How much does it cost? When we talk about “cost,” we assume it reflects a decision we have to make in life. We need to think about our spiritual choices, because they will have future consequences. Therefore, cost is not only material things, but also in relation to God
What is discipline? We can talk in two ways: (1) the act of following Jesus and (2) the act of helping others follow Jesus; However, people who do not follow Jesus cannot help others follow Jesus. It is hard to follow Jesus as well as to help others follow Jesus.
In this post, I want to work in the first direction through the text of Luke 14. 25-25:
Luke 14: 25-35: 25 With him were great crowds, and he turned and said to them: 26 If anyone comes to me and hates his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and sisters , and yet his own life. , you cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not take up his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 Who of you, with the intention of building a tower, does not first sit down to calculate the expense and see if he can afford it? 29 Lest this happen, having laid the foundation and being unable to finish it, all who see it laugh at him, 30 saying: This man began to build and could not finish. 31 Or what is the king who, going to fight with another king, does not first sit down to calculate whether with ten thousand men he will be able to face what comes against him with twenty thousand? Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends him an embassy to ask for peace conditions. 33 Therefore whoever among you does not abandon all that he has cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is certainly good; however, if it becomes tasteless, how can its flavor be restored? 35 It is not good for the earth, not even for manure; they throw it away. Anyone with ears to hear, listen.
Jesus gives this speech to the great multitudes who accompanied him (v. 25). Luke’s account shifts the focus of Christ’s confrontation with religious leaders to the crowds who wanted to live an anonymous and generic Christianity, with no price to pay, was it a crowd, a mass of people without names or identities?’Exempt’. They followed Jesus “without commitment. ” The crowd is attractive to those who do not participate, because there is no need to be held accountable. You can interact without compromising, as people who just want to go to the service, without being noticed.
Beloved, know that Jesus does not want your comfort. His consolation is suicide, it is his attempt to follow Christ according to his conditions and not his.
In this crowd, Jesus talks about what it really meant to follow Him and not simply accompany the crowd without taking a position. All the indications Jesus gives in this talk of “who cannot be my disciple” come with conditions. Jesus establishes three conditions that this multitude needs to hear:
Discipline is not about integrating Jesus into your life and plans, but about integrating yourself into the life, plans, and demands of Jesus.
The first request for love: Jesus says that whoever loves him only his family can be his disciple. Discipline requires us to love Jesus more than one man among others, but like God. To be a disciple means to say that Jesus has primacy. .
The second requirement is the demand of suffering: Jesus demands some kind of suffering: take your cross and follow it. This suffering comes from our primordial love for Christ, the world’s reaction against him.
The third request for detachment: Jesus demands detachment, having Jesus as the most precious treasure we have.
To follow Jesus is to submit to his lordship, to accept the suffering we have received because of the gospel as a gift, to understand that Christ is the only bond we need to be who we really are.