Grace and Peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in
the truth; for His word is truth. Amen
The Fifteenth
Sunday after Pentecost (2010)
The Price of
Cross Bearing Rev. Toby Byrd
Luke 14:25-35 (ESV)
Now great
crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, [26] "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. [27] Whoever does not bear his own cross and
come after me cannot be my disciple.
[28] For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit
down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? [29] Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation
and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, [30] saying, 'This
man began to build and was not able to finish.'
[31] Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not
sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him
who comes against him with twenty thousand?
[32] And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a
delegation and asks for terms of peace.
[33] So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has
cannot be my disciple.
[34]
"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be
restored? [35] It is of no use either
for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to
hear, let him hear."
In the Gospel Reading for
today, our Lord Jesus makes the practical point of the cost of discipleship,
when He says, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down
and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (v. 28).
Here, our Lord Jesus is
asking, “Have you taken a look lately at your life as a follower of Mine? Have
you ever considered what is truly required to follow Me?” Now I’m certain that
all of you who have received Christ truly want to follow Him and I pray that
God will so bless you with a strong and fervent faith to be a true disciple of
Christ, however, this desire will not be fulfilled without cost. Therefore, let
us consider the Price of Cross Bearing.
Regardless of where He went
our Lord always made quite an impression on people. He had this way of speaking
that radiated wisdom, compassion, and love such as the people had never heard.
Thus, everywhere He went great throngs of humanity followed Him. No doubt there
were many among the multitude, if not all, who were attracted to our Lord
because of His penetrating words of wisdom, His ministrations of mercy to
ailing people, and their own desire to receive help from Him. However, there is
no indication that they believed that He was the Messiah and thus the Savior of
their souls; they were following Him primarily because of what they might be
able to get from Him. Our Lord, who was Divinity in humanity, could see into
their hearts and read their thoughts. Moreover, He was looking for true
disciples, those who would give their hearts and lives to Him in complete
submission. Thus, He began to teach the difference between true and false
discipleship; telling the crowd what it would cost to follow Him.
He said, “If
anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children
and brothers and sister . . . . . he cannot be my disciple” (v. 26). Pulling
no punches, our Lord states the Price of
Cross Bearing, what it costs to be a disciple of the Lord’s. They must hate
their relatives. Hate is such a harsh and ugly word in our culture. Moreover,
this word seems so strange coming from our Lord Jesus who said, “You
have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you” (Matthew 5:43-44 ESV). So what could our Lord mean when He tells
us to hate our relatives?
Obviously, we are not to
hate our parents, this would be a violation of the fourth commandment. However,
the implication is clear, we are not to love our parents, our brothers and
sisters, our relatives or friends more than we love Jesus. He must always hold
first place in our heart. Followers of Christ must be willing to abandon all
physical attachments. Their love for father, mother, son, daughter, brother,
sister, husband, wife, etc. must be secondary. Love of Christ must come first.
Our Lord makes this clear; He wants our love and devotion of Him to be
unconditional. He said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37 ESV). All that would come between our Lord
Jesus and us is to be rejected.
The Lord continued to teach
the crowd, adding they must count the cost of following Him unreservedly: “If
anyone comes to me and does not hate . . . . his own life, he cannot be my
disciple” (v. 26). This does not mean that you are to hate your own
body, your physical life or the fact that you were born. No, rather our Lord
teaches that we should hate sin; especially the sin within us. We should hate
the results of sin which are so evident in our daily lives. We must shun and
avoid evil affections; lust of the flesh, unholy desires, inordinate ambitions,
pride, greed, selfishness, anger, and yes, even hatred of our brother. We
should hate all that corrupts our minds with worldly desires and soils are
souls with sin. We must come to Him with pure hearts; hearts filled with love
for Him, hearts filled with the Holy Spirit, and hearts eager to do His will so
He can reign supreme and reign alone within us. Even more, if we intend to be
loyal followers of Christ, He wants us to know that we must love Him more than
we love ourselves, and that in all things this love to Him must be uppermost in
our hearts and lives.
As if this price of Cross Bearing was not enough,
our Lord then adds the cost of true discipleship. He tells all who would follow
Him, “Whoever
does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (v. 27). Even
as the crowds followed our Lord shouting choruses of adulation, He always knew
that a great price awaited Him; the Altar of the Cross. He was on His way to
that Cross where He would lay down His life in full payment for the sins of all
humanity. Throughout His life our Savior bore the cross of suffering. The
poverty of His lowly birth, the ridicule of those who rejected Him, the inner
pangs of the soul when He came to His own people and His own people did not
receive Him, to say nothing of the mockery and scourging at His trials, and His
disgraceful death on the accursed tree—all of this made Him the Great
Cross-bearer. He bore His cross, and all who would come after Him must also be
willing to bear their cross. You must understand that bearing the cross for
Jesus’ sake is a mark of true discipleship. Therefore, you must lay everything
at the foot of His Cross and in your continued discipleship be ever ready to
bear the cross of personal problems, heartache, sorrow, affliction, adversity,
and the ridicule, taunts, and sneers of men; for as Christ is hated by those
who will not believe, you too will be hated for believing in Christ. In fact,
our Lord warns us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you”
(John 15:18 ESV). Following Him, He warned, would not be an easy task.
Thus, we are to count the cost. However, no matter the cost, He grants us great
comfort in this marvelous news, “Blessed are you when others revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted
the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12 ESV).
Therefore, He speaks to you
and me today, telling us that we must be willing to sit down and count the cost
of cleaving to Him. The cost is great! He warns us that our love for our
parents, families, and relatives cannot come into competition with our love for
Him. Too often parents and children become guilty of loving one another more
than Christ. As an example, on Sunday morning they sleep in or spend their
mornings watching TV or playing video games when they should be worshipping our
Lord in Sunday school, Bible Class, and Divine Service. However, if we would be
true and loyal followers of Christ, then we must, first of all, love Him with
all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. If your effort to
be a true disciple of Christ means you will be despised by your relatives, then
may God grant you the grace and spiritual strength to endure the heartache of
separating from those who would deprive you of giving yourself wholly to
Christ.
Moreover, the Lord Jesus in
speaking to us through the Gospel places the qualifications for true discipleship
still higher when He insists that we are to love Him more than we love our own
lives, that we are to be willing to make whatever sacrifice necessary and
endure self-denial in our demonstration of love for Him. This is truly bearing
the cross for Jesus’ sake.
If some illness places us in
a sickbed for months, could we be like Job and still rejoice in the Lord,
enduring the cross? When the loss of
friends, loved ones, sudden grief, temptations, self-denials, and afflictions
come into our homes, will we be found looking through tear-filled eyes to our
Lord Jesus in prayer, committing to Him all our burdens while carrying in our
hearts the confidence that, in His own time, the Lord Jesus will remedy all our
ills, knowing that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 ESV)? Are we
counting the Price of Cross Bearing?
Following our Lord Jesus is
a continuous process. Once we become a disciple of Christ, we must make every
effort not to forsake Him. However, Satan, always prowling, “around
like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 ESV) tries
in the most cunning and diabolical ways to make disciples disloyal. He can
create doubt, despair, disillusionment, disappointment, discouragement, and
sadness. He buffets the Christian with temptations, sins, and evil longings
trying to seduce the disciple’s soul. To battle against these assaults by
Satan, the disciple must turn to Christ in fervent prayer for strength to ward
off these vicious attacks. Included in the price
of Cross Bearing is the small cost of a daily reading of Holy Scripture, so
that the disciple can, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18 ESV). Coupled with this is the
cost of worshipping the Savior in His sanctuary in association with other Cross
Bearers, so that by your attendance in Divine Service you may continue in “the
apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers”
(Acts 2:42 (ESV). Within the hallowed walls of His house of prayer you will
be given additional spiritual strength in your warfare against the attractions
and distractions of this world and the cunning, crafty, pulling powers of your
own flesh.
Surprising to most, as you
associate intimately with the Lord Jesus, through His Word, the sacrament of
the Lord’s Supper, and your worship you will find that the price of Cross Bearing will increase. Our Lord Jesus tells us, “you
will be hated by all for my name's sake.” Moreover, our Lord tells us, “But
the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22 ESV). You can
be assured that your fight to endure to the end means that you must continually
fight against evil, against the lust of your flesh and the temptations of the
world, but you must never let down in your effort to cling to Jesus. Furthermore,
be aware that your efforts to cling to Christ will only bring on the renewed
and continued assaults by Satan who will never tire of trying to sap your
spiritual strength and resources; pulling you away from Christ and unto Him.
However, our great and loving Savior will never leave you without hope and
help.
God tells us through His
prophet Joel and the Apostle Peter, “everyone who calls upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21 (ESV). In these words we have all the
comfort we’ll ever need. We have all we need to sustain us in our fight of
faith and all we need to give us courage on our pilgrimage through this valley
of tears.
The price of Cross Bearing is far more involved than considering the
cost of building a house or waging a successful military campaign. Steadfastly
following Jesus requires the disciple to lay all at the feet of Jesus. Our Lord
reminds us, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my
disciple” (v. 33).
Additionally, we must also
exhibit our discipleship by making our influence felt. We must demonstrate our
faith in Him; we must radiate His love for us by loving our fellow man. Jesus
tells us that we are to be the salt of the earth. Salt makes food palatable; it
gives flavor to food; it preserves food. When salt fails to do this, it no
longer has value. You who call yourselves disciples of Christ are duty bound to
preserve the world from spiritual ruin by being a beacon of divine grace
through your daily living. By your influence in word and deed you are to lead
others to Christ. But if your discipleship of self-denial, faith, and love give
way to worldliness and self-indulgence, if you no longer walk with Christ, becoming
disloyal, then you become like salt that has lost its power of preservation and
flavoring. You have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen from grace,
and you become worthless, ready only for the trash heap.
Our Lord Jesus has provided
us with great instruction today as He pleads with us to count the price of Cross Bearing. Make no mistake;
anyone who wants to follow Christ must pay a very great price. Moreover, the
price is not a one-time cost, but a cost that must be paid everyday, because
everyday new demands are made upon your loyalty to Him. However, we do not
despair or shrink from the price of Cross
Bearing because we know that, “We do not have a high priest who is unable
to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been
tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 ESV). All that we
might endure, all that we might suffer, our Lord Jesus has already suffered.
There is no price higher than the price our Lord Jesus paid upon that accursed
tree of the Cross when He endured the agony of death so we could live. The
price He paid to take our sin upon Himself is a price beyond any we could
imagine. But more importantly, it is a price we don’t have to pay because our
Lord Jesus already has. What a marvelous blessing to be a disciple of Christ;
washed clean of sin in the waters of Baptism, given His body and blood for the
forgiveness of sin and the strengthening of our faith, made children of His
heavenly Father, brothers and sisters with Him, and given the divine promise of
life eternal in His heavenly home. The price
of Cross Bearing may be high by earthly standards, but who among us could
ever pay the price of eternal life; none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.