Outline of Luke 14:25-33
- Introduction: 25
- Terms of Discipleship: 26-27
- Invitation to take the matter seriously
- as one constructing a tower (28-30)
- as one marching to war (30-32)
- Conclusion: 33
Right after the question about the quantity of those to be saved, and Jesus' parable of the banquet, Luke presents us Jesus' terms on discipleship with the invitation to think things through before deciding to be a disciple. The terms of discipleship are pronounced when Jesus sees the crowds travelling with him.
If anyone comes to me without hating
his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
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
The discourse will be concluded by a similar phrase
anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.
Thus the price of being Jesus' disciple is to "hate" one's own family, carry one's cross and renounce one's possession.
The word "hate" can be scandalizing, but it is the strongest way for Jesus to underline the idea that He is to be loved more than father, mother, brother, sister, friend or wife. In the language of Jesus, there is no phrase equivalent to "love less"; it is either "love" or "hate". The statement is consistent with the attitude Jesus has shown in previous occassions.
In 9:59 he called a man to follow him but this one wanted to bury his father first. To him Jesus replied, "Let the dead bury the dead; you go and announce the kingdom of God." Similarly in 9:61, a man expressed his desire to follow him and asked that he be excused to say good-bye to his family. Jesus told him that anyone who puts his hand on the plow but keeps turning back is not fit for the kingdom of God. In both these instances, Jesus is saying that not even family obliigations can outweight the demands of His ministry for the kingdom.
In 12:51 Jesus tells his disciples that he has come not to bring harmony in the home but rather division. We have written about this in another article. The peace and harmony that all men long for will come at a price, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. But men and women will have to give room for him in their lives. And when he does enter into the life of anyone, the old structures of security begin to crumble and men will be divided among themselves: those for Him and those against Him.
Jesus' own life is characterized by this "rigidity" on what one must hold as first priority in one's life. Luke tells us that as a kid, Jesus had troubled his parents when he elected to stay behind the Temple in Jerusalem and not go home with his parents. After anxiously searching for him, Mary and Joseph finds him and rebukes him for the parental anguish he has caused (cf. Luke 2:48). Jesus replied: "Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" He was twelve then, the age when Jewish boys come to age and enter the world of men. It was at that age that Jesus begins to the distinguish the business of His father in Heaven and that of Joseph, his custodian the one whom everybody thought was his father.
Anyone then who wishes to be the disciple of Jesus will have to regard as one's first priority "the business of the Father"; that business is His kingdom.
The requirement about carrying the cross was first announced by Jesus right after Peter's revelation that He was the Messiah.
If anyone wishes to come after me,
he must deny himself and
take up his cross daily and
follow me (Luke 9:23)
The specter of the cross has been with Jesus from the time he was presented to the Temple. It was to His mother that the prophet reveals the cross whose shadow falls on them both:
Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be spoken against
and you yourself a sword will pierce
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:34-35)
Simeon's prophecy about the child is based on the description of one of the suffering prophets of the Old Testament -- Jeremiah -- who, during his ministry was persecuted and even physically attacked by those who cannot take his oracles. The sword that will pierce the mother's heart have been interpreted in the Catholic liturgy as the dagger that will pierce Mary seven times throughout her life on account of her Son's commitment to the Father's business. Even she, the Mother of Sorrows will not be exempt from the pain that Her Son will undergo.
In 9:23, the carrying of the cross is coupled with "denying oneself". Seen in the context of 9:23-26, the synonym of this phrase is "lose one's life for my sake." The denial of oneself and the carrying of the cross, then, are requirements for discipleship because Jesus himself will be undergoing both. The disciple should be where the Master is. Jesus' denial of self will be on account of "His Father's business"; his obedience to the Father's will -- in Paul's words -- will be an obedience "even unto death, death on a cross (Phil. 2:
." The disciples' losing of one's life for the sake of Jesus is equivalent to not being ashamed of Him and of His words before men (9:26).
The would-be disciple too is to take stock of his own attitude towards wealth. He must be ready to renounce it. In Luke 8:14, Jesus had warned his hearers that anxiety, riches and the pleasures of life are like weeds that prevent the seed of the word from bearing plentiful fruit. In the parable of the wiley steward (Luke 16:1-8), a manager is praised for saving the face of his master; he did it by practically giving away the goods he was managing. He was praised not because he was dishonest, but because he rescued his boss from the shame of, first, having an allegedly dishonest steward and second, because of a losing business. What did the steward do? He gave the impression that the business is losing because the owner is generous to his debtors, and second, that the steward is just doing what his master allows. The parable is actually about saving the "face" of the Father who, even now, is being mocked because of the lives of so many so-called "children". And the invitation of Jesus expressed in the rebuke of 16:8 is for the Christian to seek out creative ways -- as did the wiley steward -- to live in a way that the Father's name is glorified.
In Luke 18:18-25 we find the episode of the man who failed to pass this last requirement for discipleship. "He went away sad because he was very rich" (Luke 18:23). It also gave occassion for Jesus state the reward of discipleship to those who until that moment have been following him:
...there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children,
for the Kingdom of God’s sake,
who will not receive many times more in this time,
and in the world to come, eternal life (Luke 18:29-30)
The requirements of discipleship are so serious that Jesus accompanies it with two parables about thinking things through before making a decision. The first parable is about the owner of a vineyard who intends to construct a watch tower. The second is about a king who is marching out to war. Both are warnings about undertaking a commitment but not being able to follow through and finish. The man who constructs a tower without proper planning may just be building a memorial for his own folly. The king who marches to war without planning may be losing his men over a war that was already lost from the beginning. Thus, anyonw who wishes to follow Jesus must really think through the commitment he is about to undertake. Otherwise, he may not be able to finish what he has begun.
This warning is best understood in the light of Jesus' saying about the narrow door which we have had the occassion to discuss in another article. It should be noted here that in that saying, those who are not strong enough to enter through the narrow door are the ones who are left out of the banquet of the kingdom.
