Before Whom Shall We Bow?

“A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, ‘if you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison; your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters; yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple. ‘But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘there’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’ ‘Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counsellors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. 

So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.” (Luke 14:25-33) (Also read Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; Philippians 1-21) At this point in Yeshua’s ministry, large crowds were following Him. By what He said to them though, it appears that many of them really didn’t know what following Him meant. There were some there because it was a crowd. Being a part of “what everybody is doing” is enough reason for some to be there. Natural inquisitiveness, like that which draws onlookers to an auto accident or a fire, would bring others. There may have been some self-seekers there; they wanted to know what this man could do for them. Some may have been patriots, believing that in this Man there was the Charismatic Leader who could rouse the emotions of the people and overthrow the cruel Romans. Some may have just been caught up in the rush of enthusiasm, the exaggerated emotion of the moment. Surely, though, there were some present who were aware of the presence of YAHVEH. But even those needed to know that following Him would be no easy thing. He had no place to lay His head; He intended no earthly kingdom; His glory would come the hard way, the way of rejection. A crown of thorns would be His glory. Eventually He would die on a cross. If they wanted to follow Him, they needed to know what it meant.

I.) Following Yeshua means taking a stand with HaMashiach. Neutrality is not an option. There is danger in neutrality. No one knows what neutrality stands for. Neutrality is weak and vacillating. It challenges little. It accomplishes even less. In the end, neutrality changes nothing. I heard Winfred Moore, long-time pastor of First Baptist Church of Amarillo; say in a sermon, “In west Texas, the only thing you find in the middle of the road is a yellow line and dead armadillos.” Neutrality will get you nowhere.

II.) If we follow Him, we will count the cost. In order not to be misunderstood, Yeshua resorted to plain speech; and then followed it with two rapid-fire parables so that no one would miss His point. The Kingdom of YAHVEH Luke said, is inclusive of all kinds of people, but not of all people. There are some hard decisions that must be made. What did He mean when He said we had to “hate” our families, even our own lives? It is a staggering word; probably meant to be staggering. It would sift this half-hearted crowd and force them to face the harsh realities of discipleship. He refused to dress down the cross, to hide its sharp edges, to imply that it was lighter than it really was. Some have said that Yeshua’s words about such “hatred” flies in the face of all things good. I suspect that these rugged Galilean fishermen understood it quite well and were not destroyed by its seeming contradiction. The one who taught them to love their enemies now bid them to hate their parents. He who wept so bitterly over Jerusalem now asked that they repudiate their own country. He who taught them that the bitter emotion of anger toward a brother was a subtle form of murder now suggested that they count their brothers as nothing. He who brought little children to His side now counselled disregard for little ones, even sons and daughters. This apparent contradiction they fully understood. The condition of discipleship is simple: Yeshua must come first. “The wise person,” Yeshua said, “is one who makes My Spirit your Law and who willingly gives your life for My Name’s sake.” There follows swiftly two parables, twin parables. There is a rash builder and a rash king. Both were common in that day and still are today. Maybe Yeshua had in mind the aqueduct Pilate began that was never completed; or the often short-sighted military operations that attempted desperately to throw off Roman oppression, but could never muster the strength to make even a dent. Yeshua holds both examples up to public ridicule for not being able to finish that which was begun. There is likewise ridicule for an extinguished enthusiasm in matters of faith.

III.) There is an alternative. We are made for fealty. We will bow before something. This passage closely resembles another in which great crowds came to Yeshua. He said to them, “You have come for the loaves and fishes” and then related the difficulty of discipleship that included a cross. The people walked away. What was in the beginning five thousand people dwindled away to nothing. Why? Surely not because they didn’t want Yeshua. They did want YAHVEH, just as do many of us reading here. It was just that they wanted something more than they wanted YAHVEH.  A brash and affluent young man came to Yeshua with the question of eternal life. “What must I do to get it?” he asked. Yeshua said simply, “You will have to give up your whole life, even your favoured financial condition, to follow Me.” And the young man walked away. Not because he did not want life with YAHVEH, but because he wanted other things more. Here is the heart of renewal for every Christian and of revival for the Church: we must want it more than anything. When that is pressed, a crisis develops at some point. Where am I not yet following Yeshua? What is it that I have not given over to YAHVEH? Maybe it is my obvious sin or a less obvious attitude, a prejudice. Maybe it is my complacency, thinking I am all right, at ease in Zion, as Amos said. Once I have discovered what it is, the point of crisis, how then will I deal with it? I can ignore the crisis and go on in life as if nothing has happened. Because nothing has. Pray as much as you want, be consistent in all the disciplines you desire, but until the crisis point of belief is settled, you will go no further. It is when the matter is handed over to YAHVEH that new light begins to break over the horizon. When it is clear that I want, literally more than anything, that YAHVEH control my life, then YAHVEH comes to make Himself known. It all begins when I say and mean in my heart, “Adonai, I repent of my sin. I yield all to You. I will follow You wherever You go. ”