Luke 14:25-35 – As Jesus’ disciples, we must count the cost

As followers of the Lord Jesus, we all like His words that bring comfort. Two examples are "Peace I give to you..." and "I will give you rest...." What about hearing some uncomfortable words of Jesus? Luke 14:25-35 give us a few of them. Here, His impending crucifixion and death was looming near. It's always fun to follow Him when He is widely accepted and popular. But at this time, the time for Him to be rejected and ultimately crucified, was drawing nearer. If the people had known this fact would they still be as excited to follow Him?

In this passage, Jesus gave His disciples a reality check, which we must also do from time to time. Jesus made two startling remarks in verses 25-27 - (1) A disciple, it seems, is required to hate one's own family members and even one's own life; (2) A disciple is expected to carry his own cross and follow Him. What does Jesus expect of us, His disciples, in these two statements? We need to know that the word “hate” is not to be taken literally. It is said as a comparison. In essence, Jesus is asking us to give Him our top priority in life and relationship. In comparison to all our earthly relationship, He wants us to put Him at the top of the list. Are we prepared to do that? Secondly, He is asking us to be sacrificial in demonstrating our love for Him. As He has loved us enough to die for us, would we love Him enough to give up self-comfort to follow Him? Discipleship is demanding. We need to give Him top priority and be sacrificial in living for Him.    

In verses 28-33, the Lord shared two parables. The essence of these two parables is the same. That is: His disciples must follow Him to the very end. He said that no builder would want to start building and then not complete the task he sets out to do. In the same way, a king would only start a war with victory in mind. If he could not triumph, he would rather abort it midway. So in the same way, if we are to become a truly effective disciple, we must persist and stay through to the very end. To do so requires that we count the cost and calculate the risks. Once we start the journey, we must be resilient and follow though. Like salt, if a disciple has lost its flavor, he would lose his function. He no longer can add meaning to himself or the lives of others. He would only be good to be placed under the feet and be trampled upon.

The Lord then challenges us to pursue Him in verse 35. We must seek to know what He is saying and then to follow after Him. What a radical call! Setting priority, making sacrifices, counting the cost, and calculating the risk, are all essential processes if we want to be an effective disciple. When was the last time we paused to evaluate our progress with the Lord? Why don't we schedule some time to do so again? Paying the price to attain the demands of discipleship will definitely make us more effective. There is no easy path, we must organize our life and engage in activities that will help us to do what we cannot now do by direct effort.