Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Grace and peace to all of you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today, we continue with our Lord Jesus, who was traveling slowly toward Jerusalem on His mission to the cross. Those nearby were eager to hear more from Him. The text indicates that these were not just small groups, but “great crowds” that had gathered to listen to His words.

It was common for people in the crowds to ask him questions, sometimes to challenge or trap him, as the scriptures reveal, with some of these questioners being scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees discussing matters of the law.

But also those who earnestly sought his teachings. The disciples often asked Jesus to explain some of the parables and even asked him to teach them how to pray. It might seem like a strange thing, following a rabbi and not knowing how to pray, but being a disciple is the beginning of learning, not an end state, and it is about being wholly dependent on the teacher for all things in the life in which they have been called.

This verse from Proverbs makes me think of that relationship between disciple and Jesus: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Prov 3:5-6).

With the crowds pressing in all around him, and without any question being put to him, such as “What must I do to follow you?” or “Jesus, how do I become a disciple?” Jesus takes the opportunity to begin to talk about what it means to be a disciple of his. “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. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).

Right away, his words challenge us to examine our hearts and to think about what he is really saying because, in a very vivid way, he tells his hearers, which includes you and me today, that those who follow him are not on an easy road, and they will never be on an easy road.

And his examples are hard to reconcile and are shocking–I need to hate what and who – my father, mother, sister, brother, and children– these are my closest neighbors? It would be contradictory to the law which commands me to honor my father and mother, and to love my neighbor as myself. How can this be?

No, Jesus is not telling us to break the commandments. Jesus is jolting our earthly senses and sensibilities so that we might look inward on ourselves and examine the attitude of our own hearts and minds.

When Jesus speaks and teaches, he turns over the tables of our hearts, by using some powerful language so we might understand that our discipling begins first with his call to renounce, that is, to loosen our grip on the things of this life that we would consider to be the most important blessings; things we would never in a million years think of renouncing.

He uses these examples to capture our attention and prompt us to reflect on where our priorities lie when it comes to where we place our love and hope. Are they in our blessings that God gives, or is it in the God that gives them? The God who gives life eternal? But the real question is: are we able to do this on our own? Are we able to examine and turn away and part with anything willingly?

Over the course of this past week, I kept coming back to some key themes that emerged repeatedly in this gospel text, which Jesus gives us to wrestle with and try to understand. One of the first things that comes to light for me is the obvious. That there is a cost to the Christian life.

No doubt about it, and I can point to examples within my own life, where that has been the case. Starting with when I began my first year in seminary and extending up to when I took this call, there were people whom I loved (and still love) who kept me at arm's length now – some even a little further than that, because of the gospel, because of Jesus.

I don't know what they were afraid of; perhaps they were worried I would preach to them or something, but it was very apparent, and some even went so far as to tell others around me they thought I was a fool, that my life was pretty good, and why is he upsetting everything? (Pause) They just didn’t understand.

The more I looked at the text today, the more I couldn’t help seeing that the cost for a disciple is not one of glorious gain in the here and now, but instead being flattened and emptied most of the time. It is a death to self and to the world, and bearing a cross that, when most people see it, will make them want to run in the other direction.

But in this life with Jesus, who constantly teaches through the Holy Spirit, we must learn to hear His voice amidst the many distractions and competing messages the world bombards us with.

It is not always easy to do that, and it is impossible if we are disconnected from the places where He disciples: here in His word, in His sanctuary, at His table of mercy and grace. The high cost of a disciple is always going to be making God the highest priority in our lives against all competing things, and this is something we desperately need help with.

In the first reading, Moses highlights the fundamental choices facing his people. He emphasizes that following God's commandments, loving Him, and walking in His ways will bring longevity, prosperity, and life. Conversely, turning away from God and serving other things lead to death. So Moses compels us: Choose life!

For many of us, the choices Moses offers are rarely as clear-cut as they appear here. Life is often complicated and chaotic. We may not see our decisions as life-or-death matters, nor as issues of obedience or disobedience. Even when we recognize that we are making significant choices, we are still prone to choosing death because we are in bondage to sin and unable to free ourselves.

The Father knows what we need; He knows that we need all the help we can get, and has sent His only Son that we might be taught, that we might be healed, that we might be forgiven, that we might hear and believe and be given new life. He has sent Jesus to die on the cross for us sinners, that we might be called out from the pit of death, drowned and washed in his baptism, and raised up a new creature in faith in him.

For those who believe and are baptized, He has given His Holy Spirit so that we might constantly be reminded of His Word and be taught to understand it and also to be examined by it every time we hear it and study it. To know that no matter what happens to you or where you are or what you are going through, you are his own. He has called us to bear our own cross and follow, to be disciples, and heirs to a kingdom not of this world.

Think of Paul in the second lesson today. Paul was arrested a couple of times during his ministry to the Gentiles. In his letter to Philemon, I am reminded of how calm he sounds in the midst of what many of us would consider a total disaster in life. He is under house arrest. Being held captive in any way would certainly hamper his ability to go from place to place to preach and share the gospel.

It would seem like that's all she wrote; might as well just look at the walls and count the days. He doesn’t seem like being jailed is any kind of barrier to his ability to disciple or be who Jesus called him to be. In fact, his letter conveys a great sense of optimism.

Even while in prison, he found a way to be a father in faith to a former slave of Philemon. Paul pens a letter of intercession on his disciples' behalf for freedom, forgiveness, and reconciliation to his former master. His circumstances and conditions did not alter his focus or faith; his eyes were fixed on Jesus, and he lived under the promise of Jesus' cross, so that even prison was not a barrier for the Lord to use Paul to disciple many and encourage the churches in their faith.

Like Paul, we live under the cross of Christ –the only cross that saves. Because only Jesus could forsake his own life, for you to have life eternal. He knew the cost, and charged into the battle against all the forces of darkness with His cross, that you would have life and not death. Living under His cross involves accepting our earthly loss, failures, and apparent defeat from the world's perspective, but still moving forward with the promise of Christ. It's not about seeking our own glory or approval from the world; it's about believing in the one who has overcome the world and clinging to the saving power of His cross. - Amen

Our Gospel Hymn is “O Jesus, I have Promised” #79