Imperishable Inheritance

We often times down­play some of the harder say­ings of Jesus for more famil­iar ones. It’s not uncom­mon, and some of the things Jesus declares really empha­size the utter devo­tion that must be dis­played to be His dis­ci­ple and Him be your Rabbi. One of the great para­bles I find is in the four­teenth chap­ter of Luke con­cern­ing cal­cu­lat­ing costs in fol­low­ing Christ. I know I cer­tainly do not reflect enough on what it means and what it will entail to fol­low Christ whole-heartedly. He starts the pas­sage with an admo­ni­tion to the amount of devo­tion needed to fol­low Him.

Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “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. Who­ever does not carry his own cross and come after Me can­not be My dis­ci­ple.“
Luke 14:25–27

We have this lan­guage also recorded for us in Matthew 10:37–38 which is one of the most author­i­ta­tive pas­sages on who Christ said He was. Imag­ine for a sec­ond this pic­ture. The peo­ple around Him were prob­a­bly famil­iar with the com­mand­ment to “Honor your father and mother” (Exo 21:12), but Jesus was telling them that they must hate their father and mother to fol­low Him. We must under­stand the hatred being talked about here. The Greek word behind “hate” in this pas­sage is mis­eoÌ? which means “to love less.” A good sum­ma­riza­tion would be, “If the love exem­pli­fied towards your mother and father is more than the love you have for Me, then you are not wor­thy to fol­low me.” We have in mind here a vivid por­trayal of what it means to fol­low Christ.

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and cal­cu­late the cost to see if he has enough to com­plete it? Oth­er­wise, when he has laid a foun­da­tion and is not able to fin­ish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, say­ing, ‘This man began to build and was not able to fin­ish.’”
Luke 14:28–30

We have in con­text what it takes to fol­low Christ: pure obe­di­ence to the point of relin­quish­ing every­thing. So now He is encour­ag­ing those who hear the words to think about what it will take to fol­low through on that. As a builder would cal­cu­late the cost of build­ing a build­ing before start­ing, so should be con­sider what fol­low­ing Christ will entail. If the reli­gious man, or builder, can­not com­plete the task he set out to do then he is to be ridiculed; and how often do we see peo­ple start the Chris­t­ian faith only to “fall away” when trial comes. Not that we can be saved and then lose it, but it is for those who never were of God’s fam­ily (1 John 2:19–20). Jesus asks rhetor­i­cally: Can you afford to fol­low me?

“Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in bat­tle, will not first sit down and con­sider whether he is strong enough with ten thou­sand men to encounter the one com­ing against him with twenty thou­sand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a del­e­ga­tion and asks for terms of peace.“
Luke 14:31–32

What has changed in this sec­ond exam­ple? Well, the builder takes the project of build­ing upon him­self, but in the sec­ond para­ble the king is forced to act. The king decides to pur­sue peace. Like­wise, we can see what will hap­pen if we “take on” God. The dis­pro­por­tion is much larger that 1:2, but the point is that the king, and us, will not win the bat­tle. We must seek peace from the bat­tle, because we can see that there will be strug­gle in it.

“So then, none of you can be My dis­ci­ple who does not give up all his own pos­ses­sions. There­fore, salt is good; but if even salt has become taste­less, with what will it be sea­soned? It is use­less either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.“
Luke 14:33–35

“So then,” after you have cal­cu­lated the costs of fol­low­ing me, and you know what will hap­pen if you do not fol­low Me then give up all your pos­ses­sions to fol­low me. Jesus con­cludes with rhetoric about what will hap­pen when the salt loses it tastelessness/function, and likens it to the believer who loses his reli­gion: He will be use­less. And since it is use­less it is to be thrown out (Mat 3:10), and He com­mands that those who can hear had bet­ter heed this com­mand. Matthew Henry com­ments on this pas­sage in his com­men­tary.

“May we seek to be dis­ci­ples indeed, and be care­ful not to grow slack in our pro­fes­sion, or afraid of the cross; that we may be the good salt of the earth, to sea­son those around us with the savour of Christ.”