Hate, Cost, and Possessions

Luke 14:25-35 

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and 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, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. ³⁴ Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

I don’t know about you, but whenever I read this passage I think, “Wow! That’s tough talk.” Taken out of context, these words make following Jesus sound like an impossible lifestyle. When I look at my life through this lens I have to come to the conclusion that I’m not doing this faith thing correctly. I don’t feel like following Jesus has “cost” me anything and I certainly don’t “hate” my family. And last time I looked, my life is filled with possessions. What’s the right path through this passage?

There are three elements of discipleship announced in this passage: hating family, carrying the cross, and leaving possessions behind. The point is illustrated with three parables, the last of which raises the distinction between the hypocritical and the genuine. First we look at the idea of “hating” your family. Our problem here comes in the weakness of the English language when compared to the Greek. For us, hate is hate. But the words in the text are more accurately translated as “not love more than”. So we are not advised to “hate” our families but instead to put God first.

Denying ourselves and “taking up the cross” is a tough one for all of us. What we need to remember is that Christianity has been persecuted since the day Jesus arrived on the planet as an infant. You will be persecuted – be prepared for that event. Granted, some are certainly persecuted more than others (even to the point of death) but we are all persecuted. I still remember the day my best friend in High School laughed until tears sprang from her eyes over my faith and encouraged another to join in the laughter. I know – not a terribly big persecution. But this is exactly what Jesus was talking about; all forms of persecution from the teasing of friends to outright martyrdom.

Possessions – well, there’s no need to even beat that horse. We all know exactly what we cherish when it comes to our possessions. For each of us it will be something different. But it will be something completely worthless in the Kingdom of God. While He did indeed give us every good and perfect gift, He gave them for our blessing not so that we could cherish them.

Jesus said these words knowing that we would stumble and struggle with making Him our first love, allowing fear of others to move us in the wrong direction, and cherishing our possessions. But even as He spoke these words, He was on His way to Jerusalem to pay the price for those sins. His blood covers every single event where we elevate other people or our possessions over Him. His blood covers those times when our fear makes us deny Him or run away rather than face persecution for our faith. His grace is still greater than our failures.