+ 13th Sunday after Pentecost – September 8, 2019 +
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
Series C: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Philemon 1; Luke 14:25-35
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In his famous book “The Cost of Discipleship”, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote:
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die”.
It’s true of Jesus’ disciples. All but one of the apostles died a martyr’s death. The cross and discipleship always go together. It’s true for us as well. From the moment we’re baptized we’re marked by the cross of Jesus. In Jesus we daily die to sin and rise to new life in his death and resurrection. The cross and discipleship always go together. It’s true for us and the disciples because it’s true of Jesus first and foremost.
Ever since Luke 9:51, Jesus has set his face to Jerusalem. The cross was his endgame.
To understand today’s Gospel reading, Jesus’ cross must remain before our eyes and ears.
Jesus was heading to Jerusalem to die. Though the crowds didn’t quite get that memo yet. They wanted a miracle. A show. Like paparazzi, they were looking for celebrity Jesus. Popular Jesus. Fun Jesus. The kind of Jesus we all want. Burger King Jesus who says, “Have it your way”. Healing? You’ve got it! Endless bread and fish? No problem! 180 gallons of wine for a wedding party? Just fill those jugs with water and pass ‘em around. Now there’s a Jesus worth following!
Jesus turns to the crowd. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
These are tough words. Matthew’s Gospel says it this way. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me.” But Luke uses the Old Testament language of hate, which is not an emotional feeling towards someone, but an attitude or action. And how in turn, our actions and attitudes relate to our lives in as Jesus’ disciples.
Still, Jesus’ words are hard words. Hate? I thought Jesus was all about love. What’s with this “hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters?” That doesn’t sound like the gentle, focus on the family Jesus I know. Hate your own life? I thought we were supposed to love our lives. Take care of number one.
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus is teaching his disciples, the crowds who followed him, and us his baptized people, an important, but nonetheless hard lesson. Crosses kill. They’re instruments of suffering and death. To take up your cross is to take up your death. You can’t follow Jesus without a cross. His way is the way of the cross and the empty tomb.
Death, then resurrection. That’s the pattern for Jesus, and for his disciples then and today. Suddenly, this business of being a disciple doesn’t sound like so much fun anymore, does it? It sounds dangerous, deadly even. Remember, Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. Jesus has His cross front and center in His gaze. That’s where we need to be looking too.
Like a good rabbi, Jesus follows up his teaching with two short stories, parables, about the cost of being his disciple.
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? Otherwise, when he has laid a 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 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? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
Count the cost. What will it cost you to follow Jesus? Not just our money, fame, or reputation. Our life. Everything. To follow Jesus on His road to Jerusalem to die and rise is literally going to cost us everything we hold dear. Can we afford it? Are we willing to pay that price? Are we willing to pay the cost of discipleship?
Truth be told, if we calculated the cost of following Jesus, none of us would. If that great crowd that was following Jesus around like a rock star took stock as to where He was going and what He was about to do, they would have turned on their heels and headed for the hills.
This is why God doesn’t leave our salvation – or our Christian life as his disciples – up to a choice we make. Instead, he pays the cost of discipleship for us by sending Jesus to the cross.
Think of OT Israel; they belonged to the Lord. He was their God, they were His people. They didn’t choose Him; He chose them. And being His chosen people, the only “choice” they had was not to be His chosen people. Just as Adam and Eve could not choose life. They were alive. They could only choose death, which they did.
This is why Jesus calls coming to faith a “rebirth”. A new birth from above. That’s how God chooses you. Holy Baptism is your washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Did your parents ask if you wanted to be born? No. Same way for Jesus’ disciples.
The cost is simply too great for us. And yet, Jesus bears the cost of discipleship for you. That’s the good news hidden in today’s Gospel. Jesus bears the cost. He lays down His life to save the world. He becomes the world’s Sin. He dies our Death. Jesus counted the cost of rescuing you from your Sin and Death. And it was worth every drop of His holy, precious blood to save you. He gave up everything – His honor, glory, dominion, power, His entire life – and for the joy of your salvation, He set His face to Jerusalem to die. He took up His cross to save you.
He didn’t ask you to choose Him. He chose you. He baptized you. He called you by His Spirit. He loved you and chose you before the foundations of the world. You were dead; God made you alive in Christ. You were dead; God rebirthed you by water and Spirit. You were captive to Sin and Death; God made you free in Christ. Even if you came to faith as an adult and sought out Baptism, you still didn’t choose Him. He chose you. He laid His cross on you, not to kill you, but to bring you to life.
That’s not cheap grace. That’s free grace. Costly for Jesus. Free for you. So, we follow Jesus not because we’ve counted the cost and determined we’re able, but because we’ve counted the cost and found that we’re unable. To us, his disciples, Jesus says, my cross, my resurrection, my grace is sufficient for you.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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