“The Cost of Discipleship”

Luke 14:25-33

Back in 2007, while still living in Fort Bragg, CA, I was asked by a friend to consider joining the local Rotary club. When asked, I was already a busy person. In addition to full-time ministry, I was in an opera company, performing at least once a year. I was in a barbershop quartet that sang for social events. I had two kids on the local swim team and was often the one who transported them to and from practice due to Paula’s work schedule. I was Abby’s soccer coach. I was already on the board of the local food bank. So, I was hesitant to add anything else to an already packed schedule.

Before attending a Rotary meeting to get a sense of what it was like, I asked my friend to explain what was expected of me to be part of the club. I was told there were annual membership dues, weekly meetings, and annual events, such as the World’s largest Salmon Feed and the Paul Bunyan Days parade. In addition, there was an international component to consider. Rotary has worked tirelessly to end polio by giving vaccines to children in remote areas, bringing clean water to smaller isolated communities, and working to stop the spread of malaria by providing mosquito netting for children in Africa.

Furthermore, there was a code of ethics that Rotarians are called to live by. It is called the 4-way test. When interacting with others, the 4 Way test is meant to guide one’s thoughts, words, and actions.

1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

So, before deciding to join Rotary, I sat down, prayed, contemplated my schedule, and wondered if I could actively participate in the club and live by its code of ethics. I counted the cost of becoming a Rotarian. After a week or so, I felt comfortable and decided to join Rotary International, and have been one ever since. I have served as a club president twice and as a Rotary Youth Exchange officer, bringing high schoolers from around the world to our community and sending local high schoolers to countries across the globe. I am committed to being a Rotarian.

I share that story about joining Rotary because it illustrates Jesus’ intent in his teaching for us this morning. Jesus wanted the crowds to become his disciples. Yet before making such a decision, he wanted them to count the cost and consider whether they could live as a disciple of Jesus. However, Jesus’ four-way test was concerning, to say the least.

1. Hate your parents, your spouse, your children, and your siblings.
2. Hate your own life.
3. Bear your own cross and follow.
4. Renounce all of your possessions.

With a list like that, did Jesus expect a lot of folks to join the discipleship club? The list clashes with Jesus’ other teachings throughout the Gospels, such as loving one’s neighbor as you love yourself (Mark 12:30-31, Matthew 22:39). If the loving of one’s neighbor must be extended to include our enemies, we cannot restrict it to exclude our family members or ourselves. So, what do we do with this list?

Perhaps, by examining the original Greek, we can soften Jesus’ meaning here? The word translated as hate in Greek is miseo, meaning “Detest, hate.” And by extension only, to “love less.” Not much wiggle room there. There is a less harsh version of this teaching in Matthew.

Matthew 10:37- They who love father and mother more than me are not worthy of me; and they who love son or daughter more than me are not worthy of me.”  This version is softer, a bit easier for us to hear. But the teaching is the same. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you must put Jesus first. Work for the kindom first. All other people, relationships, and things are to take second place. For Luke’s version of this teaching, discipleship is not both and; it is either or.

Why does Jesus use such strong language in this section? Much of it has to do with the family unit in the 1^st century. Back then, Jewish families were central, so the implications of and challenges of Jesus’ words are real. Jesus seeks singularly devoted persons, undistracted by the cares of daily life. This may explain why most of his disciples were probably unmarried (though Peter is one exception). In the first century, many family members were engaged in the same family occupation. So, losing one of its members to ancillary (religious) interests could be detrimental to the family’s well-being. Jesus challenged the singular importance of the family and said it must take second place to being a disciple.

Looking at the time when Luke’s Gospel was written can also give us a clue. Most Biblical scholars date the writing of Luke’s gospel to around 85 AD. By then, families were coming apart due to one’s religious beliefs. Jesus speaks of these family conflicts in Matthew 10:34-36. ³⁴ “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—³⁶ one’s enemies will be the members of their own household.”  Matthew’s Gospel predates Luke’s by 10-15 years. The conflicts in the family mentioned in Matthew’s gospel had gotten progressively worse by the time of Luke’s writing. I believe that Luke’s version of Jesus’ teaching is harsh due to the increase in conflict over religion. Families were being split apart over belief in Jesus. Jesus wanted the crowds to fully consider what they were getting into before calling themselves disciples.

So, he then used two illustrations about counting the cost before proceeding.

Jesus compares becoming disciples to buildings and battles. Who wastes time, effort, and resources on a building project before knowing whether funds will be available to complete the project? In the first century, most people in Jesus’ crowds would understand the need not to waste their earnings, even if they were not personally involved in construction projects.

There is an older gentleman in our neighborhood who purchased a vacant lot a couple of years ago. He and 2 or 3 of his older friends began building what appeared to be someone’s dream home. Over time, several large pieces of equipment were parked on our street, making it difficult to drive through this section as he constructed the new house. Many of us complained about the street mess and the daily construction noises. However, about two months ago, everything stopped. All the heavy equipment was gone. We haven’t seen any of his friends on the construction site, and the home is far from finished. I wonder if he ran out of funds to complete the project?

Then, Jesus asks, which king would not see how big his army is in comparison to his enemy? And, if his is smaller, would he not secure peace with his opponent if he thinks his military force is outmanned? Counting the cost before proceeding into war is incredibly important.

A Jewish Greco-Roman audience would be pretty familiar with both examples of building and battles, which were part of their common experience. Jesus’ forewarning allows potential followers to consider and re-consider the cost of taking up his mission.

How then do we apply this teaching to today, we who call ourselves disciples of Christ? Jesus calls us to place his teachings and his coming kindom before all other things. What does it mean for us to put Jesus above our family? Theologian F.F. Bruce, in his book, The Difficult Sayings of Jesus, writes, “A person may be so bound up by family ties as to have no time nor interest in the matters of Jesus nor the kindom.”  What does F.F. Bruce mean when talking of the kindom of God? The short answer is found in the Lord’s prayer- working through Christ to make the world more “on earth as it is in heaven. That vision of a new, peaceable kindom is expressed in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 11 speaks of a Messiah who will bring about peace on God’s holy mountain, where the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard and the goat, a snake will not bite a child, and there will be peace. That is a glimpse of Jesus’ coming kindom, and is meant to be our guiding purpose in this world as modern-day disciples.

We are so far from that kindom today! Last week, there was another political assassination and another school shooting, which, due to its regularity in America, hardly got mentioned in the news. Warfare is still seen as the best way to solve disputes or to accomplish one’s goals. The disparity of poverty is growing in the world. Even though most scientists believe our planet can produce enough to feed all of the approximately. 8.2 billion people on it, an estimated 8 million remain hungry. This quote from Gulfood.com lays out some of the complexities of feeding the world’s population. “More than enough food is produced to feed all of the 8 billion people currently alive on the planet, yet after a decade of steady decline, hunger is back on the rise. Ripple effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and human-created famines in Gaza and Syria have contributed to one of the worst food crises in decades, with acute food insecurity affecting an estimated 200 million more people due to rising costs of food, fuel, and fertilizer. And,  there are bigger problems on the horizon. As the global population is predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050, farmers, governments, and scientists face the challenge of increasing food production without exacerbating continuing environmental degradation and the climate crisis, which itself contributes to food insecurity.”

What can we learn from this difficult teaching this morning? Just as possessions can come between us and the kindom of God, so can family ties, and our own comforts. The interests of God’s kindom, as taught by Jesus, are to be paramount for Jesus' disciples. Everything else is to take 2^nd place. Some 2,000 years later, Jesus’ teaching rings true for us this morning. Being a disciple of Jesus and working to bring glimpses of the kindom of God must take precedence in this broken, violent, vengeful, unequal world in which we live. Here are three things we can focus on in our daily lives, as we seek to place Jesus above all other matters.

1.  Feed the hungry. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus reminds us to welcome the stranger and provide for those in need, and that whatever we do or do not do for the least of these around us, we do or do not do to Jesus. So, contribute to the Little Free Pantry. Carry bottled water or small snacks in your car for those asking for help on our streets. Consider donating to organizations that feed the starving in Gaza, such as the World Central Kitchen. Doing any of these things brings a glimpse of that peaceable mountain, the coming kindom on earth as it is in heaven.
2. Work for peace. Jesus reminds us in the garden of Gethsemane, when Peter uses a sword to cut off the ear of one of Jesus’ enemies, “those who live by the sword die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Work to turn us as a nation away from the sword of violence, to seek peace and pursue it in asking for common sense gun laws and an increase in providing funds for mental health, rather than the deep cuts we are now seeing. Come to the Prayers for Peace service in the chapel. Help bring another glimpse of the kindom in working for peace.
3. Take care of the planet entrusted to our care. God tells us in Genesis that we are given dominion over the earth and over the animals of the world. (Genesis 1:26) Dominion does not mean domination. The century Benedictine Abbess Hildegard of Bingen wrote, “All of creation God gives to us to use. If this privilege is misused, God’s justice permits creation to punish humanity.” We need to find ways to support the environment, in part, so we can be good caretakers of the world God entrusted to us, and so we can continue to feed the people of our world.

Professor David F. Watson of Asbury Theological Seminary says the following about discipleship. “If we are willing to learn the meaning of real discipleship and actually to become disciples, the church of the West would be transformed, and the resultant impact on society would be staggering.”

May God be with us as we see the world around us, count the cost of discipleship, and commit ourselves to bring glimpses of Christ’s coming kindom and transform the world. Alleluia. Amen.