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.
Seeing this was the way Jewish society was structured, one can see how gut-wrenching the decision to follow Jesus was. They would trade security for insecurity, family identity to being a vagabond, and even face the prospects of death from their own family. The person who would follow Jesus had an important choice to make.
Jesus told them that they needed to count the cost of discipleship before following Him. He uses two parables to explain this. The first is a man who wished to build a tower. A tower served as a fortification to which the family could flee to in times of invasion. Arrows could be shot from slits in the tower at the enemy, and the strong walls protected them from the enemy without. But a half-built tower is useless and is a testimony to the family poverty and weakness. Towers were expensive to build. Like any building, a prudent person first needs to assess the need. Is it necessary? Then he needs to take an inventory of the things he needs to build it and what labor might need to be hired. He then sets a budget for the project. He then looks at whether he has sufficient resources to construct it. If not, could he borrow the money. The fool would just start building. and when the resources ran out, the building project would be abandoned and become an eyesore. Those who would look at the ruin would mock the person who had built the project.
In terms of Christian discipleship, this parable warns us that if one were to become a follower of Jesus and turn back to one’s family because the cost of following Jesus was too high to complete the race, he would face mocking from them for having played the fool. It also would show a lack of faith in Jesus. Jesus has already paid the cost. He has established the Kingdom. He will certainly finish the building of it. He asks us to follow Him in the execution of this plan. He has clearly taught our cost in this. As Jesus would bear the cross, the sign of ultimate humiliation, we had to carry our own cross after Him. Jesus would hang on a cross. His enemies mocked because, to them, He had failed. Little did they know that the cross as central to the plan itself. It would be by means of the cross that Christ would triumph. He arose on the third day and ascended on the 40th day to heaven. Likewise, those who are without mock us in our struggles. But we must remember that God has the last laugh (Psalm 2). We must keep our eyes upon Jesus and have confidence in His plan, even when all seems lost, because all is not lost unless we lose it.
The second parable is like the first in that it deals with the idea of security. This time, a king learns that an army is coming against Him. To lose a war meant the threat of losing one’s life, humiliation, and ruin of the kingdom. so the prudent king takes inventory of his army as well as spies out the size of the invading army. If conditions are favorable, he engages in war. If not, he will sue for peace. He would be placed under tribute, but other than that and the humiliation, his kingdom would remain intact. After all, is not a living dog better than a dead lion? (Ecclesiastes 9:4) But Jesus calls us to farther than this. A proper assessment is that our King Jesus is able and that we shall emerge victorious. The idea of negotiating our terms of surrender need not be considered.
Jesus ends this passage as brutally as he starts. The person who is unwilling to forsake EVERYTHING is not worthy to be a disciple of Jesus. This should be a cause for intense self-examination. It is far easier to call one’s self a disciple of Jesus than to actually be a disciple of Jesus. We try to water this statement down as well. Is Jesus using hyperbole? Surely He does not expect us to leave all, including our family. It is good enough to be willing to do so, for God will never actually ask this of us, Or does He? Let us remember when Jesus called the fishermen after the miraculous catch of fish. James and John left their father Zebedee in what was a very prosperous catch. they left all including their family and followed Jesus. God provided Zebedee and the rest of his family with the means of support which would have been lost in their absence by selling all those fish. Zebedee was willing to let them go. they did not have to suffer the indignity of shame that others did, whose parents objected, But they left ALL. Peter was probably the patriarch of the family. He could make his own decision. He left all with Andrew to follow Jesus. I am sure God provided for the family in their absences. But to many others, the cost was high indeed.
I cannot tell you the exact personal costs you face in following Jesus. It is easier to have a believing Christian family. But, nevertheless, whatever it is, it will cost you EVERYTHING. The is represented by carrying the cross which equalizes the cost. But we also have to count the benefits as well as the cost. We have eternal security as a member of God’s family. We also have a new and greater family identity. We think that at the Last Supper on Passover, Jesus ate it with his disciples rather than His earthly family. We know that at least James and Jude would become Christians after the resurrection, but during the life, they were skeptics. We don’t know if they came to that Passover or not. But what we do know that they are not mentioned. What is important is the new family identity.
We can sum up this gain and conclude this by reading Mark 10:28-30:
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Mark 10:28–30 NKJV
"Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life."
