Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple

 

 Now great multitudes went with Him.  And He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.  And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it -- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'  Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.  So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

"Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?  It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

 

- Luke 14:25–35 

 

On Saturday we read that Jesus was casting out a demon, and it was mute.  So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled.  But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons."  Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.  But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them:  "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.  If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?  Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.  And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?  Therefore they will be your judges.  But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.  When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.  But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.  He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters."

 

 Now great multitudes went with Him.  And He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple."  My study Bible comments that this command to hate one's relations and one's own life isn't to be taken literally.  Instead, we are to hate the way our relationships with others can hinder our total dedication to the Kingdom of God, which takes precedence even over family ties.  

"And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."  Jesus repeats a statement we've read in Luke 9:23, something He said immediately after Peter's confession of faith, and in the context of His first warning to the disciples that He will suffer, be killed, and raised the third day.  My study bible asks us to observe that, first, each person must take up his own cross.  It says that the burden for each one in this world is different from person to person, and each has been chosen by God to bear certain struggles for one's own salvation and the salvation of those around oneself.  Second, in 9:23, Jesus states that one's cross is to be taken up daily.  This commitment is not a one-time event.  To come after Christ and be His disciple means the continual practice of faith and obedience, even to the point of being shamed and persecuted by the world -- and even to the point of separation from loved ones.

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it -- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'  Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.  So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple."  My study Bible cites 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, an elaboration by St. Paul on this concept of building a structure properly upon what is first a proper foundation.  Each one's structure will reveal through its endurance, or lack of it, the proper work that has gone into the "tower" that is our lives.  Here, Jesus asks us to count the cost of discipleship, as those who plan well before starting out upon a project of any kind.  Our foundation is Christ, and that must remain our "bottom line" through all things, forsaking whatever is necessary in order to remain securely in that foundation.

"Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?  It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  Jesus uses the analogy of salt in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:13), again to illustrate the importance of endurance in discipleship.  My study Bible comments that salt illustrates the role of disciples in society.  Because of its preservative powers, its necessity for life, and its ability to give flavor, salt had both religious and sacrificial significance (Leviticus 2:13; see also Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5).   These references from the Old Testament teach us that salt was significant in terms of covenant.  To eat salt with someone meant to be bound together in loyalty.  As the "salt of the earth" (the phrase used in the Sermon on the Mount) my study Bible says, Christians are preservers of God's covenant, and give true flavor to the world.  In terms of the context here, Jesus is emphasizing our covenant as disciples, our endurance through all things in following Christ.

Jesus reminds us of the importance of counting the cost before setting out on a journey, or beginning a project of any kind, entering into battle.  One must seek to estimate what one will need to pay, or purchase, the labor and effort required, all the sacrifices that are necessary to do a complete job or see things through to the end.  He is reminding us, as His followers, that with Him it's all or nothing.  There is no lukewarm that is acceptable (see Revelation 3:14-22 for an assessment of a lukewarm church).  He is the foundation, and must remain the foundation.  When we put our faith in something else first, He will tear that down.  It will not endure.  We will all be refined in a furnace, as purified gold.  In Matthew's Gospel, we're reminded a couple of times that "He who endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22, 24:13).  Such words, on my part, seem terribly dire and dour.  But, on the other hand, for those who go through that fire and must make hard choices between where their faith leads them and where worldly attachments demand something else, the difficulties finally add up, in the end, to a liberation.  For it is in the truth of Christ that we really do find our freedom (John 8:31-32).  The world will draw us into a million different musts and have-to's.  You "must have" this type of house or clothing.  You "have to" do this because someone else has asked you to, or expects you to.  You "must" believe this because everybody seems to be saying it.  You "have to" join this group because that looks like the currently fashionable thing to do, at least among the au courant.  But Christ really doesn't ask us to do any of those things.  He doesn't demand that we become relevant to a set of values or circumstances that have nothing to do with our faith, and the genuine heart that is His refined gold and precious to Him.  Christ does not ask that we become caught up in the "right" appearances for the "right" people who will approve of whatever those things might mean about us in some social sense or to some group or community.  No, He is the foundation of our lives, and the currency we need to maintain that foundation is humility -- not faith in appearances and the judgment of the social world.  It really doesn't matter whether those approved signals to the world are million dollar homes and designer label shoes, or the right political slogan of any stripe, or even a drab and mournful appearance to show we are sufficiently deprived and aggrieved to gain a special status.  None of these things are meant to be pleasing to Christ first.  We often might find we are called instead to retire from that oh-so-necessary public face to find where He wants us to go and what He wants us to do.  It might be quiet prayer we need, not only for ourselves but for others around ourselves, for our relationships with people and with things.  We might need a reset of the way in which we look at and live in the world.  But any way you look at it, Christ's power -- although it might separate us from what we think we need and love -- is going to liberate us.  It is going to free us from delusions about what we must have that we don't really need and might not be good for us.  It is going to free us from false claims on our attention, and it's going to free us from deceptive rhetoric that does not really lead to freedom but to slavery.  If we want to know how to truly be free, then we must find a way to let go of everything else first, and focus on what really matters, and where our heart and treasure have to be in life.  We might just find it's what we give that makes us who we are, not what we get -- and sometimes that includes what we give up, including our false notions about ourselves and others.   But as Christ tells us, each one must bear one's own cross.  This is not a one-size-fits-all kind of movement, this work of discipleship.  It is a powerful pull into our own things we need to work on, and our own places we need to go in order to follow Him and find the refinement of the fire of grace, the energies of God.  And in this statement about one's own cross, we also find tremendous liberation.  For no two of us need be alike, and each journey is tailored for the unique creation that is the evidence of the Spirit's work.  There are no cookie-cutter saints, but each one is drawn in powerful lines, whether that be a woman of the fifth century who used her wealth to express her love of God, or a man who struggled in his poverty to remain true to Christ in the twentieth.  We each have a cross to bear and a foundation to build on.  But each of those, our cross and our foundation, are ultimately liberating.  Grace builds on what is potential within us, things which lie dormant but are called out through the work of experience and living our faith.  We're like statues carved out of marble or some other beautiful stone, in which the carver continually discovers what is truly there.  Are you ready for that struggle?  Can you count the cost?   St. Paul wrote to the Philippians to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."  Each one's picture will look different, but each journey of faith is one ultimately of the freedom of Christ's grounding truth and the surety of gold.  This is the discipleship we work out along the way.