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

 

 "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 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 

 

Yesterday we read Jesus' continued reply to those who sat with Him at table, when He was invited to the home of a Pharisee (see the first part in Saturday's reading).  Yesterday we read that He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."  Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"  Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.'  But they all with one accord began to make excuses.  The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it.  I ask you to have me excused.'  And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them.  I ask you to have me excused.'  Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'  So that servant came and reported these things to his master.  Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.'  And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.'  Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'"

 

 "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."  According to the Orthodox Study Bible (OSB), this command to hate one's kindred and "his own life also" is not to be taken literally.  We are, on the other hand, 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."  This is the second time this teaching appears in St. Luke's Gospel (see also Luke 9:23).  The OSB asks us to note that each person must take up his own cross.  It says that the burden in this world is different for each person, and each has been chosen by God to bear certain struggles for one's own salvation and the salvation of others around oneself.  In Christ's teaching at Luke 9:23, Jesus states that one's cross is to be taken up daily.  Commitment to following Christ and bearing one's cross, therefore, is not just a one-time event.  It is the continual practice of faith and obedience, even to the point of being shamed and persecuted by the world.  

 

 "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.' "  St. Paul uses this same metaphor in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, saying, "According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."  This notion of being tested through fire augments and amplifies Christ's teaching of counting the cost.  In the context here of the cost of discipleship and bearing one's cross, Jesus indicates the cost of commitment to discipleship and following Him in all things.  

 

"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 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."  Again, Jesus gives us another metaphor of counting the cost before going into a serious commitment.  Discipleship, and bearing our cross, has often been likened to a battle, a spiritual battle.  St. Paul called it fighting the good fight.  As he approached the end of his life, he wrote, " I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (see 2 Timothy 4:6-8).  

 

  "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!"  This teaching is also found in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:13).   The OSB comments on this teaching that 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).  To eat salt with someone, it says, meant to be bound together in loyalty.  As the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), Christians are preservers of God's covenant and give true flavor to the world.  

 

Here, in the context of Christ's teachings on the struggles and commitments of discipleship, He uses the metaphor of salt for what it means to remain loyal to this calling.  Salt is also known as a fixative, another aspect of this teaching.  As fixative, salt is used to bond dye onto fibers of cloth, thereby creating adherence and stability, where the dye will not be washed out.  As fixative, salt is also used to preserve, even for its capabilities in medicine to halt cellular decay.  So salt is used here to illustrate the principles of commitment to the struggles of discipleship in order to describe a perseverance that must be present in the disciple.  To count the cost before a building project so that one is prepared to finish it through to the end is a similar kind of endeavor, also illustrating being prepared for the vagaries and ups and downs of discipleship.  Engaging in battle as a king also gives us a picture of a fully assessed commitment to a project that involves risk, danger to oneself, and unforeseen threats.  This, also, is a part of discipleship.  If we must be prepared even for challenges to our closest relationships in life, when there is a possibility that our faith will come between us and our loved ones, then we run a real risk in this spiritual battle.  Truly our deepest struggles may involve much more than we bargained for.  In Jesus' time, of course, such challenges and struggles were literally life-threatening and would continue to be so for the early centuries of the Church.  Betrayals even by family members were possible, given the structures of the time within social, political, and familial ties.  But this notion of carrying one's own cross, and doing so for a lifetime, is really a challenge of our own internal lives.  We struggle against our own passions, especially the things we might be most deeply attached to.  If we have excessive, damaging, or disordered habits of anger, envy, lust, or any number of other weaknesses, we most likely will be challenged to cast out ways of behaving that interfere with the living of our faith.  This extends to all kinds of habits, from any form of addiction to habitual thinking that forms a stumbling block to Christian faith and the living of Christ's teachings.  So let us go forward as forewarned in this sense by Christ that we must be prepared to face the struggles of Christian life, and to meet those deeply embedded within us.  This extends even to things of which we are unaware in our emotional makeup.  For all will be challenged, as St. Paul indicates when he speaks of the building standing up to fire.  Temptations will come in all forms, including that of needing to go along with the social life of one's peer group -- and the struggle to find the correct balance between our love of others and our love of Christ without hatred and resentment.  In this, we also struggle to discern Christ's way for us, not least of which is the need to adhere to and rely upon grace in all things.  Whatever the cost, even that which is unforeseen, Jesus asks us to be prepared for it.  Let us run the race, and prepare for the "good fight," as St. Paul calls it.