all my heart.”
“Would you die for him?”
“Yes, I would.”
“You would die for him, but you won’t be bored for him?”
And so I said, this is what I think the Lord wants you to do: I think that Jesus wants you to get out of bed every Sunday morning and go to the Ozzie and Harriet church and just sit there for one hour, being bored. Do it for him. Call it “bearing your cross” if you like. Just do it. (pp. 128-130)
You see it is all about focus. Where is your focus?
Jesus invites us, to ficus on Him and put everything else in the world aside. Yes it takes sacrifice, but the life we will live is the life Jesus prepared for us. So what are you willing to sacrifice for God? What are you willing to do to follow Him?
aSacredRebel 