A CULTURE OF CONVENIENCE: Speed, convenience, and ease are all important words. Consumers look for these things. Producers of goods and materials pay attention to these things—and with good reason! The buyers they are hoping to attract are sometimes willing to settle for less in terms of quality and even value as long as the product can be delivered into their hands with a minimum of difficulty and delay. Where can you find such buyers and sellers? In the mirror! We are these people.
People used to have to do things like getting their water from an outside pump, going to the outhouse on a cold winter night, keeping their lamps filled to be able to see at night, shoveling coal or chopping wood to keep their furnace going, keeping their transportation fed, watered, and groomed, and writing letters to communicate with people who were not within walking distance. Today we simply turn a knob, flip a switch, adjust a control, press a button, or turn a key, and all of these things are done for us instantly and effortlessly. The classic American meal used to be something like roast beef and mashed potatoes. Today it’s a Big Mac and fries! Kitchens used to be filled with the lingering smell of baking bread. Today all we have is the sound of microwaves beeping!
Can you blame us? We live in a very complicated and busy world. Anything that can simplify our lives or give us more free time is a welcome change. However, we dare not let ourselves and our lives be defined by this quest for convenience. We know that the easiest is not always the best, and that the path of least resistance is often a dead-end road. Some things are still worth doing the hard way. There still are causes and goals that are worthy of an all-out effort on our part, and dreams that deserve our full devotion in order to achieve.
What about our relationship to God and our life of faith? We know that God is always there for us—but are we always living for him? So many times, what we give to God in terms of our attention, time, and effort are the leftovers. He wants to be the author of the story of our lives, but instead we’ve buried him somewhere deep in the footnotes. When God becomes nothing more than a religious afterthought and the hard times come, we sometimes wonder why he doesn’t seem to be around!
This isn’t just a modern problem, though. It has always been there since the fall, deeply embedded in our sinful nature. One brother brings God “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.” The other settles simply for offering God “some of the fruits of the soil.” With one God was pleased, and with the other he wasn’t. What Cain didn’t understand was that God wasn’t interested in the mere outward appearance of honoring him. He was looking at Cain’s heart, and Cain’s heart was what God found lacking. God did not receive such a half-hearted offering favorably, and the sinfulness of Cain’s heart was further revealed by his boiling resentment against Abel, whose offering God had graciously welcomed.
ALL OR NOTHING: “‘Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘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. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’” (Luke 14:25-27)
If you are one of those people who were brought up to never use the word, “hate”, you might have a difficult time with this passage. I know I love my mom, dad, wife, kids, brother and sister very much! Furthermore, we know that Jesus himself demonstrated love and obedience to his parents—the time that Jesus, while nailed to the cross, entrusted his mother into the care of the disciple John is one of the most touching scenes in the entire Bible. In fact, we find that God actually commands us to love others, including our families. We are correctly taught that the sixth commandment includes the idea that a husband and wife should “love and honor one another.” In the fourth commandment, we learn that God wants us to honor, serve, obey, love and cherish our parents and others in authority.
What does Jesus mean? Whatever his disciples may have understood at the time Jesus uttered these words, our understanding of them (and theirs at the time they were written) is permanently influenced by what he has done for us. He loves us so much that he was the first to truly carry his cross when he suffered and died for our sins. That is how we know what it means to “carry the cross”!
“[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-7)
Having been blessed by God with a good and godly wife, God-fearing children, and faithful parents does not necessarily hinder true discipleship. Many pastors, including myself, have found that such blessings only add to their effectiveness in serving God. What discipleship and carrying the cross means, however, is that none of these things—not even my very life itself—is what I’m hanging onto in this world. It means that I’m hanging onto Jesus and His Word with all my might. It means that I also trust him alone to hang onto everything else that I care about—even my very life—for me! I can trust him with my family because I know that he loves them even more than I do. But if it comes down to a decision between my family and following Christ, I know I have to choose him.
FINISH WHAT YOU START: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30)
For the next two parables describing the challenge of being a disciple, Jesus appeals to wisdom—what we might call common sense—to get his point across. It would be foolish to start building something only to run out of money halfway through. People would see it and laugh at you! It’s the same way when it comes to following Jesus as a disciple. It isn’t easy! A person should figure on paying a heavy price right from the beginning. Otherwise, the results could be disastrous.
Jesus came up to some friends who were fishermen. He told them to put out their nets into the deep. They caught such a large number of fish that they needed help bringing them in. Realizing this was something only God could do, one of them felt ashamed of himself and asked Jesus to go away. But Jesus told him and his two friends, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” The men were Simon, James, and John. They docked their boats and left their nets and everything else behind to follow Jesus. Some time later, Jesus simply went up to a tax collector and said, “Follow me.” We are told that this man, named Levi, “got up, left everything, and followed him.”
The words, “they left everything”, are easy to write. They aren’t that hard to read. They are very difficult to live! Yet, the early church was faithful to Jesus’ command and the disciples’ example. Luke records that, “selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:45) “…from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 4:34-35)
Such devotion to the Gospel of Christ cannot be faked or imitated. It can only come from a living faith as a joyful response to God’s grace. It can only be motivated by God’s love in forgiving our sins through Jesus’ sacrificial death for us on the cross. When we truly realize what a great price that was paid there for us—and what a tremendous gift we have been given—anything we can do for God pales by comparison. But if we are simply trying to make a show of it, we should be warned! In Acts chapter 5, Ananias brought Peter some money from the sale of some of his property. He secretly had kept some of it back for himself. His wife also knew about it. When Peter asked her, she lied about it too. Both of them were carried out and buried that day.
PICK A FIGHT YOU CAN WIN: “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:31-33)
This illustration has a similar point to the one Jesus used before it. It is also a timely illustration. As we begin our “war on terrorism”, it is important for us to count the cost and see if it is a battle we can win. Even if we win, is the price of winning more than we are willing to pay?
This illustration, again, appeals to common sense. But as we think about it, we realize that God did something for us that doesn’t seem to make sense—in fact, it seems pretty foolish!
Even for self-serving people like you and me, who in many ways live only to please ourselves, God gave his own beloved Son. He sent him to die for us. We deserved punishment, death, and hell, but Jesus ransomed us with something of greater worth than gold or silver: his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. In the battle against sin, God gave us everything he had—he gave us himself. But it was a battle he knew he could win, and Jesus rose in victory on the third day.
As we consider the words of our Savior, we may wonder if we have what it takes to follow Jesus as his disciples. But there is good news!
1) To extend Jesus’ illustration: in Christ we have terms of peace with our heavenly Father. We can plead the blood and righteousness of none other than Jesus Christ himself in our defense, and we have peace with God (Eph. 2:14-18) This is our assurance that God loves us no matter what we may face.
2) While humility and self-sacrifice are the marks of disciples who follow Christ, these are not things that Jesus looks for as a qualification which must be met. We can’t produce these things on our own! Rather, these are things Jesus produces in us as he works in our lives by the power of the Spirit through his Word and the sacraments he instituted: Baptism and Holy Communion. We have this wonderful promise: “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) We can say with confidence, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
“God loves a cheerful giver!” (2 Cor. 9:7) In the Epistle for today, Paul says to Philemon, “I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do will be spontaneous and not forced.” (verse 14) The cross is not something God forces us to carry against our will. Jesus does not want reluctant disciples or grudging service. What he wants us to have is the joy of being single-minded in our devotion to him. There are no cheap imitations! It can only be received as a gift. It can only flow out of a heart that has been set free from the idolatry of self-love through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
NO GREATER CAUSE: Paul wrote Philemon, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” (verse 3)
Our country is being energized by a new sense of unity and purpose as we face a common enemy. It is my prayer that the Church around the world would experience a similar awakening, united by a common goal of proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The need has never been greater; the time has never been shorter. Of the many worthwhile causes around the world, none is more rewarding than spreading God’s kingdom and telling the Good News of what God has done for us in Jesus our Lord. This is a cause to which we can confidently devote everything we are and have, for it is a cause in which God will never leave us or forsake us.
Last night I heard on Larry King Live that two American aid workers, Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, have been jailed since August 3rd by the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan. The “crime” they are accused of is trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. This is what it sometimes still means to be a disciple and follower of Christ in the world today! Even as we pray for these people, let us also become more firm in our resolve take up our own crosses and follow Christ. Let us all strive to be more bold sharing the good news of Jesus, no matter what our calling in life may be. In this country where we have been blessed with freedom to do so, let us make the most of every opportunity God has given us. Amen!
