Supplement for week one- The Cost of Building a Tower- Luke 14:25-35 (NIV) (Observation and Interpretation)

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “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. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “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? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “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? 32 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. 33 In the same way,* any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. 34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

* “In the same way” is not a literal rendering of the text. The first words should be “So therefore,” as found in the NASB, indicating that a conclusion is now being given.

There are some groups out there which cater to the “committed” in the body of Christ and think that they are doing a commendable work. As we come to this text,  it first glance it seems to teach that discipleship is restricted only to the few, those who are willing to hate father and mother and other family members, those who are willing to give up all of their earthly possessions. Discipleship seems to be something like the Marines—a select group of highly committed people, a few good men and women. I think that the text teaches us something quite different!

The words of Jesus are powerful and hard. The clear inference of Jesus’ words is that one can “go along with Jesus” without even being a true believer (cf. John 6:66, John 2:23-25). These people were, as yet, only followers, on-lookers. It is possible to be a hanger on, a camp follower without being a soldier of the King.

Knowing How to Hate

So what does this mean- are we to abrogate our moral responsibility to our family in order to follow Christ? as we work through Disciples' Boot Camp, we will be faced time and again with what are known as “Hard sayings” of Jesus. This is one of them.

What does Jesus mean when He says that one cannot be His disciple without hating? Fortunately, the Bible gives us a very clear definition of the use of the word “hate”. In Genesis chapter 29 we find the story of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. To be hated here is to be loved less than another. In Romans 9:13, we read Paul’s citation of Malachi 1:2: “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” God did not hate Esau in the way we think of hate. We can see God’s compassion on Esau and on his descendants. God hated Esau in the sense that He loved Jacob more.

Now read the Lord’s words in the parallel account from Matthew:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a  daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. 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. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:34-39, NASB).

Here, Matthew does not speak of “hating” father and mother and other loved ones, but of loving them more than our Lord. Therefore to “hate” in our text means “to love less than.” Jesus is saying that in order to be His disciple men and women must love Christ more than their parents, more than their spouse, more than their children, more than their sisters and brothers. 

All in the Family

Family is often thought of in the Bible, and today, in terms of duty. Family can make many demands on a person, demands that can distract (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:29-35), demands that can compete with discipleship. Jesus dealt the matter of duty to family in chapter 9 of Luke (vv. 57-62). Here, Jesus is speaking of one’s family in terms of his dependence, not his duty.

It is important to remember the context of what the family represented in that society.

(1) The Jewish family provided status. To the Jews, being a Jew made one vastly superior to a Gentile.

(2) The Jewish family was also mistakenly supposed to give one salvation. To the Jew, being a “descendant of Abraham” assured him of having a place in the kingdom of God. This is one of the false conceptions about which John the Baptist warned the Israelites (Luke 3:8). Paul, too, strongly insisted that not all physical descendants of Israel were true Israelites (Romans 9:6).

(3) The Jewish family also offered one security. A Jew of Jesus’ day did not measure his future security in terms of his insurance policies, or his Social Security, or even his bank account; he measured it in terms of his family (cf. Psalm 127:3-5).

So here is the answer to our question: When Christ demands that His disciples must “hate” their family, He means that they must give up their dependence upon family, and must depend totally upon Him. To be His disciple is not only to love Him more than anyone or anything else, it is to depend upon Him. Independence of God is at the core of sin, and dependence on Him (abiding) is at the core of discipleship. 

Counting the Cost

In verses 26 and 27 we find another demand of discipleship: hating one’s own life and taking up his own cross. When one decides to follow Christ as His disciple, one must surrender any other source of “life” than Him, and one must relinquish all self-seeking. Becoming a disciple of our Lord means to give up our goals and to pursue His goals. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you.

Note that “hating one’s life” is not the same as “hating one’s self.” It has been mistakenly said that one cannot love someone else unless he first loves himself- I challenge this idea. The only way we can truly love anyone is first to love God. Self-love is surely suspect, in spite of pop psychology, but so is self-hate. The logical outcome of self-hate is suicide; the logical outcome of hating one’s life is taking up the cross which Christ has for us.  

Jesus wanted all men to know, up front, that the cost of discipleship was high. Jerusalem was coming, as was the cross. Jesus did not want men and women following Him without knowing that there was a “cross” for them as well. Jesus wanted men to calculate the cost of following Him as His disciple. Jesus also wanted men to choose to be His disciple purposefully, rather than to unthinkingly follow after Him. The very difficulty of His words caused the people to have to go away and ponder what He meant, and so must we today.

Jesus was not looking for those who had the resources to follow Him, but for those who, after thinking about it, knew they did not.This is one of the most important conclusions we can reach from the study of this text. At first, I thought that Jesus was, like the Marines, “looking for a few good men,” those few who would count the cost, and who found in themselves sufficient commitment and resources to follow-through in their commitment to the end. He has come to build and to battle. But none of the disciples of our Lord followed through. When the “going got tough,” so to speak, the disciples “got lost.” They all forsook Jesus, even Peter, who assured Jesus that he was committed, that he would never forsake Him (cf. Luke 22:31-34). If Peter, James, and John, the three closest followers of Christ, could not follow through, why would we dare to think that we would?

In both of the illustrations which our Lord used, the tower builder and the warring king, both of the men failed to follow through. Neither had the means to finish what they had started. Do we think that we have the means to be His disciples? Do we think that our level of commitment is sufficient to sustain us when family and friends forsake us, as the Bible says they will? No one has the resources in and of himself to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, any more than he or she has the resources to earn God’s favor and eternal life. This is precisely why Jesus began by teaching that in order to be His disciple one would have to “hate” his family, to renounce his dependence upon family, so as to depend fully upon Christ alone. Our Lord is not trying to get these followers to muster up enough commitment to become His disciples, but to reckon with the reality that no one has the resources to follow Him, apart from His enablement.

Conclusion

Discipleship, then, is not following Christ with sufficient means to do what He commands, but with utter dependence upon Him to enable us to do His will. Both the willing and the doing come from Him, and not from us. The whole concept of the “company of the committed” collapses, simply because no one is that capable or that committed. The key element of discipleship is not obedience, for we are incapable of that in and of ourselves, but dependence, for without Him, we can do nothing. The natural fruit of dependence, abiding in Christ, is obedience!

That is something we must take to heart when we approach discipleship- we are not the elite forces, the company of the committed, we are humble fruit hangers (branches) for the produce that the living vine produces. Abide then obey!

Let’s Get Real.

The most difficult aspect of breaking through to discipleship is being honest about who we are.

Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

The Holy Spirit does, and He will enable you to examine yourself. Are you fully committed as 2 Chronicles 16:9 says? the process of discipleship involves abandoning dependence on anything but Christ. Remember, “Without Him you can do NOTHING”*

Romans 14:23b (New American Standard Bible) says “...and whatever is not from faith is sin.”

Acts 17:28 says “For in him we live, and move, and have our being;”

*Nothing= nada, zilch, zero, null, nil, zip, zed, naught, nix...

Prayer can be a spiritual Heimlich maneuver for those choking on self. Are you caught up in the “good” syndrome? Have you ever come to a where you were disgusted with yourself and cognizant of the fact that you cannot live the Christian life? Only Christ can live it through you!

He gave His life for you so He could give His life to you so He could live His life through you!

Sanctification is not accomplished by the absence of Sin. We are made Holy by abiding in His presence- that drives out the darkness- walking in the light as He is in the Light -

1 John:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and

the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

God wants to make you genuine- get real- get down to the essence of who you are In Christ!-Discover your secret identity in the book of Ephesians.

The prayer hierarchy in the book is a good approach to getting REAL. -----ACTS------

Adoration will give us a right view of the object of our praise and worship. Think on his attributes as revealed in the Word and in Christ.

Confession will give us a right view of who we are before Christ and In Christ in the light of who He is. Forgiveness flows from agreeing with Him over this relationship. Grace will take on a new meaning here.

Thanksgiving will naturally flow from the realization of His amazing grace. We will have a grateful heart for the relationship and WHO HE IS, and not only what he does for us or spares us from.

Supplication is now possible- for we will now have His heart’s desire as our desire! This is what it means to pray in Jesus name and for His sake.