Sermon for the week of Trinity 2
Isaiah 25:6-9 + Luke 14:25-35
In this evening’s first lesson from the prophet Isaiah, you heard God announcing a great feast, a great supper that He’s preparing for those who love Him. That supper is a picture of a perfect life with God, filled with joy, with the best things. It’s a life that lasts forever, where death itself is defeated and undone. It’s a supper that begins already in this life when sinners are brought into the kingdom of God through faith in Christ Jesus. But it reaches its fulfillment on the Day of Resurrection, and it then lasts into eternity, never to be disturbed by anything bad, ever again.
On Sunday, we heard Jesus telling a parable about the great supper to which a man invited many guests, echoing the image from Isaiah’s prophecy. Do you remember how the invited guests responded when they were told it was time to go to the supper? “Gotta go see my field. Gotta test my oxen. Gotta spend time with my new bride. Sorry. Can’t make it at this time.” In every case, something else took priority over the supper. Something else came first.
As we learn in the continuation of Luke 14, which took place shortly after Jesus told that parable, attending God’s supper—the one He foretold in Isaiah’s prophecy, the one He foreshadowed in the parable—has to come first, before anything else, before everything else. If you love something in this life more than the supper (and the One who is giving it!), then the supper isn’t for you.
You heard those jarring words from Jesus: If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Let those words jar you. Let them confront your sinful flesh that insists on putting your family before God, putting your own life ahead of God, ahead of His kingdom, ahead of the eternal life He promises. Family is one of the chief idols that people worship—not by bowing down to it, but by putting it ahead of God. It’s what causes Christians to change their views on things like sex outside of marriage, or homosexuality, or divorce, or abortion, or closed Communion, or any number of Scriptural issues—because a close family member is affected by those Scriptural beliefs, and holding to them would mean putting a wedge between them and their family member. And so they choose, so, so often, to abandon the beliefs for the sake of keeping peace in the family. Or, maybe it’s not a family member. Maybe it’s your own life that’s at risk if you follow Jesus faithfully. That’s certainly true in other countries where Islam rules, for example, but even here, you may put your job, or your reputation, or your possessions, or your comfort at risk for following Jesus. But Jesus says that anyone who doesn’t hate his family members, even his own life, cannot be His disciple.
Now, what does He mean with that word “hate”? It has nothing to do with emotional animosity, or even a strong dislike. It certainly has nothing to do with wishing evil on anyone. Here, in this context, to hate means to “choose against.” If it’s between following Jesus or keeping your family member close, or saving your own life, anyone who would not “choose against” his family member, who would not choose against his own life, cannot be Jesus’ disciple. Because, if you dare to call Him Lord, you have to mean it.
And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. How many people do you know who think of themselves as “followers of Jesus,” as Christians, as believers, but who, at the same time, can’t even be bothered to forsake their beds on a Sunday morning in order to go and worship Christ and hear His Word? If they won’t bear the cross of giving up their Sunday morning rest to worship the Lord Jesus, how will they bear the much heavier cross of persecution or pain? The cross is not a symbol of comfort, but of pain, suffering, and death. It symbolizes dying to this world so that you can have what Jesus offers you after this world. If a person will not bear it and follow after Jesus, who bore His cross, loaded down with our sins, to reserve us a place at His eternal supper, then that person might as well stop calling himself a Christian. Because he isn’t one.
Now, it’s worth noting that Jesus spoke these words to the “multitudes that had followed Him.” He saw multitudes of people eagerly following after Him. And instead of being content just to have their bodies there, He spoke this hard truth to them, knowing it would drive many of them away. And it did! Because for Jesus, it isn’t about numbers. It isn’t about filling His train, or the chairs in His churches, with lots and lots of people. It’s about having devoted followers who want what He has to offer more than anything else, even if there are only a handful of such followers left at the end of the day.
And so Jesus calls on all who would follow Him to count the cost of such following before going a step farther. Like calculating the costs of building a tower before you start building it. Because if you start it and then realize you can’t finish it, you look ridiculous. Like considering whether you have enough troops to win a war before going to war. Because if you go to war and don’t have what it takes to win, you’ve wasted all those lives for nothing. And so Jesus lays out the cost for all His disciples from the beginning: So likewise, He says, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
So, you see, the supper itself is free. God’s forgiveness, eternal life and joy in His presence, adoption as His beloved children—all of that comes at no cost, to you. It cost Jesus’ everything; it costs you nothing. You never have to suffer for your sins, or earn a place at the supper. You never have to make yourself acceptable to God. Forgiveness of sins and eternal life is a free gift, given to all who seek it through Christ, to all who wish to follow Christ. But Jesus is very upfront about what following Him looks like, what it requires in this life. It requires a readiness, a willingness, to part with everything else, as long as you get to have Christ.
The Psalmist puts it this way in Psalm 73: Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Again, St. Paul puts it this way in Philippians 3. Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Christ and His righteousness. Resurrection from the dead. A great supper with God, and with all the faithful, that goes on forever and ever. These are the things Jesus offers to those who follow Him. And He tells you plainly, you will have to “choose against” everything in this life in order to follow Him into this supper. Is it worth it? Is He worth it? It is! He is! Don’t let the devil, the world, or your flesh convince you otherwise. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Don’t make any excuses. Choose against everything here, and follow Jesus into eternal life! Amen.
