A Cost of Discipleship
A Cost of Discipleship
September 4, 2022
Luke 14: 25 - 33
25“Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, 26’Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.’” What do we do with that comment that pretty certainly goes back to Jesus?
Let me try another translation, the Scholars’ Version; you know, if you don’t like one translation, try another -- which I don’t recommend. “Once when hordes of people were traveling with him, Jesus turned and addressed them, 26‘If any come to me (to Jesus) and do not hate their own father and mother, and wife and children and brothers and sisters – yes, even their own lives – they cannot be my disciples.”
That one is just as hard to accept.
This doesn’t sound like love God and love your neighbor or even love your enemy. What goes?
A large crowd it says, or hordes of people, were traveling with Jesus. Every movement picks up a lot of people who are just hanging around to see what happening; many of them are not at all committed to the cause. Maybe those hangers-on were the focus of Jesus’ comments here.
But Jesus seems to have had problems with his own family. Remember? At the end of the third chapter of Mark we read, 3:31”Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ 33And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ 34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’”
The usual understanding of this passage is that the mother, brothers, and sisters had come to take Jesus home. They were embarrassed by his new-found preaching and teaching; they probably thought that he was losing his sense of reality. He was off his rocker, as we put it; they would take him home and help him get over his problem.
Mark puts this very early in his story of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ family was not used to crowds following him around, listening to him teach and preach. If we assume the usual information that Jesus was crucified when he was 33 years old and that his ministry lasted only about one year as the synoptic gospels report it, for 32 years Jesus was just like everyone else in the family – he went to the synagogue every sabbath, maybe a little more interested or fascinated by God then the other kids, but nothing like this.
Then Jesus and his buddies started going to those John the Baptist rallies. It was alright for a while, then he got himself baptized and went out into the Transjordan wilderness for a few weeks. When he came back, he wasn’t himself; he started talking about God’s kingdom and began to act all differently from whom he had been. He wasn’t himself, his family thought. He didn’t start wearing John the Baptist’s crazy clothes and he didn’t (yet) gather huge crowds. But he began going around to the villages preaching and trying to heal people. He was just our brother Jesus; he was no Sadducee or pharisee or priest or anything like that. He must be losing it – they came to get him and take him home to keep him from embarrassing himself and them.
So, mother and brothers and sisters appear not to have been supportive of Jesus’ new ministry. His father, Joseph, seems to have disappeared; we last hear of him when Jesus was twelve years old and “lost” in the Temple in Jerusalem. Apparently, Joseph was in the building trades – carpenter, stone mason, or perhaps a laborer; accidents, some fatal, would not be unusual. And tradition has it that Jesus was not married and had no children. So, at least early on in his ministry Jesus seems not to have been supported by his family. When he said 26“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple,” Jesus was talking about his own experience. That is the way that his family appears to have understood him early in his ministry. And that “hating life itself” may reflect the difficulty of learning to live as an itinerant teacher, preacher, and healer – living off peoples’ generosity rather than by a regular job.
If the people in that large crowd of followers are going to be Jesus’ followers, Jesus seems to be saying, they had better expect to be outcasts in their families. Their parents, wives, brothers, sisters, and children as well as their neighbors are likely to become estranged; they should not expect to be supported by their friends and families.
In that society, the first century Palestine, family was the primary grounding relationship. Individuals had no real existence apart from their ties to blood relatives, especially parents. If one did not belong to a family, one had no real social existence. Remember how often we read about the need to care for the orphan?
Jesus, then, seems to be preparing his followers to be estranged from their primary filial relationships. And, at the same time, he is challenging the social structure that governed his society at its core. Living into the kingdom of God is what life is really about, he is saying, not maintaining your role in the family and village.
That is then, what about now? How do we hear this challenge? Are we willing to turn from our parents, siblings, and children – can I add, if need be – to follow Jesus? For some of us that may really be necessary. For the rest of us, we just have to be the odd-ball who still goes to church every week and who takes Christianity seriously.
My parents always supported me; they paid most of the money for my seminary education. The first Christmas after I started working in what was referenced as Upper Harlem in New York City, my mother gave me a pulpit robe and carrying case, hoping that carrying it might help protect me from any danger. (She never knew that I took it to the church and left it from week to week instead of carrying it every time I rode the subway up to the church.) My dad was supportive, but he always wanted me to be “successful” – the pastor of a large downtown or suburban congregation, not the pastor of the struggling congregations to which I was appointed -- and which I loved so dearly.
I was already a pastor when I met Sylvia; she knew what she was marrying into. My kids had no choice, but they have always supported me and helped me even when they manage not to get here most Sunday mornings.
So, I have had an easy trip, so to speak. How about you?
Or have you found a way to more-or-less pretend to follow Jesus while you participate in the goings-on of the congregation?
On Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, the Preparing the Way classes begin –at one o’clock and seven o’clock here in Benson Hall and on Zoom if you prefer. This class will change our congregation – and us. During the last week and a half, I have spent thirty or forty hours developing notes to help us understand and discuss the experiences of ten or more richly spiritual, thriving congregations. I have really gotten excited about this study. It will challenge me and take me out of my comfort zones several times. I believe that you, too, will find it a really good and fun and an engaging experience.
Unfortunately, only eight of you have enrolled in the Preparing the Way classes. I don’t think that you will want later to have been left out. But that is up to you. You can register for the one o’clock or seven o’clock class – there is room for ten or twelve more in each class. I feel sure that this study will enrich your life; it will help you begin to discover new experiences of the Sacred; it will change the life of Mt. Salem Church. Don’t get left out!
I have eight books – seven left – with eleven more on the way.
Please join us.
We will study to understand and begin to experience the ten “signposts” of spiritually thriving congregations. After the first week’s introductory session, we will explore and discuss the signposts – one each week – and then on the following Sunday (beginning the Sunday after next) I will address that week’s signpost or practice in the sermon.
As we learn to appreciate and practice these ten signposts – these ten processes that the studied churches shared, we will grow in our faith and practice and prepare ourselves for a renewed and revived life together to which we will be pleased to invite our neighbors to join – in traditional form or in whatever non-church-styled patterns of ministry and mission that we may develop.
Please be part of our future. Please taste and see how fantastic church can be when we really begin to do Jesus’ ministry for our generation.
See you Tuesday at one or seven o’clock here in Benson Hall or on Zoon – at the usual Zoon number that is printed on the bulletin. Don’t miss it.
Amen
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