THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER, FRANKLIN MA Luke 14:25-33 True discipleship requires us to put Jesus first September 8, 2013 Jesus said, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. That s verse 26 in this morning s reading from Luke, chapter 14. One biblical commentator wrote: This is a hard saying in more senses than one: it is hard to accept and it is hard to reconcile it with the general teaching of Jesus. What does it mean, then? It means that, just as property [which Jesus addresses in verse 33 any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple ] It means that, just as property can come between us and the kingdom of God, so can family ties. The interests of God s kingdom must be paramount with the followers of Jesus, and everything else must take second place to them, even family ties i [and possessions]. Jesus also said, in verse 27, Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. In this brief passage Jesus repeats three times the words, cannot be my disciple Jesus is serious He is calling for a serious commitment. Tim Keller commented in one of his sermons: Jesus Christ doesn t just give us truths; he is the truth. Jesus Christ is the prophet to end all prophets. He gives us hard-copy words from God, truths on which we can build our lives, truths we have to submit to, truths we have to obey, and truths we have to build our lives on, but he himself is the truth. It s important to put Jesus words in context. This morning s reading is preceded by a parable about the kingdom of God, a parable about a great banquet. In verse 23 Jesus says, And the master [the one who is giving the banquet] said to the servant. Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. When it comes to salvation, God wants everybody
to come He wants everyone to be saved; but when it comes to discipleship, He wants only those who are willing to pay the price. Jesus was on His final journey to Jerusalem the great crowds Luke mentions may have been on their way to celebrate the Passover. Jesus knew He was headed to the cross and to His death. It was easy for people to be part of the crowd, but not so easy to let go of family ties, possessions, or even life itself or for those in the crowd to pick up their own cross a symbol of terrible suffering and death. The reality is that after we come in and find salvation, we must come to Jesus, we must pick up our cross and come after Him in obedience to His will. Warren Wiersbe wrote: The Gospel invitation goes out to the whole world, and all who will receive it will be welcomed. For those who will not, the doors will remain closed and they will be excluded from Christ s great welcoming feast. Jesus then turned to the crowd (vv. 25 33). They too had to choose. Jesus is the Host at the salvation s supper, but He is the Master in our Christian walk of faith. ii In the September issue of Acts 29 Father Dan wrote: [As the people of Redeemer] we are called as God s family to bear spiritual fruit, to be active and engaging. Each of us is called to use our spiritual gifts and talents it help build up God s kingdom in the place where He has put us and this requires us to make Jesus our first priority. True discipleship requires us to put Jesus first. Who are we as the people of Redeemer? We say we are a community transformed by Jesus Christ, living our His mission in ministry. What does look like for you? What does it look like for us here in Franklin and in the places where we live and work and go to school? Tim Keller again: The essence of Christian obedience is not do s and don ts, but personal allegiance to Jesus. In the morning s Gospel lesson, it says, great crowds accompanied [Jesus]. Within the crowds there were probably some who were simply admirers of this young, articulate rabbi who taught with such great authority, but there were others 2
who had already committed their lives to Him. As they listened, they must have been wondering: what will we hear next? Then Jesus said, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. The MESSAGE puts it like this, Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters yes, even one s own self! can t be my disciple. Anyone who won t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can t be my disciple. In other words, Jesus is saying, True discipleship requires us to put Him first. And I think it is fair to say that this is not easy it s not easy for most of us. Dallas Willard wrote, The entire point of this passage is that as long as one thinks anything may really be more valuable than fellowship with Jesus and his kingdom, one cannot learn from him. What this passage is about is clarity. It is not about misery or about some incredibly dreadful price that one must pay to be Jesus apprentice. The point is simply that unless we clearly see the superiority of what we receive as his students [his disciples] over every other thing that might be valued, we cannot succeed in our discipleship to him. Jesus asked the people in the crowd to give up everything in order to become His disciples and, in turn, to gain everything of eternal significance. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Jesus offered Himself to everyone in the crowd that gathered to hear Him. He was totally honest about what the journey involves. Jesus said that He must have first place in a person s heart. That s what real discipleship requires. True discipleship requires us to put Jesus first. Learning from Him meaning following Him, experiencing the rejection He experienced and bearing the 3
cross He bore. Peter wrote in his first letter: For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. [1 Peter 2:21 ESV] We can t really learn from Jesus until we are ready to follow in His steps and willing to ask the question, What would Jesus do? before we make major, and even the not so major, decisions in our life. There will be times when our burdens and, yes our cross, will feel too overwhelming to bear. When we face that reality, we might conclude that being a disciple carries with it an impossible job description. The good news is that as we struggle with our burdens and our cross, we ll learn, if we re open to our Lord, that we can t bear them by ourselves and we become more willing to receive Jesus assurance that we are not alone. As we heard from The Letter to the Hebrews last Sunday, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. [13:5, 6, 8 ESV] Jesus carried His cross to Calvary. He suffered the death you and I deserve in our sinfulness. He did that so that we could be reconciled to a holy God our heavenly Father and to assure us that He will be with us always on our journey through this life and into the next. Jesus helps to us bear our loads, no matter how heavy; He assures us that His burden is easy and His yoke is light; and He gives us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to guide and empower us on our journey. As the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses challenged them: I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days. Jesus raised the contrast between life and death to a whole new level when He promised eternal life to all who follow Him. Choose life holding fast to Jesus. Discipleship was serious business in the first century. Discipleship is serious business in the 21 st century. Like the early Christians, we also live in a 4
world where we need to count the cost and it s a good idea to seek God s peace and to come to terms with Him. We need to come humbly to Jesus on His terms, not our own, because access to the Father is only available through His beloved Son. True discipleship requires us to put Jesus first even ahead of family, possessions and life itself. Yes I know that This is a hard saying in more senses than one: it is hard to accept and it is hard to reconcile it with the general teaching of Jesus. The interests of God s kingdom must be paramount with the followers of Jesus, and everything else must take second place to them, even family ties, [possessions and life itself]. And [Jesus] said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. [Matthew 22:37-40 ESV] Eugene Peterson wrote, Discipleship is anything that causes what is believed in the heart to have demonstrable consequences in our daily life. True discipleship requires us to put Jesus first. The Scottish biblical commentator William Barclay offers this reflection on discipleship. It is possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple; to be a camp follower without being a soldier of the king; to be a hanger-on in some great work without pulling one s weight. Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, So and so tells me that he was one of your students. The teacher answered devastatingly, He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students. There is a world of difference between attending lectures and being a student. It is one of the supreme handicaps of the church that in the church there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples. iii Where are you this morning? Are you simply a person in the crowd who admires Jesus as a distant follower or are you a student a disciple who is 5
willing to continue to learn from Him and, in the process, be transformed into the image of the One who offers you everlasting life. Think about it an admirer or a disciple which word describes your relationship with Jesus? His words and actions speak very clearly you cannot be my disciple unless you put Me first. What do you think would happen to us if we took seriously our responsibility to follow Jesus in every aspect of our life? Suppose we started to go to the kinds of places and do the kinds of things that He did. Suppose we suddenly became totally generous, completely dedicated to serving others, entirely oblivious to thoughts of self-interest and our own advancement. What kind of criticism, misunderstanding or even hatred do you think we might experience in the secular society in which we live? What do you think the reaction will be as seek to serve others in the Name of Jesus during Project 40 in November? Do you think that we may begin to understand in a new way what it means to bear our own cross and to come after Jesus? I hope we do. O Jesus, Thou hast promised to all who follow Thee That where Thou art in glory there shall Thy servant be. And Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end; O give me grace to follow, my Master and my Friend. Father Jack Potter+ 6 i F.F. Bruce, Hard Sayings of Jesus, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 1983, page 119 ii Warren W. Wiersbe, Expository Outlines on the New Testament, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1992, page 182. iii William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, Revised Edition, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1975, page 196.