Count The Cost

Count the Cost

Luke 14:25-33

Jesus never promised that following Him is easy. Again and again, he told all who would listen that discipleship might cost them everything, even their lives. This morning’s passage from Luke 14:25-33 is one of these passages. What does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus?

Jesus often directed His teaching on discipleship to the twelve disciples. But like in this passage, He also addresses crowds of those who came to hear Him. Jesus had fed and healed many of them. Following Jesus seemed the easy thing to do. Others saw the miracles and felt that Jesus was the Messiah, who in their understanding would overthrow the hated Romans and set up a Jewish kingdom which would rule over all the Gentile nations. Following such a Messiah was easy. Surely this Jesus who had raised the dead, healed the sick, and miraculously fed the hungry could overthrow their oppressors. The truth is that Jesus could have done such. He will do exactly this at the end of the age when He returns. But that was not the reason He had come this time.

What a shock his first words to the crowd were, He was calling those who would follow Him to hate “father and mother, wife and children, and brother and sisters.” To be honest, this verse is deeply troubling to us as well. Should we not love our earthly families? Isn’t that taught in the Torah? Many commentators have tried to work around the difficulty by saying Jesus is employing something called “hyperbole” which is a form of rhetorical exaggeration used for shock purposes. Others see it as a comparison as though Jesus is saying that our love for Him makes our love for anyone else pale in comparison as though “hate” here means “to love less.” We try our best to tone down what God says all the time, and not just here in this Scripture.

So, I am not going to try to make this statement easier to follow, but there are some things which might shed life on this statement. First of all, Jewish life was very family oriented and had a rigid patriarchal structure. This gave stability to the family unit in an unsure world. A child was to honor his father and mother. the wife was to obey her husband. The entire extended family was subject to the oldest male relative in the family called the “patriarch.” Above this was the elders who ruled over the synagogues. This type of societal structure gives stability at the expense of personal freedom. This was characteristic of Galilean village life.

Now comes Jesus unto the scene who calls upon people to follow Him. If one were to extend the family structure. then God is the patriarch of patriarchs. The elders of Israel were to give their entire obedience to Him. This Jesus who is the Son of God, equally God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and worthy to be worshiped and obeyed is the One who addresses the crowd this day. Therefore, what Jesus commands takes precedence over the commandments of the elders and patriarchs.

But this is not the way that most of the patriarchs would have seen it. They formally admitted to the rule of God over them. But they also expected that God would conform to their expectations, that he would promote His family, Israel and her interests. He would serve to reinforce the patriarchy and provide transcendent stability. We have the same problem today. In the US, we have the motto “In God We Trust” which was added during the Civil War to give support to the Northern war effort. In 1954, Eisenhower added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance to set America apart from godless communism. Eisenhower does not seem to care what kind of God America was under, but because America was a “Christian Nation” he put America under the Christian God rather than Allah if America had been Muslim. Churches in America are proud to fly the American flag and they strictly follow protocol that the American flag must be flown over any other flag, including the Christian flag. This changes “one nation under God” to “One God under nation.” I have seen one church which flies a 50 foot garrison flag along a five foot Tennessee flag which also flies higher than a five foot Christian flag. when the wind blew, the American flag wrapped around and swallowed the Christian flag. I am not against flying the American flag, but it should be flown “under” the Christian flag.

Because Jesus did not conform to the expectations of many Jewish patriarchs, they rejected Him. As they had rule over their family, they would forbid all to follow Jesus. To follow Jesus would mean that the persons who followed Him would be hated and excommunicated from their earthly families. The patriarch would declare this person to be dead, and the next of kin was responsible to kill this person who had erred. The Torah commanded that the rebellious and unrepentant son was to be stoned to death, and that his family was to throw the first stones. Even Jesus had to suffer indignity when His earthly family came to take Him away because they thought Jesus was out of His mind (Mark 3:20-25). The family must not be put to public shame.