September 3, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Do We Really Have to HATE Our Family?"
Scripture: Luke 14:25-33
(Other lectionary choices include Jeremiah 18:1-11, Psalm 139:1-6 and 13-18, and Philemon 1-21.)
Luke 14:25-33
The Cost of Discipleship
25Now large crowds were traveling with him; 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. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
As I was preparing this sermon, our small dog Timothy ran out into our backyard and had a slight encounter with a SKUNK! So, if you want to say, "Pastor, this sermon stinks", you may be right! I rushed Timothy into the shower and was able to contain most of the damage. I know that tomato juice is really the only thing that cuts through the stench of a skunk, but I couldn't find ours. Anyway, it was not a direct encounter -- otherwise, I would not have been able to have washed away the smell.
Now to the sermon. Did Jesus really mean that we have to HATE our family if we are to follow him? The answer is NO. But he was trying to get our attention, and he was trying to make a point. We have noted before that lots of Middle East speech from Jesus's day goes way over the top in order to make a point. Look at Jesus's own comparison of getting the LOG out of your own eye before you get the speck out of your brother's eye. You can't have a LOG in your eye and still survive! That was hyperbole to make a point. Today's Scripture is another example of over-the-top hyperbole. What Jesus means is that GOD comes first, before anything, even your family. And what's the FIRST Commandment? Thou shalt have no other Gods but me. That means God comes before your family, your country, your political party.... in short, EVERYTHING. If you really are to be a disciple of Jesus, God must come first.
One thing about Jesus: he was honest about what it would take to follow him. And he compared it to sitting down and counting the cost, much as a person would count the cost in the building of a tower, probably a lookout tower in a local vineyard. Grape growers would often build such towers so that watchmen could look out over the vineyard in an effort to keep thieves from stealing grapes. But there was a cost to building such a structure, and a vineyard owner had to count the cost before he began to build a lookout tower. Jesus is telling us to count the cost before we decide to follow him, because the way won't always be smooth. What if our family wants us to do one thing, but our conscience tells us to do something else? What are you going to do? That's what Jesus means about "hating" our family. If we follow him, we must do the right thing.
Jesus also says something about a king with only 10,000 troops considering whether to go to battle against a king who has 20,000 men. That king must count the cost. Can he do it? Can he win? If not, he had better go try to make peace right now. What is Jesus getting at? It just could be that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is trying to talk his fellow Jews out of the idea of revolting against Rome! He was NOT successful, as we know, because after Jesus left the earth, the Jews revolted in 70 A.D. and Rome put down the rebellion. The Romans also destroyed the Temple. Could Jesus have been trying to tell his fellow countrymen that THEY were the ones with the 10,000 and ROME had the 20,000? Maybe, and maybe not. But you and I both know that Jesus stood for peace his whole life. He gave us "turn the other cheek", rather than "get even". He gave us the idea of carrying a Roman soldier's pack for TWO miles rather than the required one mile. Jesus seemed to be for non-violent resistance against Rome, not the taking up of arms against it.
Jesus was born under Roman occupation, and it was a Roman official (Pontius Pilate) who gave the order for him to be crucified. So, all Jesus's life Rome and its oppression were always with him. He would have been justified, maybe, had he wanted to overthrow the Romans militarily. But that was not what he came to do. Also, he may have realized how FUTILE any kind of revolt would have been, and maybe his story of the king with 10,000 should think long and hard before attacking a king with twice as many soldiers was a subtle way to urge his countrymen NOT to try such a thing. They didn't listen, but Jesus tried.
A lot of us like to think of Jesus as the Son of God and maybe we forget that he lived in recorded time. And the church has always insisted that he was both fully God and fully Man. In today's Scripture lesson, maybe the Man Jesus is speaking specifically to a specific situation: do NOT revolt against the Romans. You have the 10,000, but they have the 20,000......and they will crush you! But they didn't listen, and they DID get crushed in 70 A.D.
Jesus apparently never took up arms against anyone. And he even says that whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword. What if he lived in a different time, and what if HIS grandmother were threatened by a gunman? Would he have remained non-violent? What do you YOU think? Amen.
Pastor Skip
