The cost of discipleship Luke 14:25-35
God was talking with Adam and He said, “You really need a helper, don’t you?” And Adam answered, “Yeah, I really do.” So God said, “What if I make a woman? She’ll be perfect for you. She’ll be beautiful. She’ll rub your back at night, and your feet in the morning. She’ll plop grapes into your mouth. She’ll prepare all your favorite meals without fail. She’ll clean up the kitchen and take care of the kids. You’ll never have to do a thing, just sit around and be the king of the house.” Adam said, “Boy, that sounds great, but how much is this going to cost?” God said, “Well, it’s pretty expensive. It will cost you an arm and a leg.” Adam thought for a moment and then asked, “What can I get for a rib?” And the rest as they say is history.
“And there went great multitudes with Him: and He turned, and said unto them, ‘If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.’”
Here we see multitudes of people are following Jesus and He’s on His way to be crucified while they’re all going up to Jerusalem for the yearly Passover feast. And all these people are acting like they’re totally dedicated to Him and yet, it’s to this very crowd that Jesus makes an appeal, for those who are willing to pay the price, to get serious about their commitment. And commentators tell us there could have been thousands of people here.
So, Jesus isn’t talking to people who are antagonistic towards him or even to those who weren’t interested in what He had to say but these were actually those who thought He had all the answers to all the problems in the world. They were both positive in their attitude and they were interested in what he had to say, but the problem was, they thought that just having a positive attitude and listening to what He had to say was what discipleship was all about. And I think there are still many who are willing to follow Jesus as long as everything works out right and they think the church is a great place for fellowship but that’s as far as they want to go.
And as we look at this crowd we’re seeing people who walked with Him all the way from Galilee up to Jerusalem. Now, I know Johnny Cash wrote a song where he said Jesus never traveled more than thirty miles from the place He was born but if you look at a map you’ll see that Galilee to Jerusalem was about 65 miles. And don’t forget that Jesus had also lived in Egypt as a child and Egypt was around four hundred miles. So, it was a nice song but it wasn’t true.
Most preachers would get really excited about having such a large and enthusiastic congregation and yet Jesus seems to be winnowing out the wheat from the chaff and tells them that everyone who follows Him are going to have to die to self and this might even mean physical death and that the kingdom they’re so excited about will only come about through His crucifixion, death and resurrection. And by explaining the cost of discipleship He certainly thins out the crowd. You see, He’s not concerned about the size of His congregation because Jesus knows better than anyone that size is not a guarantee of success. But He’s concerned about the spiritual quality of those who are following Him.
And as He walked along this road He could see this crowd were like spiritual window-shoppers whose curiosity was aroused when they saw His miracles and heard His teaching but as soon as Jesus was arrested most of them disappeared.
And in this section He gives a call for real disciples and He begins by describing what true discipleship is all about. The word “disciple” is the most common title that’s used in the Bible for the followers of Jesus. In the four Gospels as well as the Book of Acts, the word actually appears 264 times. And when we hear the word disciple today we get the impression that this describes those who were really committed but as we look at the New Testament we see that not everyone who wore this title was very disciplined when it came to spiritual issues.
For instance, many of the rabbis had disciples; so, the word disciple simply described someone who was a learner or a student of someone else and we also see that the reason many of Jesus’ enemies called Him rabbi wasn’t out of respect for His education or His spiritual position but because He had a group of disciples.
And then we see some who were called disciples that were less than learners. In John 6:66 it says, “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” In other words, some of those who had followed Him simply dropped out. They quit. And then there was Judas. He was certainly a disciple and he had walked and worked with Jesus for about three years. So, we could say that of the many disciples Jesus had, some of them were nominally committed, some were truly committed, some were barely committed and some weren’t committed at all and yet, they were all called disciples.
So, disciple was a common term that didn’t really mean much, as a matter of fact it’s very much like the word ‘Christian’ today. Now, to those of us who are Christians being a Christian really means something but don’t forget that there are people in this world who are called Christians who don’t have a clue as to who Jesus was. In Lebanon there has been a battle going on for years and one side is a group that refers to themselves as Christians but what they mean is; they’re neither Muslim nor Jewish.
And even in Canada being a Christian either means you’re Roman Catholic or you’re associated with some branch of Protestantism. And as far as the world is concerned anyone who can somehow trace their religious origins back to historical Christianity is considered Christian. Did you know there is even a Christian group whose primary goal is to legalize marijuana and there’s another one that calls itself a Christian Gay fellowship. So, the word Christian has certainly lost something in recent years. It seems to be less about your faith and more about your social connections.
A week or two ago President George Bush was pushing a woman for nomination to the Supreme Court and he described her by saying, “She was certainly a woman of faith” but he never said anything about who or what her faith was in. And then Prince Charles said one of the things he was going to change when he became king was his commitment to be the defender of the faith. He said; he was going to be a defender of faith. So, you could believe anything no matter how stupid it is and Charles is going to defend your right to believe it.
And then there are even Christian churches that have really muddied the waters. A New York Times reporter was visiting a booming mega-church outside Phoenix recently and he said this is what he found. They had a drive-through latte stand, Krispy Kreme doughnuts at every service and sermons about “how to discipline your children, how to reach your professional goals, how to invest your money and how to reduce your debt.”
And on Sundays he said children played with church-distributed Xboxes and many of the members had signed up for a twice-weekly aerobics class called Firm Believers. It almost seems like the only thing they didn’t do was talk about Jesus.
So, the bottom line is, not everything that’s called Christian is Christian in the biblical sense of the word but listen, a true Christian is a disciple which means he is a learner and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the point of this passage is that Jesus wasn’t looking for superficial followers because He knew they’d only hang around till the going got rough and then they’d all get going.
There seems to have been a change in His message because Jesus had been saying, "Come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."’ And now that the people had come in great numbers He telling them that if they weren’t serious about following Him they might as well keep on going. You see, I think Jesus knew the hearts of this crowd and He knew they were only following Him for what they could get and He began to thin out the crowds by explaining the kind of commitment they needed and this way He’d find those who were serious about their faith.
You see, He knew that most of these people weren’t the least bit interested in spiritual things. They were like many today who come to Jesus looking for answers about their money problems, their family problems or even their health problems but they soon lose interest if Jesus doesn’t give them what they want and actually calls on them for some kind of commitment.
So, I believe that most of these people were just there for the show. They wanted to see the miracles and get more free food. They wanted a Messiah who would start a revolution and deliver them from Rome. You see, they wanted to change their situation but not their souls.
So, He turns to them and speaks about the demands of discipleship and the message He gives is aimed at those who are really dedicated and not the mildly interested. And here we see that He uses three different illustrations to define what the call of true discipleship is all about.
So, we’ll begin by looking at the first one and it’s in verse 26 where He says, “‘If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” And this was a call for every one who was serious about their faith to put Him above everything else in their lives and that even included the members of their families.
Now, as soon as we hear this, the first thing that comes to our mind is; what if Jesus asked me to do something that would end up alienating my family. And there are many in our world who have really paid a price for following Jesus. I remember hearing a man from Morocco who got converted and his family did everything they could to kill him. And there are many who have accepted the Lord and their families want nothing else to do with them. So, there are some who will have to pay this price.
But on the other hand we also realize that this doesn’t happen to everyone. Some of us come from Christian families and others have families that are at least tolerable of our faith.
And here He’s not talking about them hating us but of us hating them. I remember talking to a young guy about the Lord one time and he said, “I guess I’m alright with God because I really hate my whole family.” But, to understand this passage we have to know that the word "hate" means. And hate wasn’t meant to be taken literally but it was used figuratively to express a point. The word “hate” is a strong term to us but we have to understand how it was used in the scriptures. In Malachi 1:2-3 and in Romans 9:13, love and hate were used in reference to Jacob and Esau. And when it says, God said He loved Jacob, He wasn’t expressing an emotion but His will; God meant that He had chosen Jacob. And His statement of hating Esau wasn’t an expression of His emotion but His will. Hate is used as a word of comparison and this tells us that our love for Jesus must be so far superior to any other love we have that our commitment to Him has no rivals.
Keep in mind that Jesus often used figures of speech to give His words a greater impact. He used metaphors, similes, and parables. And here, He simply employed hyperbole. Hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration to emphasize a point. It’s like we’d say, "That wrestler was as big as a house." My wife uses hyperbole all the time when she says something like, “I’ve told you a million times to put that bathroom seat down.” Well, we know it isn’t a million times, it’s probably only a half a million.
In Jewish culture the word "hate" was used to express a lesser love. So, what Jesus was saying was, we must love Him so much more than we do our family members or even ourselves for that matter. And that means we need to put Him above our hobbies, our goals in life, our careers and anything else. And the bottom line is; if we’re going to follow Jesus the way He wants us to, He is to be number one in every area of our lives.
And then we see the second part of this message which is a call to bear your cross and everyone who was listening to Him was more than familiar with the idea of carrying a cross. After all, they saw people being crucified all the time because even though the Romans were fair when it came to governing they were absolutely unmerciful when it came to punishment.
So, everyone had seen criminals either carrying their crosses to the place of execution or being crucified right by the side of the road. And it was a horrible way to die and a terrifying thing to watch. And the very idea of being called to voluntarily carry your cross would have been a horrible idea to this crowd.
And don’t forget that crucifixion was a shameful way to die and only those who were the most hated of criminals were crucified. So, when we follow Jesus we share in His sense of shame and rejection.
Today, the image of the cross has simply lost its horror. I mean, people wear them as jewelry. But what if we offered to sell little miniature models of an electric chair on a chain? Can you imagine someone walking up and saying, “I love your electric chair, where did you get it?”
So, the cross has lost its sense of horror simply because we’ve cleaned it up by overlaying it with gold and decorating it with diamonds but in Jesus’ time, a cross was considered to be a horrible, agonizing tortuous means of execution. It was the noose, the electric chair and the lethal injection of His day. And if you saw someone carrying a cross it only meant one thing and that was that person is as good as dead.
A few years ago, there was a book called, “Dead Man Walking” and the concept for the title was based on the fact that when a death row prisoner was walking from his cell to the place where he’d be executed, the other prisoners would say, “Dead man walking.” In other words, he was alive and walking but he was just as good as dead. And that’s what Jesus meant when He spoke about a disciple carrying his cross, he was dead to the rest of the world.
A pastor of a small church was given the red-carpet tour of a rather wealthy church. And with pride, the minister of the church pointed to the rich, imported wood of the pews and the luxurious decoration of the building. And as they stepped outside, darkness was falling, and a spotlight shone on a huge cross atop a tall steeple. The minister said, “That cross alone cost us ten thousand dollars.” And the other man said, “You got cheated. There was a time when Christians could get them for free.”
As we read the epistles we see that Paul understood what the concept of the cross was all about. In the book of Galatians there are three verses about what it means. In Galatians 2:20 he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” And then 5:24 it says, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” And then in 6:14 we read, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” In other words, Paul was saying, all who live for Jesus have died to self and this world has been crucified to them.
Now, we all know that talking about the crucified life has lost it’s appeal because people still want religion but they want one that accommodates their lifestyle. And people will do strange things to get what they want. I saw an ad for a huge hamburger that was advertised in the states, I think it was at Burger King. This burger was three quarters of a pound of meat and then there were the toppings and all the fries. And when I read that I wondered; why do they make something like that? Well, they make it because people want it.
And did you know there are churches who have done the same thing to attract people or accommodate people. They figure they’ve got to keep the customer satisfied so, they modify their message to meet the needs of the market. They preach about God’s love and never mention His anger or His judgment. And if people complain that the service is too long then they just shorten it. There was one pastor who actually guaranteed that his sermons would never last more than seven minutes. When I heard that I thought, seven minutes was probably about all you could take of someone like him.
I remember when we lived in Schroon Lake, New York there was a liberal church that had what they called a convenience service during the summer months and all it consisted of was the pastor reading the 23rd Psalm, followed by the Lord’s Prayer and then they took up the offering and you could head off to the golf club knowing that you had done your Christian duty.
And in these verses Jesus uses this startling illustration of the cross to communicate that He doesn’t want these people or even us to make a commitment without understanding what’s involved. I’m always afraid of those preachers we come across like used car salesmen who say: "Don’t read the fine print; we’ll get to that later." You see, here, Jesus is telling the unsaved to count the cost before coming to Him.
And then this was followed by an illustration of the kind of disciples He looking for when He describes someone who built a tower without figuring out beforehand what it would cost and when that person ran out of money everyone made fun of them for starting something they weren’t able to finish. And what it all comes down to is this; the one who isn’t committed is never make it to the finish line.
We’re told that many of the wealthy people of Jesus day tried to show off how much they had by building what they considered to be their version of a king’s palace, except they often ran out of money before the building was completed, leaving an embarrassing, half-finished project for everyone to see and laugh at. It seems like common sense to make sure you know the cost of a building before you start the construction but even today there are public properties have finished and abandoned.
When I first went to Toronto they had a half finished high rise on the Don Valley Parkway and people called it the Bay View ghost. Apparently the construction stopped 1959 when the developers realized that the Township of East York wouldn’t service the site with water and sewage facilities. And for 20 years it stood there as a testimony to the developers stupidity.
The tower story is pretty straightforward. A farmer needs a place to keep his tools and produce secure from thieves or even bad weather. And a nice, new tower would do a several things for him. First, if he builds it, he’d gain respect in the community. And then second, his property value would probably rise. If you take a vacant lot and put a snazzy tower on it, the lot is worth twice as much as you paid for it. And then third, he’d have a great storage facility. And then finally, the tower would also provide security and convenience. He could see his enemies long before they’d ever see him. And besides this, his workers could also use it as a place to get in out of the sun and have a break during the hotter part of the day.
So, he had all kinds of good reasons for building this tower but the one thing he overlooked was the cost. And in the middle of the project, he ran out of money. And there’s nothing more humiliating than having half a tower sitting on your property for everybody to see. Everybody that goes by says, “What an idiot.”
And because the farmer failed to count the cost, he not only lost whatever money he spent on it but he also lost any prestige he had in the community.
And listen, is there anything more tragic than a life that has had a great foundation but never did anything. There have been so many people who started out strong in the faith but they ended up falling on their face. And these were people who had been convicted of their sinfulness and they said they wanted to start a brand new life but somewhere along the way they got sidetracked and their spiritual lives ended up being nothing more than a half finished tower in an empty field that non-Christians use as an excuse to mock and reject the faith.
Warren Weirsbe points out that salvation is ours by coming to the cross and trusting Jesus Christ but discipleship means carrying the cross and following him.
A lighthouse keeper along a dangerous coast was given enough oil for one month and told to keep the light burning every night. One day, a woman asked for oil so that her children could stay warm. Then a farmer came, needing oil for a lamp so he could study. Still another farmer needed some oil for a tractor, so his fields could be plowed and planted and his family fed. The keeper saw each as a worthy request and measured out just enough oil to satisfy everybody but near the end of the month, the tank in the lighthouse ran dry. That night the beacon was dark and three ships crashed on the rocks. More than 100 lives were lost. When a government official investigated, the man explained what he had done and why. “You were given one task alone,” insisted the official. “It was to keep the light burning and everything else was secondary.” The call of discipleship is the call to make Jesus first in our lives and everything else is secondary.
And then He adds another illustration in verses 31-33 to emphasize our need of commitment where He says, “Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.”
Now, in Jesus day if one king lost a war to another, he and his people became slaves of the opposing king, so it required great deal of humility to bow down and to ask for terms of peace. And in the same way, it takes a great deal of humility on our part to surrender our lives to God because we can’t be His disciples unless we’re willing to give Him control of our lives and that’s a hard thing to do because none of us wants to give up, even to God.
And then in verse 33, Jesus makes the cost of following him clear when He says that the disciple must be willing "to give up everything." And everything is a fairly inclusive word! Everything means everything! Everything means your job, your hobbies, your most prized possession, your free time, your money, your goals, your dreams and everything else.
Now we may not literally "give up everything" but Jesus is referring to an attitude of the heart where these things will no longer have priority but He does. The Greek word translated as "give up" can also be translated as "say goodbye or renounce." In other words, Jesus says we must be ‘willing’ to forsake anything or everything that interferes with following him faithfully and completely.
Listen, this doesn’t mean you have to have a garage sale next week but it does mean that all of us have to be careful not to let anything get between you and the Lord and that anything refers to our relationships and all our possessions because all of us are simply stewards of the things we have. And we want to take care of everything that’s been entrusted to us because in reality, it all belongs to Him. And that’s what He’s telling us here.
We must not only love the Lord Jesus more than to our loved ones, but we also have to be committed to Him above "even our own lives" as He says in verse 26. Martin Luther said, “A religion that does nothing, that saves nothing, that gives nothing, that cost nothing, that suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”
So, there’s the quality of your commitment, the extent of your commitment and the reality of your commitment. And Jesus is saying that people who follow him without total commitment are like salt that has lost its saltiness. Salt was very valuable during Jesus’ time. Roman soldiers were said to have been paid with salt rations. And even today we speak of someone who is “not worth their salt.”
In Jesus time the greatest value of salt was its use as a preservative. Since they had no way to refrigerate meat, salt would be applied to prevent the meat from rotting and it would create a chemical reaction that slowed down the process of decay. Salt was also used to preserve, to flavor and to heal. The salt we use today is not the same because of our ability to purify it but in Jesus’ day salt was often corrupted by other minerals and if moisture got in the salt the salt would evaporate and leave behind the impure minerals. So, if the salt had lost it’s saltiness it was useless. It’s like gum that has no flavor. What do you do with it? You stick it under the pew. So, just like salt is only useful when it has the nature of salt a Christian is only useful when he has the nature of Christ.
And what He was saying here was that people who follow him without the kind of commitment He’s looking for are like salt that’s lost its saltiness. They might have the appearance of being His but that’s it. And without total commitment, the Christian is the same as tasteless salt and they’re useless to God. And these here Jesus is referring to those who only give part of themselves to Him. They’ll commit to following Him on Sundays but the rest of the week belongs to them. They’ll give Him their marriages but not their finances. They’ll be active at the church but their job is their own time. And what He’s saying is, this half-hearted commitment won’t work because the salt has lost its flavor.
And there are many who make a profession of faith and identify as Christians who fall away and their lives become negative advertisements for the Gospel of Christ. And we’ve all seen people come and go from the church or any other church you’ve been in. And many of them probably looked like they were really excited about the things of God but now they never darken the door. Whenever someone mentions their name someone else always says, “Well, they accepted the Lord and someday we hope they come back.” And we do hope they will but the problem is, often they came for the wrong reason in the first place and because of that they’ll be even harder to reach than someone who’s never heard the word. As someone said, “Faith that fizzles at the finish was faulty from the first.”
Have you ever noticed how salt stings when you get it in a cut? When I was a kid we lived in the salt water but if you had a cut somewhere and jumped in you found out what pain was all about. It irritates because in addition to being a preservative, it’s also an antiseptic and that means it cleans and our world needs a good cleaning.
We are the salt God gives to a corrupt world. And like salt, we slow down the process of decay.
You may have heard the question, "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" If we have so conformed our ways and words to the world around us that they can’t see Christ in us and that they’re even surprised to find out that we are Christians, then maybe we aren’t very salty enough.
Too many Christians are like the dog someone told me about. One day this man walked into an old country store and he saw a sign that said: “DANGER! BEWARE OF DOG!” He looked around cautiously, but all he saw was an old hound curled up on the floor, sound asleep. He said to the owner, “That dog doesn’t look dangerous to me.” The owner said, “Well, folks kept tripping over him, so that’s why I put up the sign.” Let’s hope no one ever puts up a sign around us. “Beware of Christians, they all asleep.”
And then He closes with an invitation in verse 35 when He says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." This is an expression that was used several times in Matthew, Mark and Luke and all it means is, listen to this message and if you understood it, obey it.
Conclusion
Listen, Jesus is stressing discipleship and discipleship is not an invitation to a Sunday School picnic but it’s an invitation to spiritual warfare over a long period of time. And the good news is that we’ve got the resources to do the job. And then second, a disciple must really think things out before deciding to follow Jesus and his teachings. Discipleship is not based on sham emotions and shallow enthusiasm but it’s solid understanding and commitment. And then third, a disciple of Jesus must be willing to give up anything that can get in the way of his following the Lord. And I’m not just talking about sinful things but at times the good things become enemies of the best.
Listen, no one can go back and make a brand new start but all of us can start from where we are and make a brand new ending.”
Well, in this parable Jesus is asked some very serious questions. He asked them, are you sure you want to follow me? Do you know what is expected of you? And have you counted the cost? He wanted the crowd to seriously consider whether or not they were willing to pay the price and stay the course. And as I said, there could have been thousands of people on this road and yet, how many were left when it came to the time of the crucifixion? The answer is none.
There’s and old saying, “When the going gets tough, people leave.” You see, it’s all about priority. It is about who or what is going to take first place in our lives. Listen, Jesus is not calling for a makeover; He’s calling for a takeover. Remember the people last week who turned down the invitation to the banquet, what came first in their life; it was their land, their animals and their family. And as a disciple, Jesus must take first place because He’s either God of all or He’s not God at all.
Two American soldiers were cut off from their regiment with the Vietcong closing in for the kill. The Americans sent in a rescue helicopter which could only land a few hundred yards from the men; they both made a run for it. One made it to the helicopter and reached safety, the other was shot and fell short. Without a second thought, the soldier jumped out of the helicopter and ran and picked up the wounded soldier, put him on his shoulder and threw him into the helicopter. At that moment, a bullet hit him in the back of the head and killed him instantly.
The helicopter flew the wounded man to hospital where he recovered from his wounds. However when he returned to America, like many veterans, he couldn’t readjust, he drifted as a vagrant and wasted his life. One day, he found himself in the home town of the man who had rescued him. He decided to go to this house and tell the family how brave their son had been. He approached the house, knocked on the door. An older version of the man who had been killed saving his life appeared at the door, clearly it was the father. The father, somewhat taken aback by the appearance of the vagrant at his door, was apprehensive. However, he told the father that he was the man his son had died to save.
The father thanked him and began to close the door. Shocked at so little response, he shouted to him “I’m the man your son died to save!!” The father continued to close the door. The man shouted again “Don’t you understand, your brave son died to save me”. The father could contain himself no longer. “Yes I know and look at what you have done with the life you have been given!!!”
The Lord Jesus Christ gave His life a ransom for many. He died that we might be forgiven and share the message with others. What have we done with the opportunities that He’s provided?
