Counting the Cost I. Prayer II. Base text: Luke 14:25-33 III. Context A. Luke 9:51, 17:11 1. In Luke 9:51, after Peter's confession and the Transfiguration, Luke reports that Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers to Samaria to prepare for Him 2. Yet it is only in Luke 17:11 that Luke reports that Jesus is actually on the path to Jerusalem and passing along the Galilee / Samaria border B. We do best to understand all that transpires between Luke 9:51-17:11 as the series of conversations, proclamations, and interactions in which Jesus engaged in with a view to exhorting and teaching His disciples and others the important messages which they needed to hear before His time had come C. Luke 14:24-33 directly follows Luke 14:1-24 1. Jesus had been invited to a banquet hosted by a Pharisee (Luke 14:1) 2. He healed a man on the Sabbath in their midst (Luke 14:2-6) 3. He warned in a parable regarding taking the high place and being humiliated, setting forth His tagline: those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 14:7-11) 4. He exhorted those at the banquet to not invite their friends to banquets, who would invite them in turn, but to invite the poor, marginalized, disadvantaged of society who could not pay them back, and they would obtain recompense in the resurrection (Luke 14:12-14) 5. When one responded by declaring blessings on those who eat bread in the Kingdom of God, Jesus set forth the parable of the wedding feast: a man invited all his friends, but they did not come, and instead told his servants to invite all the people from the streets to enter and enjoy, but those who were invited and did not come would not enter; a warning to the Israelites that rejecting the invitation of participating in God's Kingdom in Jesus will lead to their exclusion on the final day (Luke 14:15-24) D. It would seem that Jesus then left the feast; at some undetermined point later, crowds had gathered (Luke 14:25), and He then provided the instruction we find in Luke 14:26-33 IV. Interpretation A. Jesus' Charge (Luke 14:26-27) 1. Jesus began His instruction with His charge: whoever comes to Him and does not hate his family members and even his own life cannot be Jesus' disciple; those who will not bear their own cross and follow Him cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:26-27) 2. Very strong, hyperbolic language to make the point of the high cost of following Jesus to enter the Kingdom of God! 3. The use of "hate" is often rationalized as to "love less," and understandably so; Jesus is not really contradicting Matthew 15:1-9, Ephesians 5:28-29, 6:1-2, and family obligations remain important even in the Kingdom of God (1 Timothy 5:3-16) 4. But the point should not be lost: family obligations remain important, but not all important: our commitment to following Jesus is most important, and if we have to sacrifice the quality of relationship with family to follow Jesus, we must do so (cf. Matthew 10:34-39) 5. Likewise with the self: a level of self care is generally and normally granted, but if we love anything about ourselves or our lives more than Jesus, we have made it an idol; we must prove willing to renounce anything and everything to follow Jesus (cf. Matthew 16:26-27) 6. One cannot separate self-sacrifice, humiliation, and suffering from following Jesus: those not willing to pick up their cross and follow Jesus are not worthy of Him (cf. Matthew 16:24-25) a. We do well to remember what a cross meant in the first century: a device of excruciating, degrading, humiliating death; no one would ever want to die on a cross, let alone take one up continually b. Furthermore, Jesus offered this instruction before He Himself went to the cross, rendering the instruction all the more shocking: we so frequently pass over the instruction because we understand how central the cross is to what Jesus endured and accomplished, but consider how it would have been heard by the original audience! 7. Jesus had laid down the gauntlet, and it was taxing indeed B. The Tower (Luke 14:28-30) 1. Jesus then provided a type of parable, asking the crowd who among them, if they were to build a tower, would not first sit down to see if they have enough money to finish building (Luke 14:28) 2. If such a person did not count the cost, he might build but not finish, and be mocked by others for doing so (Luke 14:29-30) C. Kings and Foreign Policy (Luke 14:31-32) 1. Jesus provided a second witness and example, asking the crowd about a king deliberating on his foreign policy 2. A king considers his military might and whether he can meet the enemy at an equal or superior level; if not, he will send ambassadors and ask for terms of peace (Luke 14:31-32) 3. This kind of preparation a commonly known and understood matter; it was the substance behind David's sin in taking a census of Israel, which was designed to assess Israel's military capacity even though YHWH had not summoned him to prepare for war (2 Samuel 24:1-4, 1 Chronicles 21:1-4) 4. Yes, there have been times when a superior force was overwhelmed by an inferior force, but it is not wise to depend on it! D. Recapitulation (Luke 14:33) 1. Jesus brought home the point: whoever does not renounce all he has to be Jesus' disciple cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:33) 2. To this end Jesus subliminally expected all Israelites hearing Him, and by extension, all who hear the Gospel, to participate in an assessment, to "count the cost" 3. To follow Jesus demands renunciation of all things, even of self, to suffer depredation and humiliation, but all to obtain eternal life in the resurrection 4. To not follow Jesus would make for an easier life now, but calamity on the day of judgment, obtaining the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:28-29, Romans 6:23, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) E. Thus Jesus calls upon all to be as the one building a tower and the king considering his foreign policy options: we are all to count the cost of what it will take to follow Jesus or not! V. Application A. Following Jesus: God's Free Gift that Costs Everything 1. Jesus' whole premise in Luke 14:25-33 follows from His parable in Luke 14:15-24 but clarifies it powerfully with a paradox 2. Salvation is a free gift of God in Jesus: something unmerited, undeserved, and something for which we could never pay enough to receive (Romans 5:6-11, 6:23) 3. It is according to the parable of the feast: the Master has called for whoever will to come and share in the feast with Him (Luke 14:15-24)! 4. Yet, as seen in Luke 14:25-28, 33 and in parallel passages in Matthew 16:24-27, actually following Jesus will cost everything: we must renounce all things to follow Jesus! 5. We must live in the tension and not try to resolve it: it is free, but costs everything 6. We also should be hesitant to qualify what Jesus says: when we speak of "being willing" to renounce everything, it opens the door for us to hold on to things as if we keep control over them 7. Jesus' whole premise, as exemplified in Saul of Tarsus, is that we give all things over to Him and His purposes to work for His glory (Galatians 2:20) 8. Our family relationships might not be compromised by our faith in Jesus, but we are to have given over our family relationships to Jesus, and embody Jesus to our family, and glorify Jesus through our relationships with family 9. However we may prosper, we must consider it to belong to God and given to us as a stewardship, and we are to use it to glorify God, not ourselves (Ephesians 4:28, 1 Timothy 6:3-10, 17-18) 10. For generations so many have rationalized Christianity as a belief system, a philosophy, and all sorts of other things, resisting the strong demand of Jesus that Christianity is a totalizing, thoroughgoing transformation in relationship: we are to become as Christ, to sacrifice like Christ, to embody Christ, and we can only do that when we release control and renounce all things for His purposes! B. Counting the Cost When Confronted by the Gospel 1. The two metaphors/parables Jesus provided are only in Luke; the instruction is also given without them (e.g. Matthew 16:24-27) 2. Yet they add an important dimension: to follow Jesus demands renunciation of family, self, and taking up humiliation, degradation, and perhaps even death: therefore, one must count the cost 3. Far too often the Gospel of Christ has been "sold" to people with "bait and switch" tactics, or in ways which try to suppress the cost, not unlike how salespeople attempt to get people to think what they are buying costs less than it really does; likewise, many attempt to proclaim Jesus with heavy-handed emotionally manipulative tactics to induce an impulsive "decision for Christ" 4. With these metaphors/parables Jesus very deliberately goes in the exact opposite direction: if large-scale building projects or warcraft require deliberate and sober planning and consideration, how much more ought a person count the cost regarding the decision that will cost them everything? 5. Jesus is very upfront with what the Gospel demands: everything; there is no sugarcoating it, no attempt to deflect or suppress; thus, a person really does need to count the cost 6. To follow Jesus is a difficult path, requiring great sacrifice, yet sustained by God who gives life with life in God eternally as the result (John 14:1-3, 21-23, 17:20-23) 7. To not follow Jesus is an easier path in life, but does not involve sustenance from God, and leads to eternal destruction away from God (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)! 8. In this way each person who hears the Gospel is confronted with this choice, and each must count the cost for him or herself: what shall it be? C. Counting the Cost Continually as a Disciple 1. Counting the cost, however, is not a one-time thing; even in the metaphors/parables, there will likely be moments of reckoning and a need to count the cost again in terms of building the tower, especially if any complications arise, and the fortunes of war and peace are constantly in flux 2. Just as faith, repentance, justification, and sanctification have initial conversion dimensions and continual discipleship dimensions, so it is with the reckoning of counting the cost! 3. As we grow in the faith, and learn and experience new things, we will need to count the cost again, and again, and continually put ourselves to the test (2 Corinthians 13:5) 4. If we feel we have no new reason to count the cost, have we really grown in our faith? Has our perspective been forced to change at all? 5. We should give space and time for ourselves to count that cost, to grapple with what we have learned through knowledge, experience, and trust, recalibrate how we view our relationship with God and His people, and seek to continue to embody Jesus and glorify Him 6. Just as life looks very different from 5 to 10 to 15 to 25 to 30 to 40 to 55, etc., and we each find ourselves needing to recalibrate ourselves every so often in terms of physical age, how much more so will we need to recalibrate in our walk with Jesus? D. Thus the question comes for all of us: have we counted the cost? Will we begin to serve or continue to serve Jesus, understanding His gift is free but will cost us everything? Or will we stay as we are or return to the ways of the world, enjoying the easy way but becoming all the more alienated from life and light? E. May we all serve the Lord Jesus, renounce all things to His control for His glory and honor, receive life in Him, and share in life for eternity in the resurrection! F. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: "If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). Jesus had spoken of how the Father welcomes everyone to join Him in the feast of the Kingdom of God. God freely gives salvation in Jesus; we do not earn it, deserve it, merit it, and could never pay for it. While salvation in Jesus is free, it still costs everything. Christians will have to submit all of their relationships to the Lordship of Jesus come what may. May we submit to the Lord Jesus in all things and obtain life in Him! 2: "Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27). Crosses in the first century were not cute pieces of jewelry. They were implements of terror, humiliation, and death. No one in their right mind would want to bear a cross. Jesus' invitation would have shocked His audience: who would want to take up their cross and follow Him? If we would have life, we must suffer the loss of all things to gain Christ! 3: "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it?" (Luke 14:28) Jesus had thrown down the gauntlet. He did not shy away from it. He spoke of how people who build first assess to see if they have enough to build. He spoke of how kings assess their military strength before deciding to go to war or to sue for peace. How much more so, therefore, should a person count the cost regarding whether he or she will serve Jesus, renounce all things, and find life, or stay as he or she is and be alienated from life? May we all count the cost and find life in Jesus! 4: "So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). Following Jesus requires us to give all to Him for His glory and honor. He will then use what we have given Him to advance His purposes. We must count the cost to see if we will serve the Lord Jesus in this way. As we serve the Lord Jesus, we must continually reassess to make sure we are continually submitting all of ourselves and what we have to Him. Whatever we refuse to give over to Him easily becomes our idol(s) and a constant source of temptation, weakness, and failure. May we continually submit ourselves fully to the Lord Jesus and His purposes and obtain eternal life in Him!