The text stands as an exhortation and warning. The challenge will be to make sure it is also an encouragement to the failing and wayward disciples who sit before you.
This is a tough text, but not because it is difficult to understand or that the teaching of our Lord is too complex. No, it is tough because as you stand to proclaim it to your listeners, you are more than likely not addressing curious outsiders contemplating a life in the church or distant skeptics of the whole endeavor that is the Church. You are preaching to believers, to disciples who have been on this journey for some time. You are preaching a text about the cost of discipleship to disciples, something they may or may not have carefully thought through. But they are here, nonetheless.
Genuine discipleship, as it is laid out here, comes with three distinct challenges. Hating family (14:26), carrying a cross (14:27), and renouncing all one has (14:33). As this text hits the ears of your fellowship, there will be, no doubt, mixed reactions. Some will nod their heads in agreement, having felt the sting of familial relationships being torn. Some will know what it is to suffer for the faith, or even to sacrifice all for the Kingdom. However, most will wonder if they are up to the task, perhaps even question if they are a true disciple, able to give it all to follow Christ. Maybe some will even, upon examining their own life, conclude they have not been a disciple at all.
The text stands as an exhortation and warning. The challenge will be to make sure it is also an encouragement to the failing and wayward disciples who sit before you.
“Hate” is a jarring word which will, no doubt, give your hearers pause. What does it mean to hate my mother and father, wife and children, even my own life? Matthew’s recording of these words is helpful here. Rather than “hate,” he uses “not love more than.” We are not to love our father and mother more than Jesus. Our default is to think of hate as an emotion, but here it is more of an attitude or an action. To follow Jesus is to follow His example and teaching. Earlier in Luke, He says, “My mother and My brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it” (8:21).
This call flows right into the next, to take up your cross and follow. It will not be nearly as shocking to your hearers, because they are used to this type of language. This might be a good time to focus a bit on what it means to bear a cross, not a cross of your own choosing, but one that comes as a ramification of following Jesus. We may easily think of persecution and use the example of Christians who have endured horrible atrocities for their faith. However, you might focus on more trivial (in the grand scheme), more personal crosses. You can talk about the realities which come from living a disjointed reality from the rest of the world. As a disciple, you have different allegiances, different sources of comfort, and different foundations of truth than the unbelieving world you reside in. This reality will cause friction and suffering. Call it out here. Speak boldly of the temptation to lay that cross aside and adopt the world’s wisdom.
As a disciple, you have different allegiances, different sources of comfort, and different foundations of truth than the unbelieving world you reside in.
This leads to two relatively simple and powerful metaphors that reinforce our Lord’s teaching. They also provide a source of hope and comfort to the struggling disciples listening to your sermon. The image is one to which we can all relate. You are to count the cost before doing something as grand as a significant building project or starting a war. Yet, as disciples, they are not doing this of their own volition. They have already begun the journey. They are chosen. They are the Baptized. They are here listening to the proclamation of the Word. This new life they are given, this disjointed reality from the world, will cost them much. Nevertheless, it is the Lord who will supply the resources needed to complete the project. We do not rush off into the war thinking we can win it by ourselves. Rather, we follow our victorious Savior. We take up our cross and get in line safely behind His work.
Whatever we may think we possess of ourselves, it will not be enough. Perhaps this is why Jesus calls us to renounce all we own. What things do your people cling to instead of the cross? What resources do they believe will win the day? Expose them as inadequate or even a means we use to unburden ourselves from the cross of discipleship.
There is comfort again in the final words of our Lord concerning tasteless salt. “Salt is good,” He says. As disciples, they are salt, the salt of the earth. The hearers of your sermon are good salt. They did not make themselves into salt. They did not work their way into being salt. They are made salt in the waters of Baptism. But there is a real warning to which we all need to take heed. Family ties, the weight of the cross, and the love of possessions can render our salt tasteless. So, we look to Christ, to His life, His sacrifice, trusting His resources and victory, so we might continue being the salt He has promised we are.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Luke 14:25-35.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Luke 14:25-35.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
