Discipleship (Part 3): Giving Your All for Jesus
Our main text is from Luke 14:25-35, here are verses 25-27:
Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, "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 carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (NASB).Jesus was very popular in His day and 'large crowds' followed Him. Yet, following Jesus is not a fashion or just another hobby, it's something that involves more. The use of the verb 'hate' seems puzzling. Yet it is simeply a Semitic idiom to mean 'love less.' Matthew records the less tough Greek translation of the original Aramaic or Hebrew Jesus spoke.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Mt 10:37 NASB).New Testament scholar I. Howard Marshall confirms that Jesus used a Semitic idiom which means 'to love less,' and stresses the fact that it is not a 'psychological hate,' but rather the notion of 'renunciation' (Marshall, The Gospel of Luke [NIGTC]. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978, pg. 592). So, what is Jesus saying? The disciple (follower) of Jesus must have right priorities - He must come before all else. These strong words stand in no contradiction to the command 'honour your father and mother' (Ex 20:12), a command which Jesus affirmed (Lk 18:20). Rather, it simply speaks - in strong language which stresses the importance of what He is saying - that our Lord and Saviour, our God and King, must be first in all things. There's a simple way of putting it: JOY stands for, Jesus first, Others second, You last. The life of true joy is not one of utter selfishness and hedonism, but one of service and selfless love. Many non-Christians and people from other religions understand that too: selfishness doesn't pay off, and there is satisfaction in serving others and doing good things. Jesus' teaching was rather radical - if one does good deeds, others should not even know about it (Mt 6). This is very different to certain fund-raising where people brag with their big donations in front of others. Real giving is selfless and comes from a love for the people not love for self!
Carrying the cross is yet more strong terminology Jesus used to explain what discipleship - or followship - with Him meant. To carry the cross in the first century simply meant to be willing to go to one's own execution. This speaks of selfless sacrifice if necessary, just as Jesus demonstrated. In fact, greater love has no one than the one who gives his or her life for another person (cf. Jn 15:13). For Jesus, this meant dying for the ungodly and sunful (see Rom 5). The true disciple is one who does not seek his or her onw pleasure and comfort first, but seeks to serve others and live a meaningful life in service to others within God's purposes. One finds enormous fulfilment and reward in doing that. This is not to say that we shall never go on holiday or go out for lunch - such are extreme and unhealthy interpretations. In verse 33 (as elsewhere) Jesus makes clear that a disciple must be willing to give up things if they hinder our followship of Jesus. Marshall explains the following: 'To come to Jesus is the initial step in response to his call... It has to be complemented by coming after...Jesus' (592). Hence, discipleship requries total commitment. The follower of Jesus finds the true meaning and purpose in life by doing God's will, and is hence willing to forsake all others - this is what true marriage is, or should be, all about. The genuine wife or husband have no loves, forsake all others, in order to give oneself fully to one's spouse - that is true love. In the same way, the true believer has no other gods - spiritual or material - than the true God, the God of the Bible.
One of the greatest men of the 20th century said that, 'If you've got nothing worth dying for, you're got nothing worth living for.' His name was Martin Luther King jr., and if we think of his struggle for human rights and the dangers he risked, once can understand his statement. Today people commit suicide because they have nothing to live for - they have not found true meaning and purpose of in life. That is ever so sad (and my own past has witnessed several suicides in my circle of friends), but there is a genuine remedy: life with and for Jesus makes not only sense, but gives meaning, and brings satisfaction, in fact, it is one life worth giving your everything for! There are hundreds of thousands of people who give up all kinds of 'good things' in order to follow Jesus - some have been rich people who suddenly start giving away money to the poor, others have been famous actors, musicians, or sports(wo)men, who understood that living for others is more important than living for one self. Such teaching and change goes contrary to a world of increasing selfishness, but testimony after testimony shows that it truly works.
But what comes next in Jesus' discourse on discipleship is sobering: people are to count the cost (vv 28ff). In other words, it is no good starting out as a disciple and than turning back from it. Unfortunately that has happened all too often, and it is these people who are making faith in God a laughingstock - unfortunately! However, we are to look to the good examples if we really want to know what it's all about. In verse 33 Jesus sums up that willingness to give material things is a necessity in the life of followship after Jesus - one cannot hold on to things that hinder discipleship. In fact, that would be putting those things above God and it would hence become an idol (something that is more important than God). One can see from these words that discipleship is something serious. In his famous book on The Cost of Discipleship (London: Simon & Schuster, 1995 [original: SCM, 1959]), Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes things plain: 'cheap grace' is a no go. It is wrong for people to pretend to be Christians without genuine repentance and faith. It is these kind of fake Christians that make the Church and God look like fools. Bonhoeffer was a genuine disciple of Christ - and he truly paid the ultimate price! True grace is costly in that it is the hidden treasure in the field, a treasure worth more than anoything else, for which one is willing to give up everything else. It is like finding the wife or husband, and forsaking all others. Being a Christians just for the sake of God's blessings is like marrying a person for his or her money - how fake and ridicilous, isn't it?!
What follows underlines the message again: salt, a preservative and flavouring ingredient, is only good if it fulfills its function and purpose (vv 34-35). Hence, as J. Blanchard put it, 'The best thing, when not used in the right way, becomes the most loathsome.' Be it high-paid football players who under perform, employees who don't do their jobs properly, or whatever else, one has to live up to his or her function and purpose. The same is true for the disciple of Jesus. We shall not be like those who forsake Jesus when the going gets though (Jn 6:60-63, 66-69). In fact, the tough get going when the going gets tough - it is these people we can become through discipleship: remember Peter! Thr true follower of Jesus has understood that He has the words of eternal life and is the Messiah, the Saviour, and true Life!
God bless you with all you need to follow Jesus and make your life count.
Shalom,
Gordon
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