25 Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. 34 “Now, salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? 35 It isn’t fit for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”
Following Jesus is a wholehearted commitment.
As we pick up here, we see that the crowds are swelling around Jesus. He knows that there are many reasons why the crowds are following him. Some are following him because they genuinely believe he is the Messiah who has come. Others, though, likely follow just to be entertained. Probably some are on the fence about what they believe about Jesus.
Therefore, Jesus turns to address the crowds so that they would know what it means to follow him. Three times in this passage, you’ll see the phrase “cannot be my disciple” repeated. Through looking at these statements, we see that Jesus demands our all. If we would be his follower, there is no compromise.
You see, Jesus gave up everything, even his own life, so that we could be saved from the guilt and power of sin and brought into a new relationship with him. In return, he calls us to submit our lives to him unreservedly.
First, we see that Jesus calls us to follow him above all of our relationships. He does so by saying one of his most shocking statements in his public ministry: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”
If children and a wife are good gifts to be cherished, how can Jesus speak of hating these most precious relationships? He is telling us that our love for him and devotion to him must be to such a degree that it is supreme above all. In comparison to our love for Christ, our devotion to every other relationship is one that looks like hatred.
Ultimately, Jesus is saying that he will accept no rivals in his followers’ allegiance. You see, following Jesus is not merely an intellectual pursuit, where we simply check the boxes of a few important beliefs, although belief is indispensable. Christianity also involves the heart. Because of sin, our hearts are prone to wander towards things that are not godly, or the affections may be disordered.
For you, family may not be that which vies for your deepest affection and devotion. Rather, it may be acceptance by your friends. It may be a desire for wealth or material comfort. It may be to be known and respected.
What are the things that most often fills your thoughts and dreams? What is it that you want most in life? Each one of us must reflect on our own hearts and ask the Lord to highlight the areas that captivate us.
Jesus goes on in verse 27 to say that whoever does not bear his own cross and come after him cannot be his disciple. This is speaking of a Christian’s willingness to embrace a life of suffering, maybe even martyrdom, for the sake of the gospel. We don’t often face the prospect of physical harm, like some of our brothers and sisters in other countries. However, we may face public shame or scorn for holding fast to Christ’s teaching on various issues.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian in Germany who would eventually be killed by the Nazi regime because of his opposition. While I do not agree with all of Bonhoeffer’s theology, there is much we can learn from him. His most famous work is a book called The Cost of Discipleship. In it, he describes what it means for us to bear our cross:
The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)
A third aspect of following Christ is in our material possessions. We see this in verse 33. The word translated “renounce” carries the idea of saying farewell to or leaving something behind. This is not saying that you need to sell everything and take a vow of poverty. However, it should reorient the way that our hearts often view material goods.
A full life does not necessarily come from a full garage, a full refrigerator, a full house or a full bank account. While material goods or wealth are not necessarily a bad thing, the love of money, the Bible tells us in First Timothy 6:10, is the root of all evil. Jesus tells us that we need no longer live a consumeristic lifestyle where our life goal is to eat, drink, and be merry. We are freed to live for something greater: the kingdom of Christ. We, then, live with an open hand with regard to our financial status, prioritizing an investment in the kingdom of Christ over an investment elsewhere.
You go from choosing a college major by the salary range to wondering, “how can I use my gifts, skills, and desires most effectively for the sake of the kingdom?”
You go from the mindset of “I’ll give from what I have leftover in the month,” to “How can we increase our giving so that it reflects the sacrificial giving of Christ?”
As a church, we go from, “How can we make this bigger and grander?” to “How can we sacrificially give of all that we have for the sake of Christ’s mission to the nations?”
Throughout this passage, we see that Jesus demands our all. But the beauty of the gospel is that there is no sacrifice that we can make that will outdo Jesus, and there is no sacrifice we can make that will be greater than the life that we will enjoy in him.
We, no doubt, realize people or things in your life that you treasure over Jesus. How should we respond? First, find hope and comfort in the fact that Jesus is faithful, even when we are unfaithful. Our ultimate
Second, though, we should respond in repentance. Do you need to repent of treasuring other things—maybe good things—more than you treasure Christ? Confess those to the Lord, and pray for grace to fix our hearts upon the glory of Christ above all else.
Note: This is a portion of the sermon that I preached at First Baptist Church of Luling, LA. Unfortunately, the sound went out on the livestream about ten minutes into the sermon, so you can’t hear the whole thing.
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