Luke 14: 25 – 35
How’s Your Hearing?
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. 34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
As we begin I would like us to take a moment and read what Matthew and Mark also wrote on this sermon of our Lord.
Matthew 10:34-39, “34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Matthew 5:13, “13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
Mark 9:50, “50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”
Well what I catch here is that the disciple Luke after his personal investigation and interviews of eyewitnesses put these two topics of our Lord together while Matthew and Mark listed them separately. Knowing this then how would you comment as to the different placements? Have you ever done a term paper? If you have then you probably have an idea as to why these teachings are listed the way they are by their writers. When you personally compose you paper you have in mind a certain flow of your position and facts. This is the same thing the gospel writers are doing. Being inspired by our Precious Holy Spirit they wrote their narratives to express their major emphasis. You see Matthew wrote principally to the Jewish believers with a goal of pointing out how our Holy Master Lord Jesus Christ Is The Messiah. As you know the Cherubim had four faces. Matthew’s Gospel speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Throughout Scripture many passages point out that Adoni Yahweh would send a Suffering Servant. Mark’s goal was to list in his gospel version these points of view. Therefore, you can see how his gospel speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Ox, a sacrificial animal.
Luke speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect sinless man. Our Lord in Luke’s Gospel is the man in the cherubim. John’s Gospel highlights our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He therefore represents the majestic eagle.
Luke closes this section off as he opened it by showing our Lord Jesus as challenging His disciples and His would be disciples to consider what was involved in what they were setting out to do. He wanted them to recognize fully what was involved. His challenge to put Him before their own families is a reminder of the division that His coming could cause within families.
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,
Great crowds ‘went on together with Him’, as He went on His way to Jerusalem, and they included many would be disciples who were not aware of why He was going there. For in the crowds would be people with different hopes. Some loved to hear our Lord Jesus’ stories, others were convinced that He was a great prophet, still others wondered whether He was the Messiah biding His time, and still others were full of enthusiasm and were considering following Him fully.
But our Holy King Jesus did not want men to follow as disciples unless they had counted the cost. They could believe on Him, and commit themselves to the Kingly Rule of God without doing so. But for them to become His disciples and follow Him involved an extra cost, and He wanted to ensure that if they did follow Him they had taken this into account. So He wanted to warn them what discipleship might involve.
This portion of the Word gets me worked up. I have witnessed some expert evangelistic teams go to work. The way they go about their team explosions to me they make it all a game. After a day on the streets they gather together and see who won the most converts. In their conversations with people they are like used car salesmen who just point out the features and benefits without showing the people the ‘car facts’. They do not tell a person who does want to turn to the Lord of what difficulties lay ahead. They leave town and do not disciple the ones they led to Christ nor do they in many occasions refer the person to a good local church. This is why many who did pray to receive the Lord give up their Christianity due to attacks of the enemy or the concerns and cares of this world.
If this shoe or statement hits you hard then straighten up and do the proper things from now on.
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
The first cost was with regard to family. As He had demonstrated earlier, now that He was fulfilling His ministry His own family, who had actually sought to interfere with that ministry, even though He loved them, counted as less to Him than His new spiritual family, which consisted of those who heard the word of God that He spoke, and did it.
In the same way those who ‘come to Him’ in order to follow Him must recognize that He must then mean more to them than their families. They must respond to His way of life and His words. They must love their families less than they love Him. This very claim reveals that our Creator Lord Jesus saw Himself as more than simply a man, that He saw Himself as having the right to claim a man’s total submission.
The word used here is regularly translated in modern versions as ‘hate’ and that is what it does often mean. But we must beware. No word in one language translates exactly into another. Thus miseo does not always mean ‘hate. It can mean ‘love with a lesser love’.
When it speaks of God loving Jacob and ‘hating’ Esau this simply means that He has set His love on Jacob and not on Esau, because Jacob is His chosen one, His beloved. Esau is not loved in the same way, and is ‘loved less’. In the same way for people to ‘love Jesus’ is to set their love on Him and choose to follow Him. By it they have made Him their chosen Master. To ‘hate’ their families indicates that they leave them, however reluctantly, in order to follow the Lord Jesus, and that they will not allow their lesser commitment to their families interfere with their greater commitment to our Lord Jesus. Given the choice they, however grievingly, turn their backs on their families. If they are faced with a choice between obedience to Jesus and obedience to their families, they will choose obedience to our Master Jesus. For they ‘love’ Him, and their families they ‘love less’. And the point here is that this is what following The Lord Jesus calls for.
27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
The second cost is with regard to manner of life. A man who would follow The Lord Jesus Christ must be like a man who bears his cross on the way to execution. He leaves his past behind never to be enjoyed again. He follows The Savior Jesus wherever it may lead, even in the pathway of suffering and, if necessary, death. He renounces all his past life. He dies to himself. He is totally committed to Adoni Yeshua no matter what lies ahead.
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
Our Lord Jesus does not want anyone to take the decision lightly, and therefore illustrates this in terms of a builder of a tower or ‘large farm house’. Does not such a builder work out the cost before laying the foundation? To a large degree our Lord explains this as a ‘no brainer’. For there is little point in laying the foundation if he will not be able to finish building the house. This brings out the size of the enterprise. It is no light thing that he is taking on.
For if he fails people will say scathingly, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”
But if he lays the magnificent foundation and then is unable to do any more work because the money has run out everyone will jeer at him and mock him. Why had he been such a fool? Why had he tried to participate in such a grand scheme? So in order to avoid this he should prepare a budget beforehand in order to ensure that he has enough to finish the project. And then he may make his free choice as to whether to go ahead or not.
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?
In the same way therefore those who are considering leaving all and following Jesus should consider whether they are really willing to follow Him all the way, lest when they fail and return to their towns they are jeered at for their failure.
31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
Our Lord Jesus then gives a second example. Here then we have the example of a king who is faced with a choice that he cannot avoid. Unlike the builder he did not choose the situation in which he found himself. And his choice is whether to resist or unconditionally surrender. He must weigh up his own forces, he must weigh up his enemy’s forces, and then he must make his decision whether to fight or sue for peace. The impression given is that he has little choice against overwhelming force, although it may be that The Lord Jesus expected them to have in mind the many Old Testament situations where God overcame such overwhelming odds. Either way the choice has to be made. In a sense this was the position that the Apostles had found themselves in when our Lord and Savior Jesus called them by approaching them and saying, ‘follow Me’. They had not chosen the situation. They had been put on the spot. And they had then had to decide what response they would make.
33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
Looking back therefore at the two examples of what discipleship will cost in terms of loss of family and of all their past life, and in terms of the possible hardness of the way, each one must now choose whether he will renounce all and follow God’s Holy Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, or whether he will not, for if he will not he cannot be The Lord Jesus’ disciple.
The choice is given to us too. In some ways it is not as startling. We are not physically taken out and crucified for being the Lord’s followers. Yet, we may lose out in the world in losing jobs or promotions, or popularity because we are committed to obeying His Commandments.
34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Our Lord Jesus then finishes with a warning of the danger of becoming a disciple and then losing the very ‘virtue’ which makes us useful in His service, our totally dedicated hearts. He does it in terms of salt. Salt is good. It offers great benefits to man while it retains its saltiness. It can be used to season food. It can preserve food. It is offered as an essential part of sacrifices.
In order to understand this idea of losing is saltiness we have to recognize what the Palestinian meant by ‘salt’. The word was used of what was gathered from the shores of the Dead Sea, or obtained by evaporation from it, the crystals of which included both what we call salt, and carnalities. It would then be stored as ‘salt’. In some cases the salt content might be dissolved away and this would leave the savorless carnalities which they would still have described unscientifically as ‘salt’. Thus when they came to their store of ‘salt’ they discovered that it had lost its savor and was useless. So they ‘threw it away’. And, says our Great King Jesus, professing Christians who have lost their savor may just as well be thrown away, as they will be at the Judgment.
Our Lord Jesus then finishes this passage, and the whole section, with the plea that men and women might hear His words. Let those who have ears to hear, hear. This could signify that they must ensure that they listen, mark, learn and inwardly digest. Or that only those to whom God gives ‘hearing’ will understand. Both are true, for the one complements the other.
When you heard the verse ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’, does that ring any bell in your thoughts? As we end I just want to point out the significant importance of our Lord Jesus in this saying. Throughout the letters to the churches we hear these instructions from our Majestic Holy Supreme Ruler, “7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
These particular lessons are of extreme importance that we get down pat in our minds. The question therefore that each of us must ask is, have you got hearing ears?
