Follow (1)
Let’s take a look at the following teaching from Jesus, over the next few posts. What can we learn about Him? And about ourselves?
Now great crowds accompanied 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 bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
So therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14.25-33
At first glance, it seems that Jesus’ timely teaching occurs because large crowds have begun to follow. That is, why would Jesus choose this particular teaching only after the numbers have grown? The obvious answer, in my opinion, is that Jesus is “culling the herd.” He’s removing those whom He knows will never completely follow.
But wait a minute! I thought Jesus loved everyone. I thought He wanted everyone to follow. Doesn’t the Bible say God is patient or long-suffering, not wanting anyone to perish, but to come to Christ?
He does. You thought right. And the Bible does say God is patient!
To be a disciple of Jesus - to follow Him - requires something. In fact, this particular teaching includes words like “hate” and “cross.” Let’s take them one at a time, before a summary.
Hate
This word doesn’t sound very loving, does it? But that’s the word Jesus used. He must have used it for a reason. In short, “hate” in the text distinguishes what a person prioritizes. It describes how one should categorize various things. In this case, Jesus says to come to Him demotes everything (and everyone) else. Of course, everyone else includes family and even one’s own life.
Scholar Joel Green might be helpful here.
Often in the Lucan account, crowds are presented as pools of neutral persons from whom Jesus might draw disciples, and this is clearly the case here…many, according to Jesus, will claim to have associated themselves with Jesus’ teaching both at the table and on the road, but their fundamental allegiances will not have been altered.
Cross
Jesus teaches that each person who comes to Him must “bear his own cross.” Often, we spiritualize the word “cross.” In other words, my cross today is a wayward child, a financial struggle, etc. That’s not what Jesus was getting at!
A cross in the Ancient Near East meant exactly that! The cross was a means of means of execution. Harper’s Bible Dictionary provides the following
Originally the ‘cross’ was an upright stake to which the corpse of an executed criminal was bound for public display or on which the living body of a condemned person was affixed to await death.
In other words, we shouldn’t commandeer the word “cross” and redefine it. It meant (and means) to die! It’s clear Jesus expects a surrender…a death of an individual. Only then, can that person truly follow Jesus.
Summary
Jesus’ teaching is timely and straight forward. As the crowd becomes larger, Jesus isn’t interested in numbers. He’s interested in those who will follow. Following is more than receiving something.
Just a few thoughts…what say you?