The costly grace of Jesus in Luke 14

In the gospel reading for Trinity 12 in Year C, we complete our navigation through this section of Jesus' intermingled teaching and action until we striking the landfall of the 'parables of the lost' adjacent week in Luke 15. The double focus on the crowds and discipleship, the drawing together of educational activity found in different places in the other gospels, and the lack of specific location all keep every bit hallmarks of Luke's record of Jesus in this section.

The beginning saying here, about 'hating' i'south kinship group, is found in Matt x.37–39, following on from the saying about bringing division and a sword that we heard earlier in Luke 12.51–53. In both Luke and Matthew, it is immediately followed past the maxim virtually taking up one'due south cantankerous, which echoes the pivotal saying in Mark 8.34 = Matt 16.24 = Luke 9.23. The center pair of sayings, about the person building a tower and the rex going to war and first assessing the price of the respective projects, is found in Luke lonely—which is interesting, since when I first read information technology, it seemed then familiar I was certain it was in the other Synoptics as well. It isn't. The terminal maxim in this section, which belongs to information technology but is cut off by the arbitrary snip of the lectionary scissors, is plant in Matt five.xiii continued to the sayings about the disciples being the 'lite of the world' and 'salt of the earth'.

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As is common in this department of Luke, the scene shifts abruptly without any explanation or whatsoever attempt to locate accurately the place where this teaching happens. Jesus has been at dinner in the preceding verses, and instruction virtually the kingdom of God in relation to the table; at present it appears he is on the road once again. Crowds follow him on the route, every bit they have done previously—merely once more than there is a distinction to be made between the crowds and the disciples of Jesus. The crowds form thepotentialpuddle of those who might 'follow' him in the stricter sense, merely for many that decision of discipleship has not yet been realised.

Jesus then repeats one of many 'anti-family' sayings sprinkled through Luke'southward gospel (Luke viii.nineteen–21, 9.52–69, 12.51–53, eighteen.29, 21.sixteen), simply it is too worth noting the implicit connectedness with the politics of the table in the previous episode. If the kingdom of God and loyalty to Jesus are going to redraw the boundaries of honour, social stratification and kinship allegiance, and then traditional ties of family unit are going to be strained past the demands of discipleship.

The language of 'detest' sounds very agonizing to the ordinary reader'southward ear—but in fact Jesus is here deploying common Jewish hyperbole to contrast ii different attitudes. The roots of this language are found in the OT: in Gen 29.31, Laban's greater love for Rachel is described (in Hebrew and Greek) equally 'hatred' of Leah. (Encounter also the similar comparing in Deut 21.15–17). Jesus is insisting that his disciples 'must put Jesus so strongly at the centre of their thinking that they will appear to others as despisers or haters of their closest relatives' (Danker, 1988, p 272 cited in Parsons,Paideia, p 229).

Jeff Robinson over at The Gospel Coalition explores this:

Matthew ten:37 may provide the interpretational central to unlock what Jesus means by "detest" here: "Whoever loves begetter or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more me is not worthy of me." Yes, we are to exhibit deep affections for our closest earthly kin, but Jesus is saying we must love even them less than we do him if we would prove to exist 18-carat disciples. Of form, it's also true that I will beloved my family and friends well in direct to proportion to the depth of my love for Jesus.

Jesus is not demanding that yous literally hate your family. He is using hyperbole to illustrate the steep cost of following him. Whatsoever prospective follower must be glad to give upward everything, to love him unreservedly—to sell all in lodge to accept him as your highest treasure (Matt. 13:44–46). Our affections for Christ must be of such an intensity and quality that, by comparing, all other loves seem like detest.

This is the start of 3 sobering warnings in Luke xiv:26-33 against making a hasty determination to follow Jesus. A genuine disciple must:

1. Love Jesus even more than than your earthly family (v. 26).
2. Take upwardly your cross and follow him (v. 27).
3. Be willing to lay down everything—even your life—and go difficult subsequently him (v. 33).

The paradigm of begetting one's cantankerous is non at all connected with putting upward with natural burdens, as is suggested past the common use of the maxim at present; crucifixion was an everyday reality, and if you saw someone carrying their cantankerous you knew that their life had come to an terminate. ('Every criminal condemned to death bears his cross on his back', PlutarchSera 554A–B.) Note the personal emphasis in Jesus' maxim: each must carry his or herown cross.

The twin illustrations of building a tower and going to state of war would take been hands understood by Jesus' listeners, and demand not imply annihilation nearly the context or the audience. Towers were not only built to protect city walls, but were a mutual site in fields for use as a await-out to guard crops from those who might steal them. Some commentators focus on the question of humiliation; later all, the person with an incomplete tower would look a fool, and a male monarch who sued for peace without the strength to fight a war might notice him and his people enslaved. To follow Jesus might besides involved humiliation, as Jesus himself was humiliated on the cantankerous, so the stories could be read as an invitation to 'choose your humiliation'. But surely the more important point is this: that neither the architect nor the king actually accomplished their goal. If we do not count the cost of discipleship at the bespeak of delivery, so we are in danger of missing out on the goal of following Jesus at all—which is eternal life in the kingdom.

The final saying near saltiness makes less sense to us than to Jesus and his audience, since we cannot quite imagine table salt becoming unsalty. But salt from the Expressionless Body of water was in fact a mixture of all sorts of things, salt itself but being ane ingredient. If the salt crystals themselves were dissolved abroad, and so the remaining residue would be useless, fit for nothing. 'The Lukan Jesus is here concerned with commitment, not with chemistry' (Parsons, p 231). (Note that the final summary to pay attention, 'Those with ears to hear, let them here', parallels the maxim at the end of each of the messages to the seven assemblies in Revelation, withal another connection between the two works.)

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There are a number of very practical implications of Jesus' teaching here, both for the wider church and for each of us as disciples.

First is the question of crowds. Numbers matter, because numbers represent people. Crowds are good, if that means that many will hear the challenging invitation to hear the good news of Jesus and to follow him. You lot might non yet exist planning to install a helter-skelter or a mini golf course in your church, but if yous do then the crowds will come. The question, though, is what you practice with those crowds. Will some of them brand the transition to go disciples? If non, want was the betoken in creating a oversupply in the first place?

2nd is the question of grace. There has been some controversy well-nigh the bulletin of Nadia Bolz Weber, and her telephone call that nosotros should cast off the moralistic brunt of purity culture and experience no shame about sex and sexuality, fifty-fifty if that means have multiple sexual partners. There are some serious questions to be asked of her approach, but I was struck by a comment online past a adept friend whom I respect:

I think it'south wise to accept time to reflect on the discomfort she creates and to appreciate the good. She is certainly right about being more honest – the lack of honesty for generations is a primal issue in all C of E arguments about sexuality. I liked this quote: "I believe in grace and then much that I have no shame in admitting why I need it, so there are very few things that I actually carry shame nearly in my life. Non that I haven't: I have, but I but believe in grace." She talks very openly about the grace that she has discovered in God, and that is appealing to many people.

Radical forgiveness undoubtedlyis an essential part of grace—but on its own information technology is not grace. If information technology were, and so the Jesus of Luke 14 is non gracious, and that is a problem, since consistently in the NT Jesus is the measure and the apotheosis of grace. This grace, if it really is the grace of God, moves across forgiveness and calls united states into the life of Jesus. 'The student is not above the teacher, only everyone who is fully trained will exist like their teacher' (Luke vi.40). If the life of grace was plush for him, then it volition plush for us too if it actually is the grace of God.

The 3rd point follows on from this, and relates to the manner we sympathize Jesus' costly phone call to u.s.a.. Jesus does non demand our totally loyalty because he is some tinpot autocrat, who volition remove the party whip from us if we do non vote for him in every motion. He demands our totally loyalty because he loves the states, and knows that this alone is the path of fulness of life that he longs for us to walk. If Jesus really is 'the way, the truth and the life' (John xiv.6) then if nosotros refuse to follow in plush obedience, then we are actually refusing his souvenir of grace.

When I came to religion in an evangelical church, I was taught the mantra 'If Jesus is non Lord of all, he is not Lord at all'. The aim of this saying was to challenge u.s.a. to full commitment to Jesus in every area of our life. Just I wonder now if it has a different significance: if we don't follow Jesus in every area of our life, nosotros are in danger of missing out on the life that his Lordship brings. There are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world, which is passing away, and the kingdom of God, the globe to come that is breaking in in the ministry of Jesus and is fabricated real by the Spirit at piece of work in our lives. Jesus here teaches usa: you cannot have joint citizenship. Yous vest in the one kingdom or the other—and merely i leads to life eternal.

'The cross is laid on every Christian. It begins with the call to abandon the attachments of this world… When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die' (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p 73). Thus High german theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer captures the stark demands made by the gospel. This radical obedience and absolute allegiance may sound harsh and impossible to most contemporary Christians in the West. And yet the history of the church is filled with those who have heard this call and responded with utter abandonment. (Parsons,Paideia, p 231).

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