Luke 14:25-35 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
“A Tower”
Build on the Rock Summer Series 12 August 19, 2018
It is a position you do not want to be in: starting a project but not being able to complete it. We’ve talked about several different biblical building projects during the course of our summer series. Toward the very beginning of summer we spoke about the account of the Tower of Babel, a tower that got started, but was never completed. The people who wanted to build it were doing so to show their greatness and their rebellion against God, but God stepped in and made sure that it didn’t get finished. I wonder how long the foundation of that tower remained visible and how often people walked past and remembered how foolish it is to defy God. This side of heaven we will probably never know the answer to those questions. That idea, though, of an unfinished tower whose foundation stands as a testament to some sort of foolishness is exactly what Jesus speaks about in our Gospel today. In this case, the tower doesn’t get built because the builder runs out of money to build it. He didn’t plan ahead. He didn’t consider carefully. Most of us have learned from experience that those things are important. We need to plan ahead if we want to accomplish something big. That’s true for our congregation as well. As we consider potential changes and new buildings. We want to plan and consider things carefully. We plan and work to make sure we raise sufficient funds before we start a project like our Sahuarita Building. But the lesson that Jesus teaches in our sermon text is not a lesson about planning or about the importance of careful assessment, at least not about these things in and of themselves. Instead, Jesus is speaking very specifically about one thing, about being his disciple, about being his follower. As the account begins in Luke’s Gospel, we notice that Jesus has a lot of followers. There is a crowd traveling along with him apparently interested in what he had to say. But then he turns to them and says something that they are probably not expecting, something shocking and surprising. He calls on them to hate their own family members and even their own lives. He says that anyone who doesn’t do that cannot be his disciple. And then he calls this by another name: carrying a cross. So what is Jesus saying when he calls on his followers to carry a cross? What does he mean that we should hate ourselves and our own family members? Jesus is vividly pointing out that being his disciple means a whole lot more than just being part of a crowd. We know from the rest of the Bible that the large crowds that accompanied Jesus early on in his ministry eventually shrunk to be very small crowds that stuck by him through all of the difficult parts. Those many people traveling with him did not all understand what it meant to truly follow him. That’s what he was conveying to them. One commentator makes an interesting point about Jesus’ words. He says that Jesus called on his followers to hate others in the same way God hates them, just as he also calls on us to love others as God loves them. And if we understand that point, we can understand why Jesus would call on us to hate our own family members. The way that God hates people is he hates their sin and their sinfulness. And this is true even though at the same time he also loves them. God once looked at the world and hated what he saw enough to send a flood to destroy it all. And he looked at the same world, full of sinners just as guilty as those who drowned in the floodwaters, and he loved them and sent his Son to rescue them. And so, in the same way, those who would follow God and his Son Jesus Christ will also hate sin, anything that goes against or opposes God. Disciples of Jesus will be appalled by behavior that does not glorify God. And disciples of Jesus will at the same time love and want what is best for even the worst of their enemies, just like Jesus did and still does. But Jesus’ point is very clear, that you cannot truly follow him and be more connected to father or mother or wife or children or even your own life. Anyone who is more committed to anything or anyone other than Jesus cannot truly be a disciple of Jesus.