Luke 14:25-33: The Cost of Discipleship

Luke 14:34 "So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."

What does it cost you in order to become a disciple of Jesus? Does it cost you your money? Your friends? Your family? Your career? Your desires? Your dreams? Let me tell you this morning, my brother and sister, it doesn't cost you a single one of these, rather, it costs you everything.

In Luke 14:25-33, we find a great story of Jesus teaching about the cost of discipleship. He starts with a bold statement: "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" (Luke 14:26). This is surely a bold statement that, taken out context, can seem outrageous. However, Jesus defines what he is saying in the next verse: "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27). We must notice here that Jesus is using a literary device called hyperbole (also known as exaggeration) to make his point. He is not saying that we must hate our family members in the way in which we might think. We know this because the rest of the Bible tells us to love our parents and our family (see Ephesians 5 and 6). However, what Jesus is saying that in comparison to how much you love me, you much hate everyone else. In other words, if someone else calls you to give them devotion, you must reject them in order to give your full devotion to Jesus. If anyone calls you to love them, you must love Christ first. Furthermore, Jesus says this applies to even yourself. You must disregard not only others' desires for you to follow them but even your own desires that tell you to follow yourself in order that you might follow God with every ounce of your being. This is what Jesus meant by bearing your cross. We must all sacrifice our own desires for even those we love and count Jesus' plan for our lives as greater than our own. We must renounce all in order to be his disciple (Luke 14:34).

So, have you given up your life for Christ? Have you renounced all to follow him? Even if you have, have you continued to do this daily, or have other things in your life crept in and stole your attention? Brothers and sisters, let me make known to you once again, we ought to love our mothers and our brothers and our sisters, but we must love Christ first. We must sacrifice our desires and all of their desires for Jesus' desires for us. He comes first. And the beauty of it all is that if we take up the call to renounce all that we have and follow Jesus, he will guide our every step and provide us with pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11)

"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship