“Setting Priorities, Counting Costs” -- Luke 14:25-35 (also Luke 9:23-26)

In the movie “City Slickers,” three buddies from New York City decided to handle some life crises by signing up for a cattle drive at a working ranch out west. None of them have an ranching skills, but they pay the money and off they go.

The cowboy who was overseeing the drive was an old guy named Curly. During the struggles of driving the cattle from the winter pastures to the summer pastures, Curly offers some advice to the protagonist of the movie.

Curly held up one finger and said, “This.” He went on to say that everybody has one thing that matters more to them than anything else, but most of us don’t know what that one thing is. Once we figure it out, then our life will find meaning and direction. Once we figure out that one thing, our priorities will become set and we will be able to move forward with confidence as we move toward the one thing.

Jesus makes the same announcement to us. We all have to ask ourselves what our one priority it, and then we need to move toward that. In today’s passage, Jesus calls us to make Him our priority.

Background

This passage comes after Luke informs us that Jesus had “resolutely” set out for Jerusalem. Knowing this would be the time for His crucifixion, so the lessons Jesus teaches become more intense as He prepares His followers for the events that will lead up to His resurrection. This passage takes place while Jesus is going to Jerusalem but has not yet reached it.

This passage takes place while Jesus is at a banquet at a Pharisee’s house. The feast takes place on a Sabbath, and Luke writes that Jesus was being carefully watched. It is at this meal that Jesus heals a man of what Luke describes as “dropsy.” According to one of my commentaries, dropsy was an excess buildup of bodily fluids due to kidney or heart failure or some other major organ dysfunction. Probably, the man had not been invited to the meal, but Jesus saw the opportunity to minister and to challenge the Pharisees present. He pointedly asks them, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (14:3b). When no one answers, Jesus heals the man, then asks His host, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” (v.5). Again, there is no answer.

Next, Jesus teaches about seating at banquets and who to invite to banquets. Someone says, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (v.15b), and Jesus tells a parable about a man who prepares a banquet and sends his servants to invite his guests. However, each of the invitees found one excuse or another not to attend, so the host invites the “poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (v.21b). When told there was still room, the host then extends the invitation to those in the countryside. His last words to his servants are, “I tell you the truth, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet” (vs.24).

Shortly after this, Jesus is being followed by large crowds. Jesus is known to heal the sick and occasionally feed the people who are following and listening. It is to this crowd that Jesus speaks the words we read in today’s passage. Jesus uses this time to talk about what it really means to be a disciple and the cost of discipleship. It becomes a question of priorities.

Central Truth: We must consider the cost of a holy life.

The cost of holiness:

1. Jesus must come first (25-27)

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them, He said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.”

When my family first moved to Waco, we would go into stores and see University of Texas and Texas A&M paraphernalia all around, but very few Baylor things. The only place a person could find Baylor shirts and things was at the Baylor bookstore. But then Baylor football started winning, the men’s and women’s basketball started taking off, as well. Suddenly, Baylor items were more available, while UT and Aggie things were less evident. People were starting to jump on the Bears’ bandwagon.

Jesus was popular because of the things He had been doing for the people. He was not only healing and feeding, but He was also speaking truth to the powerful, and those who were on the outside were enjoying Jesus’ words against the Pharisees and Sadducees. It might be surprising, then, that Jesus would address the cost of discipleship to these eager followers. But Jesus needed them and us to understand what it really means to be a disciple. Jesus’ words cut to the heart of the matter.

Essentially, Jesus tells us that if we place anything above Him, we cannot be His disciples. Look of the things Jesus said we need to give up: parents, spouse, children, even our own lives. The word He uses is “hate.”

We need to understand that Jesus does not require us to be hate-filled people to be His followers. He doesn’t tell us to turn our backs on everyone we held dear to our hearts. What He is saying is that, in comparison to our love and devotion to Him, nothing can be close. In other words, we must be willing to give up our families and our own lives if need be in order to commit ourselves completely to Him. Only when we are ready to put Jesus first among all the other demands of our lives—our family, our career, our hobbies, even our own lives—can we be ready to follow Him.

The phrase, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple,” is a vivid picture for Jesus’ listeners. The vast majority of them had probably seen a crucifixion. They had witnessed the condemned person required to carry their cross through the crowded streets of a town, as though a macabre parade through the people as they marched outside the city. There they would be placed on the cross, usually tied to the cross in order to prolong the suffering. They knew what it meant to carry a cross and to follow someone. It meant death—long, painful, tortuous death. Jesus is telling us that, unless we are prepared to die for Christ, we cannot be His disciples.

Earlier, just after Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ of God in Luke 9:20b, Jesus says, “If anyone will come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:23-26). To be a disciple—to live a holy life—means we have to make answer some hard questions: Are we willing to surrender our lives to Him? Are we willing to renounce all that the world considers important and valuable to follow Him? Are we prepared to take a stand for the One we profess, or will we choose to remain silent to be spared the world’s scorn?

The cost of discipleship is a steep price to pay, but it is a cost worth paying if it means eternal life.

2. Complete surrender (28-33)

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who see it will ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish it.”

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? IF he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give Me everything he has cannot be My disciple.

Here Jesus uses two examples to demonstrate that our commitment to Him requires our complete surrender, and we do it by considering the cost.

If a person wants to build a house, they need to be able to afford it. If a person wants to wage a contest against someone else, they need to be able to have a reasonable chance to win. Otherwise, the building or the contest will only result in ridicule and loss. If I commit myself to build a $500,000 house and pour all my savings and income into it, only to discover that the house will cost more, what do I have to show for it? I may be able to sell it, but I won’t be able to recover my original income.

If I challenge Michael Jordan to a basketball game and invite the world to watch, the world will think I’m a fool for even thinking I could hold my own on the basketball court against one of the greatest to ever play the game.

If I think I can follow Jesus on my own terms, I am only fooling myself and falling short of the goal. Jesus tells us, “Any one who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.” If we are not prepared to give Him our all, then we need to turn away and not follow. When Jesus calls us, He calls us to surrender our all to Him and become His disciples.

If we are to live holy lives, we must surrender our all to the One who calls us to follow Him.

3. Changes us (34-35)

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out.

Salt is a necessary element in our world. We need salt in our bodies to be able to function. We need salt in our food to preserve it and to enhance food’s flavor. We need salt to disinfect and to preserve life as we know it. Without salt, we die.

Jesus uses this to show us that we cannot commit to follow Him and then decided not to so, after all. The illustration is similar to the warning to the church at Laodicea at the end of Revelation 3. Jesus describes that church as neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. Because the church has only a nominal commitment to Jesus, He tells them, “I am about to spit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16b). This is a church that is content to live in the world and show up on Sundays to go through the motions of being disciples. As a result, their testimony in the world is insignificant and easily dismissed by those outside the church.

Jesus is not saying that we can lose our salvation. What He is saying is that we cannot only tell the world we are Christians by our words. We have to walk the walk, we have to live out the faith we proclaim. We are made holy, therefore we are to live holy lives. We need to be the light that shines in the darkness, the salt that enhances life and preserves. If we accept Jesus only as a “fire insurance policy,” then we fail to understand what it really means to be committed to Him and to live the disciple’s life.

The cost of holiness changes us, transforming us into the children of God that reflect His love and His character in our world.

Conclusion

When Stephen was much younger, he and I once had a conversation about Lamborghinis. Stephen said he wished he could have one. I told him that I wish I had the money to be able to afford ten Lamborghinis, but even if I did, I wouldn’t waste the money to buy one. There are other things I value more and I hoped to convey those values to my son.

God blesses us with riches far beyond the ability to pay for a pricey car or house or anything else. He saves us through His Son, who died for us and rose again that we could have eternal life. This eternal life allows us to know the Father and the Son. We have the Holy Spirit within us to point us in the right direction.

In order to follow Jesus, we need to appreciate this most precious gift from Him. In return, we need to give Him our lives. Dying to Him and letting Him live through us should be our highest priority. We need to consider the cost of discipleship and ask ourselves, “Am I prepared to pay the price?”