Kirby Hill Lawrence, a Presbyterian pastor in Georgia, imagines Jesus receiving the following letter:
Dear Rabbi,
It is rare when I am critical of someone of your stature, but I hope you will take my comments with the understanding that I am a great admirer of yours. I have some experience in handling the careers of public figures like yourself. You have great potential to be a worker for much needed change in our society, but I believe you could use the services of a public relations firm. The crowds love to hear you speak, but wouldn’t it be great if we had advance people preceding your schedule to make sure the crowds were holding the right signs? You definitely need someone to work with the press, so you get adequate and positive coverage of these great rallies. There is some talk of quite a few people who could give substantial contributions to your cause, if you just led them to believe they would benefit on down the road.
Now, considering what you reportedly said the other day about folks having to hate their families and life itself, and having to carry the cross in order to follow you I just hope that was quoted out of context. Rabbi, we’re going to have to work on your sound bites; you’re going to get crucified if you keep making statements like that. In order to be a leader, you’ve got to mold your speeches to show you’re in touch with the latest public opinion polls. We need someone to do spin control for you and stamp out the fires of controversy. I am a strong supporter of your cause, and I sincerely hope you will heed my advice.
Signed, A Friend.
This of course is an imaginary letter, but we know from the Gospels that Jesus received this kind of advice, even from his closest disciples. And to be honest, there is probably not a preacher in the history of the church who has not experienced some frustration over Jesus’ unwillingness to go with the flow, his resistance to making his message easier to take, and his refusal to present a less costly demand for discipleship.
Now, we can’t change the words of Jesus, but we can ignore them, and ignore them we have. And we preachers have perhaps been most guilty at this point. Soft pedaling Jesus’ message, demands, and example is one way to attract crowds, increase membership, and multiply financial assets. First, let’s get them into the church, and then later, if there is time and opportunity and if the people are willing to learn about discipleship (both of which have proven to be very doubtful “ifs”), we shall tell them what it’s really all about.
How different Jesus’ approach was in recruiting disciples! In our passage, Jesus is faced with enthusiastic, not reluctant, crowds. They come to him. And what does he do? He focuses on the cost of following him by using two parables. The first comes from rural life and involves building a tower in a vineyard on which the farmer can stand watch against thieves and menacing animals. And he asks a commonsense question: “Who among us would begin building such a tower without first calculating the cost and determining whether we had the materials necessary to finish the task?” (See Isaiah 5:2 for a reference to such a tower. Isaiah 5:1-7 is “The Song of the Vineyard” which I suggest influenced Jesus’ own message.)
The second parable pictures a palace where a king must decide whether to go to war. If the king’s armies are hopelessly outnumbered, then the decision to fight would be insane. The wise king would try to forestall the possibility of war by suing for peace and seeking the most favorable terms he could arrange. That would certainly be preferable to unconditional surrender or utter destruction. No king, at least no king with any sense, would pursue a war with such inferior numbers at his disposal.
(Is it also possible that in these parables Jesus was referring to the lack of properly cultivating “Israel” on the part of the Jewish leaders of his time as well as warning the Jews of the utter insanity of rebelling against the Roman Empire with all its military might?)
With these two parables, Jesus is asking us, “Do you know what you’re getting into when you choose to be my disciple? Have you counted the cost? Do you have what it takes?”
Both Evangelical and Mainline churches have failed at this point. Evangelicals have been so quick to “get people saved” that they have virtually nothing to say about the cost of discipleship. For each new convert, it’s almost as though they have one more notch on their ecclesiastical six shooter: “Main job done! The rest will come with time.” This approach to the Christian faith is why I have such a problem with revivals. “Getting them saved” is not the same as “getting them to follow Jesus.” “Follow me” occurs 87 times on the lips of Jesus in the Gospels. I would think we should trust Jesus regarding which should be our priority.
And I fear we mainline churches have not done much better. We have been so quick to accommodate ourselves to the values of our culture, so reluctant to say or do anything which may cause offence, and of late so frightened by a dwindling membership and resources that we will do just about anything to avoid being honest about the cost of following Jesus in our world. That is the reason I have problems with so many “church growth” programs. “Getting them in the church door and getting them to support ecclesiastical agendas” are not the same as “getting them to follow Jesus.”
Whether it’s manipulative revivals or watered down, comfortable “churchianity,” the result is the same: the gospel faith has been prostituted. So, Jesus’ question echoes down the centuries and confronts us: “Do you know what you’re getting into? Do you know what it takes to be my disciple?”
Well, what does it take? Jesus says, “To follow me, you must be willing to hate your own family and your own life. You must be willing to join me in bearing the cross.” Now, at this point we must be very careful. The charge to hate one’s own family has been used by such charlatans as Jim Jones and David Koresh with disastrous results. No one can look at the life and example of Jesus and assume that he meant by these words to abuse and reject our families in these sick ways. The command to hate one’s life has been used by masochists and sadists alike to inflict incredible suffering and self-hatred, again with disastrous results. The dignity Jesus afforded us as children of God will not allow such self-loathing and mutilation. And the injunction to take up one’s cross has been used by the church not so much to refer to the cost of discipleship as to the burdens people choose to bear or are made to bear as they have been used and abused by those with power. Jesus, who celebrated life and called us to joy, will have nothing to do with the somber, negative, self-pitying religion some would call Christianity. It is imperative that we be very careful in our interpretation of these critical words in Luke’s Gospel.
“Hate” as a Jewish expression means “to turn away from” or “to detach oneself from.” Jesus is not calling us to hate our families or to abuse ourselves in any way. His strong language reflects the ancient Jewish custom of hyperbole designed to get our attention and challenge us would be disciples to look again at our priorities and commitments. The issue is one of loyalty. If we are to be followers of Jesus, then his claim on us must take precedence over any other. We are not allowed the luxury of simply including God in our circle of significant others. God must be the center of such a circle and the center of our lives.
The ironic thing is that when God is at the center of our lives and when God is our first love, then we become free to love others as we should and on a much deeper basis than we ever could when they or we were the center of our circle. When God is the center of our circle, then we know how to love others, for we share in God’s love for them. But Jesus’ teaching here and elsewhere is clear: our first commitment, our first love, our first loyalty must be God. Only if we are willing to count the cost of such loyalty and pay the price of such devotion can we become his followers.
I suppose Jesus’ words have never been easy to swallow. In his day, they were certainly a source of intolerable scandal. In our day they seem so strange, out of place, and impossible. With our families, work, personal commitments, and agendas, at best God is allowed a place in our circle. But we have extreme difficulty putting the Lord in the center of that circle. At most, we may include God in the loyalties and commitments we make. But is God actually first in our lives? Have we really counted the cost of being a follower of Jesus? Do we have what it takes to be his disciple? What would it mean for God to be Number One in our daily living?
Have we really counted the cost of being a follower of Jesus?
I can’t answer that question for you. I am not sure I can even begin to answer that question for myself. But I think it’s significant that in all this discussion about loyalty, commitment, and devotion, Luke includes this saying from Jesus: “So, therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” And again, we are left speechless! Again, we are left scrambling to neutralize Jesus’ words. And if that will not work, then we shall simply ignore them.
But this is not the only place where Jesus warns us of the threat that money and possessions pose to our discipleship. In several parables from the rich fool who built bigger barns to the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the message is the same. In another context Jesus said, “You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon.” And it was the lure of and addiction to wealth that kept the rich young ruler from following Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, he taught, “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Jesus’ warnings did not fall on deaf ears in the early church. The Book of James is a treatise on the idolatry of wealth while Paul takes our breath away with the claim that “the love of money is a root of all evil” (I Timothy 6:6-10). Contrast this Pauline insight with these words from Donald Trump at a January rally in 2016: “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy. I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy.”
Jesus spoke the words in our passage to Palestinian peasants who had very few possessions. A sunbaked hovel for a home, a change of clothing if they were lucky, mostly a sparse vegetarian diet, and a precarious dependence on the day’s wages and the next harvest for survival. These were not people with fine homes and furnishings, one, two, or even three cars, savings accounts, pensions, the luxury of vacations, and the pleasure of varied and distant entertainment. These were people for whom daily bread was just that–what they could hope for to see them through the day.
Is God at the center of our stewardship and financial decisions?
One wonders what Jesus would say to us in our day. Would his message be any different? Would it be even more demanding and shocking? Are we any less tempted to give money and possessions our first loyalty than those people of the first century? Is God at the center of our stewardship and financial decisions? Or is God granted at most a place within the circle– perhaps an afterthought or when all else has been taken care of and if there is any left over, we might share it with God-driven agendas. Now please hear me at this point: I am not talking about what we put in the offering plate or what we pledge each year. I am talking about the basic orientation of our lives. When we receive our paychecks, is God the determining factor in what we do with them? When we budget our money, does God figure prominently in our calculations? When we make purchases, do we ever consider God’s priorities in our stewardship? In a world of unspeakable hunger, poverty, suffering, injustice, and oppression, do we ever place God’s agenda ahead of ours when it comes to the stewardship of our resources and lives?
Our old friend Clarence Jordan delivered a powerful sermon to several gatherings of ministers. He asked these preachers if those making up their congregations who had made a public profession of Jesus as Lord had to choose between Jesus and money, which would they choose. If lordship means giving someone or something the right to order our lives, then which would they obey? Jesus or money? Jordan said, “Now, I’m assuming that the issue is laid out there as clear as it can be, that the choice is just like coming to a road that forks and you have to choose. The issue isn’t always that clear, I admit. But I’m saying let’s assume that it is.” And then Jordan asked for a response from the gathering of ministers. How many of their members would choose to follow Jesus? The answers ranged from 0 to 3%. He then asked the ministers how many of them would choose to follow Jesus, and the response was the same. Jordan then said, “Do you see what you’re saying? I’m sure you’re telling me the truth, and that makes the biggest lie that’s being told in America, what? The biggest lie being told in America is, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord.’ It’s the biggest lie being perpetrated. What I’m saying is, now, these people have made a public profession. They have publicly stated that Jesus Christ is Lord and have gone through baptism to say so, haven’t they? But if what you’ve said reflects the situation allover, it means 98% of the people who publicly state that Jesus Christ is Lord are lying– including the ministers!”
Now, let’s back up a bit. Jordan said that the choice is not always as clear as coming to a road that forks and having to choose. The dynamics of temptation and idolatry are rarely that direct. They are almost always one of seduction. Bit by bit we are seduced until we are hooked and it’s too late. (I am reminded of the proverbial frog placed in a pot of water which is then slowly heated to the point of boiling but the frog does not even notice it’s being cooked!) The process can be so gradual that no one really notices. . . Well, almost no one.
Communion
Jesus recognized that following him is a process a journey. We grow in commitment, love, and devotion. We travel toward the goal of being his disciple. And for such growth and for such a pilgrimage, we need nourishment and stamina.
At this table we experience the paradox of our salvation and our discipleship. The one who demands all gives all. The one who goes ahead of us abides within us. At this table we are enabled to become like Jesus if we have the courage and the desire to receive such grace.
Commission
The one who abides within us also goes ahead of us. The one who gives all demands all. We have been nourished to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. May we have the wisdom to discern those footsteps in our world, the courage to follow, and the love to embrace others in his name.
Pastoral Prayer
Merciful Lord and Gracious God, in our worship and praise and in the honest places of our hearts, we acknowledge you as the Lord of our lives, the Redeemer of our souls, the Comforter of our pain, the Disturber of our complacency, the One who unmasks our sin, the Source of our love, and the Destination of our hope. In so many ways, most of which we are not even conscious of, we depend on you–on your goodness, your guidance, your divine patience, your unseen providence. And so, we ask that you continue your journey with us.
*Where there is pain and loneliness, bring your comforting presence and healing touch.
*Where there are stubborn hearts and underdeveloped consciences, flood us with your passion for truth and justice.
*Where there is weakness in body and character, energize us that we may live out of your strength instead of trying to cope idolatrously on our own.
*Where there is pride and arrogance, humble us with an appreciation of that holy one who stooped to wash the dirty feet of proud men.
*Where there are feelings of despair and futility, breathe into us your Spirit that we, old and young, may dream your dreams and see your visions and believe that they are more real than the ground on which we stand.
*And where there is a sense of unworthiness, remind us that we matter to you–that in your sight each of us is priceless, irreplaceable, and the object of your unending love.
Grant that we may all find our joy, our strength, and our hope in the certain knowledge that we are yours now and forever. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.
Luke 14:25-33
25 Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
Luke 14:25-33
NRSA
