Take Up Your Cross

Lk 14:25-33 Take up your cross and follow me

Jim Eliot, an American missionary who was killed on 8th January 1956 taking the Gospel to the Waodani people in Ecuador - once famously wrote in his diary on 28th October 1949:

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep

To gain that which he cannot lose”

Jesus said something similar in our Gospel reading this morning:

27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple

Christ is looking for dedicated men and women who are willing to be his disciples.

There are a lot of people in the UK who are believers in God – but that doesn’t make them a Christian.

A Christian is someone who not only believes in the existence of God but trusts him too.

Story: Let me illustrate this with a story.

In the late 19th century (1859), Blondin a famous tightrope walker had a tightrope placed across the Niagara Falls in the USA.

He then proceeded to walk across it with a wheelbarrow in front of him.

Having reached the other side, he stepped down to the applause of the crowd.

He went up to members of the crowd and asked:

"Do you believe that I can walk back on that rope without falling off?"

"Yes" they each replied.

"Do you really believe I can make" he asked.

"Yes" they replied. "We've just seen you do it"

"Then" said Blondin "Will you please step inside my wheelbarrow and come with me".

"Oh no" they replied "It is far too dangerous".

This is the difference between being a mere believer and a real true disciple.

God wants us to be “wheelbarrow” people.

Stepping into the wheelbarrow means we really trust him to guide us and to provide for our needs.

1. Hating one’s family

In our reading today, Jesus uses two strong images to make his point.

The first is in Luke 14 verse 26 Jesus 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.

Jesus is using hyperbole here.

He is not telling us to literally hate our parents, our wives and children and our own lives - because elsewhere Jesus tells us to even love our enemies (Mt. 5:44).

The problem with Luke 14:26 comes through translation.

In Hebrew thought, there is no separate word to 'prefer less'.

So Jesus would have to use the word ‘sane’, which is translated into the Greek and English as ’hate’.

Actually 'sane’ covers the whole range of negative emotions from ’intense hatred of the enemies of God to simply something to be avoided’.

’Sane’ also means, “ to abandon, leave aside, quit, relinquish” and it is this nuance that seems to be present here.

What Jesus is in effect saying is

"If anyone comes to me and does not relinquish his ties to his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.”

So he is not saying that we are to hate our family.

Rather what he is saying in these verses is that our dedication in following him must make our love for our family and ourselves seem in comparison like hate.

2. Taking up our Cross

Jesus uses a second strong image in our Gospel reading today and that is taking up our Cross to follow him.

In Luke 14:27 Jesus says

27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Another way of putting it is:

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has, cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:27)

We must be prepared to give up everything – even our own lives – to follow Christ

Indeed, in the first century AD that was the very option that Jews would have had to choose when they became Christians.

And among the more Orthodox Jews, they would have a burial service for the person who became a Christian.

This would signify that that person was now dead to them because they had abandoned the Jewish faith.

It cost the early disciples everything – sometimes even their own lives.

Their family and circle of friends turned on them and rejected them.

Indeed for some Christians today converting from Islam to Christianity face similar consequences today.

It can even cost their lives

For example, it is a capital offence in some Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia to convert from Islam to Christianity.

And of course there is persecution in China and North Korea as well as in Islamic countries.

Discipleship is not for the faint hearted

It is interesting that Jesus only gave the Church one commission: