9.4.22 Luke 14:25–35
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. 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, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, if he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, everyone who sees it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build, but was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, as he goes out to confront another king in war, will not first sit down and consider if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if he is not able, he sends out a delegation and asks for terms of peace while his opponent is still far away. 33 So then, any one of you who does not say farewell to all his own possessions cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? 35 It is not fit for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Hard Truth: Love Enough to Hate
“Love is love,” or so they say in America. What does that mean? It means that you can love anyone at any time, or anything at any time. Is that really true? If love is love, what about when a man loves a boy? Now that’s not so bad they say. It’s not sick or perverted or evil. It’s understandable. It’s just a “Minor Attracted Person.” Now, if we truly love our children, we shouldn’t sugar coat such attractions. No, we should even hate it, especially when they try to excuse their desires to give them a reason to molest children and use child pornography. You see, there are sometimes where love brings hate.
Maybe you’ve experienced this type of hatred in your own house with alcohol or drugs. I used to have a classmate that loved alcohol too much. It came to the point that I grew to hate having alcohol anywhere near him because he couldn’t control it and it made a fool of him. Sometimes you have to give an ultimatum. It’s either me or the drugs. That’s it.
I’m trying to set the backdrop for what Jesus preaches about in today’s text when He preaches hate. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. It’s a seemingly strange thing, because we aren’t talking about child molesters or perverts. We are talking about hating moms and dads and sisters and brothers and children. These are all gifts from God. How could marriage or family exist if there was only hate in the family? Jesus wants us to love our family, He commands us to. So why would He tell us to hate them?
When you put someone or something ahead of someone else, it can sometimes come off as a personal attack. Imagine for instance, that your spouse has not been talking to you much lately. Every time you try to strike up a conversation you get a snide answer or a snippy “yes” or “no.” But then when their old friend calls on the phone, they immediately change their tone and act so nice. The neighbor calls for help and they immediately jump to attention, eager to help. How does that make you feel? It makes you feel almost hated, because they are so happy to hear from other people but they seemingly could care LESS about you!
So when Jesus tells us to hate these family members, He’s talking about putting Him FIRST. He’s talking about wanting a close and personal relationship with Him. It means you’re eager to speak with Him in prayer. You can’t wait to hear what He has to say to you on a Sunday morning. You’re much more excited to spend time with Him than you are with your friends on Saturday night at the bar or Friday night at the football game. He gives you parents and children and friends to love, but keep it in perspective. If they want to get angry at you for taking time with Jesus, well then that’s their problem, not yours.
I can recall hanging out with a group of friends in high school that were leading me down the wrong path. It wasn’t that I hated those friends, they were fun to hang out with. I had to make a choice in life, to start distancing myself from them. I remember how guilty I felt taking the Lord’s Supper when I knew I was going to probably go back to the same sins the next week. I couldn’t keep doing that. I never told them why and never confronted them, but I just slipped away from them and started hanging with a different group. Some of them were mad at me for not hanging out with them anymore. Might that example help a bit?
I don’t want to put all the blame on my friends. I hated myself as well. I hated how I was behaving and letting my sinful nature get the best of me. And that’s the cross that Jesus is talking about in today’s text. The fight still continues today. There’s still things I hate about myself, and I should. It’s a false theology to tell myself what a great and successful person I am, especially if I’m doing it just to distract from my sin. God’s Word tells me how to act and behave as a father, a husband, and a pastor, but I keep falling short. I hate that. I shouldn’t tolerate it or excuse it. I shouldn’t be good with my sin and just accept it. And neither should you. I should straight out repent.
C.S. Lewis had an interesting quote on repentance vs. excuses that I read the other day. He wrote,
There is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. The trouble is that what we call “asking God’s forgiveness” very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. There usually is some amount of excuse, some “extenuating circumstances.” We are so anxious to point these out to God and to ourselves that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses. (A Year with C.S. Lewis pg. 263)
So when your girlfriend or boyfriend, and yourself, wants to break God’s law when it comes to sex, are you going to hate such behavior and fight against that temptation? Or are you going to tolerate it and make excuses for it? What about the son that has had an affair and wants to divorce his wife, his wife whom you don’t like? Are you going to call him out? What about the classmate that likes to pipe off in class? Are you attracted to his naughtiness? Does it make you happy to hang out with him? What about the spouse who has been taking the Lord’s name in vain falling from the Word and sacrament? How many things do you now tolerate because of your fear of hate or your unhealthy love of relationships?
Jesus compared being a disciple to having a building project or going to war. For those of you who have been through building projects, you understand how difficult those can be. You have visions of building a great tower, but people squabble over what goes where. Some get too pushy, and others get angry and leave. The project lasts much longer than thought and costs more than expected. Everyone gets frustrated. It can be exhausting. Then you think about going to war. When George W. Bush ridiculed his father for not invading Iraq, his father had some words for his son, realizing what a quagmire it would be. Lo and behold, dad was right. Little did W. know how difficult it would be to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. Wars aren’t easy. They are seldom short and quick. And neither is Christianity.
Jesus had a huge group of people following Him at this time. He didn’t want them to be disillusioned over what they were getting into. This wasn’t going to be an easy battle. I think about that as we take people through Bible Information Class or Catechism. Oftentimes we get asked, “How many weeks will it take?” Almost apologetically I sometimes answer, 15 weeks. Parents might complain about having to bring their children every Thursday night for confirmation. What about football practice or dance class? What about heaven and hell? What about life and death? Maybe we are being too soft about it. Maybe I should say, “This is going to last for the rest of your life.”
If you look up being a Navy Seal, they are very up front about what is required of them.
For the first two weeks of training, they run two miles a day at an 8.5-minute pace, three days a week. After that period, they run three miles a day, four days a week.
SEAL trainees must complete a two-mile swim in the open ocean in cold, rough water wearing a wetsuit and fins. They must finish the swim in less than 75 minutes.
This all culminates in Hell Week. They will sleep a total of 4 hours over 5 days. In the end they will have run 200 miles, training 20 hours a day. They WILL break down physically. There are no “if’s, ands, or buts.”
Who would want to do such a thing? But many do, for the identity of being known as a Navy Seal.
So Jesus is up front with this crowd. Some of you are going to have to hate your father, mother, son, daughter, brothers, sisters, and your very self. Then He added, Any one of you who does not say farewell to all his own possessions cannot be my disciple. Are you willing to go through that? Many like to SAY that they are. Many take the vow, but how many make the sacrifices? How many fall short?
What will come of those who fall short? Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? It is not fit for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. How can salt lose its saltiness? Why would you throw salt on soil or a manure pile? Did you ever think of that? Well, I guess there are different kinds of salt. Potash salt (potassium chloride) was taken from fireplace ash and could be added to fields or manure piles. It would help to stabilize the manure and keep it from being too acidic. When it is added to the soil it helps plants use water and resist drought. So if you start the battle and then give up half way through, if you don’t keep up the fight, Jesus you aren’t even good for a manure pile. You couldn’t be any more worthless than that! Who would want to be that?
Jesus kept on challenging his disciples, more and more as He got closer to the cross, and the followers kept on falling off. They wanted to be brave. They wanted to be strong. But when it came for Jesus to earn His kingdom, Jesus knew they would not follow Him. He prophesied it in Mark 14:27 “You will all fall away, for it is written: “ ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” Peter adamantly denied it. He said, “No way Lord! Even if all these guys fall, I NEVER will.” But what happened? No matter how much Peter denied it, it still came true. They failed as His disciples. They fell away, Jesus said. They were not worthy. Are we any better? No. We are far worse.
Jesus didn’t demand anything of us that He didn’t demand of HIMSELF. Everything that Jesus demands of us, Jesus did Himself, only WE were the objects of His love. He and the Father put His love for US as primary. How important was it? The Father ABANDONED Him for this love and left Him to hang there alone, in hell, abandoned. Jesus did this in order to be bound to us, bathed in us, blamed for us, on the cross. In this most intimate act, Jesus followed the Father’s command and the Spirit’s guidance straight into hell, all for us, all so that He could be bound to us. He became the ultimate disciple, being obedient to death, even death on a cross. Yes, He is WORTHY of our love, but we are not worthy of His.
But Jesus sees the Peters of the world, those who failed to follow, who don’t even belong on the dung heap: those who let themselves down, who thought they were better than that, who swore to be faithful, who dropped their crosses in fear and weakness. He sees them run outside and weep bitterly. He hears their cries. He goes, and He finds them in all corners of the world: by the sea, locked in the upper room, hiding in fear and grief and embarrassment. And what does He do? He comes up to us and says, “Forget about being my disciple for a minute. You failed in that, there’s no doubt, but that’s why I went to the cross. How about I be your Savior? How about I pick you up and take into heaven?” And then He wraps us in His arms, picks us up, and carries us with His grace and mercy to His home of forgiveness. That’s love.
Think of the song “Abide with Me.” There’s a reason why we sing “Hold thou THY cross before my closing eyes” and not “Hold thou MY cross.” It’s not how well I carry MY cross that saves me, it’s how well HE carried HIS cross. What is my cross, compared to His? My cross is nothing. It is small and insignificant. His cross is everything. He carried the sins of the world on His cross, and that means He carried MY sins and YOUR sins too. He carried them all into the grave, and He left them there when He rose from the dead, for YOU and for ME.
It’s this risen and crucified Jesus that now stands as the conqueror over death. He fought for me. He earned the victory for me. It’s this Jesus that pleads for my forgiveness day by day. It’s this Jesus that sends me this Holy Spirit to strengthen me. It’s this Jesus who sends His angels to guard me. It’s this Jesus who LOVES you and me, so much so that He died and went through hell to see you in heaven.
Come, Follow Me, the Savior Spake. It sounds romantic and beautiful as He’s walking through the green pastures and beside the quiet waters. There are so many beautiful things that we want to keep and enjoy in this life. But then He turns the corner and starts walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We stand still. “Can’t we stay in the green pastures?” No. That’s not where He’s leading us. He’s telling us to focus on Him and keep clinging to Him, being willing to give it all up on the way to heaven. He never said it would be easy to love Him, especially when it means we have to hate some things in this world. God give me and you the strength to hate that which is evil and to hate those who would come between us and Him. God give us the strength to live this Hard Truth, to love Him enough to hate, to take up the cross, and follow Him. Amen.
