Longing for Something More, Luke 14:26-33
Introduction
My house seems always to be filled with activity. From an active two year old boy, a smiley baby boy, a goofy Saint Bernard, and all of the normal and abnormal happenings in my home I often take advantage of the quiet hours after everyone else is in bed to write, prepare sermons, or read. My last activity of every evening is to take Happy the Saint Bernard on one last walk for the night. One of these evening walks, not so long ago, stands out in my memory. It was about midnight in the chill of early spring in Northern Michigan. As she and I strolled up Huron Street in Cheboygan, I had her thick strap of a leash in one hand and my thoughts of God in the other.
As I walked I found myself praying for the church, praying for my family, and praying for a more intimate relationship with God. As I talked to God I found myself longing for something more. I am rather pleased with my life. There is little about being a husband or a father that I find disagreeable. There is little about the ministry that I find unpleasant. Even in the struggles of family life and ministry, God is always working. His love is always obvious if we keep a careful eye open for it. I, probably just like many of you, am a rather content and blessed person. Yet, in spite of my contentedness, I often find myself longing for something more than this world has to offer.
I am convinced that all of us, if we are honest with ourselves and with one another, sometimes, perhaps often, find ourselves filled with a sense of longing for something more than what we see around us; longing for something more than what is available in this world. It is as though we are homesick but know not the place for which our hearts long. It is as though we miss something terribly but can not quite put our finger on who or what it is for which our hearts long. Observations of the human experience compel me to believe that each of carries this burden of longing, though we do listen to it to varying degrees.
Illustration
Just last week Christina, Sebastian, and Ephram flew down to Florida where they met up with Christina’s mother before driving to Louisiana to spend a few days with Christina’s brother and his family. Christina is a brave woman to fly alone with an active two year old and a baby! Two year old Sebastian and I are very close. He is always very concerned where I am and regularly does his best to get me to work from home so that I will be near.
On days when I do work from the church office, it is not uncommon for the church secretary, Ellen, and I to have one or more visits from Christina and the kids. While Sebastian was gone in the South for a week, he perfected a phrase which he has only recently come to use, “I miss you daddy.” He now says it if we are only apart for a few minutes or a few hours. He hugs my leg and tells me that he has missed me.
We have been talking about the grace-filled life and learning to see God in a new way so that we might not be seekers of God’s mercy but rather, that we might be active participants in the work of God’s grace. Just as Sebastian misses his daddy, just as he longs for my return, our hearts long for something more than this world has to offer. Indeed, our hearts long to know the heart of Abba, as Jesus affectionately referred to God as our Heavenly Father – “Daddy.”
The question is often raised, “What is a disciple of Jesus?” What does it mean to follow after Jesus? What does it mean to be a Christian? The term Christian means “one who is like Christ.” If then, we are to be like Christ, then by what means am I to attain such a state? Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” In our longing for something more, in our seeking to be disciples, in our seeking to be like Christ, we must learn what faith is.
There are those who tell us that “faith is knowing that we know that we know!” These folks tell us that faith means that we are always certain of God’s existence and even more so, that we are always certain of His work in our lives. Perhaps I am not alone when I say that there are times having that kind of faith is difficult for me. Perhaps I am not alone when I say that for me, faith is not a destination of absolute knowledge. Faith is a journey of longing for something more.
Leaving all to Follow Christ
In Luke 14:26-33 there are three instances of Jesus using saying that unless we do a certain thing then we cannot be His disciple. In the last chapter, we discussed how our minds have been shaped to a large extent by western rationalism which tends us toward a legalistic, “tit for tat” understanding of the New Testament. When we read these instances of Jesus telling His disciples what is required of them in order to be a disciple, we are likely to read it is a sort of contract whereby Jesus is offering discipleship to the masses under the following conditions but that is not it at all!
By this point in Jesus ministry the disciples had been with Jesus for some time. They were disciples were already seasoned followers of Jesus. In the first of these three seemingly conditional statements Jesus says, “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.” (Luke 14:26) This is one of those passages in the Bible that has the power to leave us absolutely perplexed. Is Jesus really saying that unless we hate our father and mother, our wife and children, and our brothers and sisters, and even our own life, then we cannot be His disciple?!
How can this be? Elsewhere in the Bible we are told to honor our parents and clearly there is an entire thread of teaching in the Bible which commands us to love and even cherish our families. We must remember than in the previous verse (Luke 14:25) we are told that great crowds had begun to follow Jesus. This piece of information gives us incredible insight to what seems like such severe language on the part of Jesus. Many of those who followed in these massive crowds only followed Jesus because of what they thought He could do for them.
In the first part of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, we see that a great crowd of people had gathered to follow Jesus because of the miracles He performed. In this chapter it is recorded that Jesus fed the great multitudes by performing a miracle of multiplying only five loaves and two fish into enough to feed more than five thousand men and their families according to Mathew’s Gospel. Jesus was not only speaking to His own twelve disciples, He was also speaking to the crowds who had gathered out of a desire to see what Jesus could do for them.
Jesus is not making the point that we have to hate everyone whom we are related to in order to be His disciple. Jesus is using a style of language known as hyperbole in order to clearly and profoundly make the point that in order to truly be Jesus disciples, in order to truly live the grace-filled life, we must place all earthly attachments under the authority of God and address the circumstances of this life from the perspective of the life we live in Christ. Jesus is not negatively affirming hatred of our families. Jesus is using poetic language to positively affirm changing our perspective from getting to giving, from having to sacrificing, and from seeking after selfish motives to living the grace-filled life of Christ!
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Jesus is telling the crowds, just as He is telling us, that the things of this life, earthly ambition, selfish gain, are hindrances to living the grace-filled of Christ. A disciple of Christ who is experiencing and participating in God’s grace will learn to view his or her entire life through the lens of God’s grace and purpose. Our parents and siblings are gifts from God and we should love them as Christ loves them. Our children and spouses are gifts from God and we are to pour out the same grace to them that God pours out to us. The message is that our entire lives are to be reflections of God’s grace.
Bearing Our Cross
In the very next verse Jesus gives us another of what look like conditional requirements in regard to being a disciple of Jesus. “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27) This is another one of those passages that has the absolute ability to leave a reader perplexed. If this passage is taken literally then all who call themselves followers of Jesus should have a large wooden Cross in there house by the door, just next to their wallets, purses, and keys!
I remember once watching a television documentary about what is apparently a fringe group of Philippine Catholics who literally nail themselves to crosses during the Easter season, perhaps even in strict obedience to this passage. Clearly, though, Jesus is not telling us that in order to be a disciple we must literally, physically, carry a cross on our shoulders. The message here is simple, clear, and equally profound. We are to look like Jesus. At the Cross, Jesus expressed a message of mercy, redemption, and hope; we are to do likewise.
Carrying our Cross means that we are willing to publicly identify with the suffering, shame, and humility of the Cross of Christ. In Luke 23:26 we told of Simon the Cyrenian who was commanded to help Jesus carry His Cross to Calvary. Often in cinematic portrayals of the passion of Christ, Simon is depicted being forced to help Jesus because Jesus is so beaten and battered that the roman Soldiers grow impatient with His struggling efforts to carry the Cross on His own. O, how like Simon the Cyrene are we! It is we who must carry the Cross of Christ in this dark and hurting world. It is we who bear the message of hope and redemption that is found only in Christ!
That is what the Church is supposed to look like; like Simon standing shoulder to shoulder carrying the Cross. The Cross which we are to bear is the very message of the Cross; that hope for humanity and redemption and freedom from sin and its consequences are found in Christ alone!
The trouble is that the Church doesn’t always look very much like Jesus on the Cross does it? As Jesus hung on the Cross, He died for the very people who had forsaken Him. As Jesus hung on the Cross, He loved the very unlovely people who had showed Him hatred and cruel indifference. Carrying the Cross of Christ is an essential part of living the grace-filled life because it is in identifying with the radical love and mercy of the Cross of Christ that we free ourselves to be able to love like Jesus and to look like Jesus dying on the Cross.
Forsaking All
Have you ever wondered why the Church which was founded by the greatest example of mercy and grace is so often characterized by the opposite? I have thought on this subject many times for many hours. Why is it that we, who are supposed to look the most like Christ on the Cross, showing mercy to even the unmerciful, so often are characterized by the very judgment which characterized those who crucified our Lord? Indeed, there is a little bit of the man who whipped Jesus, the men who nailed Him to the tree, and the Pharisees who accused Him in side of each one of us; is there not?
The most compelling difference between the ones who nailed Him to the Cross and the ones who followed Him is still the difference between living the grace-filled life and living a life full of judgment and self-condemnation. The difference is the extent to which we are willing to forsake all for the sake of carrying our Cross as we follow after Jesus. No doubt, many of those who participated in the crucifixion of Jesus had heard His message. Time and again in the New Testament we see Jesus interacting with Roman Soldiers and huge crowds. Many, if not most, of those in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion had heard Jesus or at least heard of Him and His radical message.
The difference between one who nails and one who does not is a willingness or lack of willingness to follow. Every time we judge ourselves because of a poor understanding of God’s grace; every time we judge others because we are motivated by obligation rather than love, every time we do these things, we hammer the nail further into Christ’s wrists and feet. With every choice to forsake the grace-filled life in favor of a life of judgment, it is as though we identify with those who crucified Christ rather than with Simon who helped Jesus to carry the Cross. In our judgment and self-condemnation we are like the executioners, while in our identification with the grace of the Cross we become like Simon the Cyrene as we bear the Cross of mercy for the world to see.
Conclusion
There is the story of a boy who was walking with his father along a lonely road at night, carrying a lantern. He told his father he was afraid, because the lantern showed such a little way ahead. The father answered, “That is so, but if you walk straight on, you will find that the light will reach to the end of the journey.” God often gives us light for only a little way ahead, but He always gives at least that, and so He always gives us light enough for the whole journey.
A life of faith is just the same way. Faith is a longing for something more than this world has to offer and we find the satisfaction of that longing only in a life lived following after Christ. Christianity is not a destination of knowledge any more than it is an opportunity to obtain perfection in this life. Christianity is about being a disciple of Jesus. Being a disciple of Jesus is about strapping on your sandals, picking up your walking stick, and following after the Master of Mercy – Jesus Christ!
In Philippians 1:6 the Apostle Paul writes, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Faith is not so much about knowing as it about following; following is not so much about a destination as it is about the journey; and the journey is about experiencing the grace of God! If you are imperfect, good! You are still on the way and God is not finished with you. If you are at times unsure, and full of longing, good! You are still trotting the dusty hills closely behind Jesus, as you receive His teaching and you are transformed by His grace!
