Pentecost 16 [Luke 14:25-33] (8 September 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (9 am) and St. John's Luthera, Karoonda (11 am).  

You know, you want to be a good Christian, but nobody gets to the end of the day and says, “Man, I didn't hate my family enough today, but Jesus said to.” One, that's taking things out of context, because he says, “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. ”. Two, it's nothing new or different for the crowds from what he's been saying, like when Jesus' family comes to him and he says, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” or when someone comes to him wanting to be a disciple but after first farewelling his family, but he says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” or when he says “For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.” So what is the cost of discipleship, which is what this reading is usually titled?

1. Jesus lays out the cost of discipleship.
   1. Here's what else Jesus does say: not only “hating family and your own soul”, but to “carry his own cross”, “renounce all his own possessions”, but he never says “this is what you have to pay, this much and no less”. The language of “cost” comes from the man in the parable who will sit down and count the cost, “whether he has enough for completion.”
   2. Someone asks you, “Are you saved by works?”, you quickly answer no. Yes, your works don't save you, but switch out the word “works” with “love” “obedience” “or trendy buzzwords like 'discipleship'” and you waver. There the inclination of your heart comes out, the desire of your sinful nature to refuse the free gift of God and try to get it in exchange for, as Luther says, “some head lice”. Here's the quote: “The beggar comes here to the mighty king and begs thusly, that he does not want to take the alms for free but wants to give him some four pennies or lice in return.”.
   3. Specific Law: “Disciple” and “discipleship” are good words. Don't make them mean something they don't. A disciple follows, but someone who follows whatever floats before their eyes, is no disciple. If you go on a bushwalk with a guide, but you constantly follow every fly, moth, lizard, and bird instead of the guide, follow them right off the path, then when he finds your lost self, and you say, “but look how good I am at following”, what will the guide say?
   4. In your love for God of wanting to be a good enough Christian, you close your ears to his Word that you can't be a good enough Christian to be saved. That's what these parables are meant to expose. They aren't there to show you how much you have to give to God before you can be a disciple. They both do the same thing, if you can't build a building to the finish, don't try. If you can't conquer an army, don't march off to war. “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? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' ³¹ 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? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”. If you can't give anything that makes you a disciple – don't try, which is the same thing that Luther quote said.

Transition: “But that means I can't do anything to be a Christian.” And if you can't, but Christians do exist, then maybe Jesus makes disciples. But the “cost” is trusting in your own goodness.  It's not a cost of giving up something of value, but of giving up something of no value.  In salvation, your goodness is of no value. 

2. The cost of discipleship is the cost that Jesus paid to give you the free gift of being a Christian.
   1. If Jesus has risen from the dead, then he has paid the cost, not just the cost of your sins, but that cost of his blood is the cost of your discipleship.
      1. Jesus says, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me, he is not able to be my disciple.” The person who carries their own cross and comes after Jesus doesn't think he's able to be a disciple – that's the person who knows they're not able. But Christ is able.
      2. Jesus wouldn't speak of carrying your own cross if he didn't carry his own. But he did. He loved you more than his own life, and not so that you could pay him back by loving him more than your life (as if they're equal – like 10,000 meeting 20,000), but so that he could give you the free gift: to make you a Christian, and someone who is already a Christian, already saved and justified and bearing his name and his promise of eternal life, only that person loves God more than their own life. That doesn't save you or even keep you saved. Jesus does both, because only he is able to, so when he talk about being not being able to be a disciple, you say, “That's me.” But when you talk about one who is able to die on a cross and rise from the dead, you say “That's my Lord”.
         1. Specific Gospel: A disciple of Jesus puts the emphasis on Jesus, not on the following. That's what it is to come “after me”! He's preeminent. And he says, like the bush walking guide, “I don't care how “good” you are at following, only follow me, only I bring you safely through to the end”. Only Jesus brings you safely to life everlasting with him in heaven.
      3. And to bear your cross is to be baptized into Christ's cross!
         1. The follower of Jesus loses the world (as a source of salvation, and therefore loses the favor of the world) and gains only a cross (as the source of salvation, but also in receiving the hatred that the world has for Christ).
         2. In your Baptism you are given the dear cross of Christ because in your Baptism he gave you his death and resurrection and thereby gave you all the discipleship you could handle when he gave you complete forgiveness of sins and gave you the Holy Spirit who completely and daily makes a Christian of you by the words and promises of Christ.
3. The cost of discipleship isn't anti-family but it is anti-rejecting Christ.
   1. Don't make the word “hate” do something it wasn't meant to do. The word used here isn't an emotional thing. It's more like when you say, “I hate when the sun dries up my crops” - you don't emotionally hate the sun, it's just of no value to you at that moment.
   2. Your family is of no value in salvation. But guess who is: Jesus!
   3. So what is of value? Membership in the Church is by catechesis and Baptism,which are what God does to make Christians, and family plays a part. But in doing that you can only point to – Jesus! to God's grace received by faith, because family can speak God's Word to you, they can speak of Jesus who is risen from the dead (the Easter greeting). They can speak of how good your Baptism is (from the Small Catechism!). They can speak that Jesus said at the cross “It is finished” - for your salvation. But that's not family saving you – that's God saving you through his holy Word!
      1. [Aside] - And since Christians have a strong enemy in the Devil, that's all the reason you need to pray for all the baptized who are in your life with great zeal, while at the same time letting God be God, because he's better at it than you you.

The cost of being a disciple is . . . completely despairing of your goodness and anything where Jesus isn't preeminent, isn't the hope of eternal life.

Conclusion: So Jesus isn't anti-family, but he's pro-saving you by the free gift of his death and resurrection, which he gives you by the Holy Spirit in his Baptism (so you pray the Lord would preserved all the baptized in their baptism). But that's because the cost of discipleship is his Baptism and teaching where he makes you Christians by the cost of his cross. That's because discipleship has a cost, just not one that sinners can pay – only Jesus. Amen.