Jesus keeps defying expectations. In the midst of great celebrity, he now defies the low expectations the followers have for themselves.
how Jesus turns the tables on his followers
Proper 18C
Luke 14:25-33
There are some Sundays when we listen to the gospel and we all think “what is the preacher going to do with this one.” And when you’re the preacher, you ask yourself a similar question: “what the heck am I going to do with this one?” You and I know this is just such an occasion.
But underneath these questions is a grounding we may take for granted. I’m not just up here talking. You aren’t out there listening. This isn’t a speech. Instead, we’re doing something together. We’re responding to the gospel. That’s active. It takes work.
And we do this together, in community and relationship. This is how we encounter the Spirit telling us something.
So the real question isn’t “what am I going to do with this one?” but what is Jesus trying to show us this morning? And that is a much bigger deal.
What is Jesus trying to show us? He’s talking about hating family, sacrificing everything, planning ahead, and giving up all our possessions. So I think we could be forgiven if we looked at each other and said “Try to make sense of that, preacher. I’m not sure I like where this is going.”
And I’m going to do my best to help us hear what Jesus is getting at. But just know you still might not like where it’s going.
Being a disciple
We remember that Jesus has turned his face toward Jerusalem. He is on his way, he has predicted his Passion—his coming trials and death. But more importantly, he has empowered his disciples to do the work he would do if he could get to every corner of the globe.
We have to hold onto that thread because this is really important. Being a disciple of Jesus means doing the work he would do if he could be everywhere at once.
That’s part of it, anyway. Because he gives them a second part. Being a disciple means you are bound to step on the toes of the powerful. That’s the price of admission.
Third, we’re building a different kingdom than the kind you know about with supreme rulers and their oaths and sworn loyalties. This kingdom isn’t made up of a handful of rulers over here and everyone else is over there: serfs who only survive to serve the crown. This kingdom flips that upside down and expects our suits to shine shoes and the guy who shines shoes gets to fly first class.
So already Jesus is messing with people’s expectations.
Which doesn’t sit well with the powerful. Maybe they don’t like shining shoes or washing feet. But really, they love flying first class. [They say it’s the extra legroom, but it’s really the extra superiority.]
They keep trying to trick him into saying the wrong thing in public so they can discredit him. Or they schmooze with him at fancy parties. These powerful people want a little of the Jesus juju magic to rub off on them.
That’s what we read about last week. Jesus was at this dinner party. And he was giving the guests advice so they wouldn’t feel shame. And he tells the host he should expand the guest list. Which I’m sure wasn’t what anybody really wanted to hear. This rich guy is hoping to collect another celebrity! Maybe co-opt his popularity and message but instead, he gets schooled.
Jesus as Mr. Popular
Suddenly, after this dinner party, the already popular Jesus is even more popular. He is being mobbed in public. And given the clandestine attempts by the powerful to undermine him, we can be pretty confident where a lot of this fame is coming from.
To the masses desperate to be heard, Jesus’s message sounds an awful lot like “eat the rich.”
If this were a movie, Jesus would turn around and give some rousing speech about how the way ahead will be hard. So buckle up.
But that’s not exactly what Jesus does. He says they have to learn how to hate. Which sounds really kinda gross, doesn’t it? But just as surprising, he doesn’t tell them to hate the people in power. Instead, he’s saying real disciples hate their parents.
He couldn’t be more straightforward, so there’s no way to confuse this.
Except that we do.
We’re totally confused.
Because this isn’t a familiar rhetorical device to us. Since the era of modernism, we’re all far too literal.
F.F. Bruce refers to this use of the word hate as describing a secondary love. Because this hate is contrasted with what one truly loves. We contrast the distance between the primary love and the secondary. So for instance, in Hebrew Scripture it refers to God loving Jacob and hating Esau. God doesn’t hate Esau, in the sense that we know. It’s a way of saying the primacy of love for Jacob means Esau can’t achieve equal love. They don’t get the same.
The primacy of love for God, for the way of love, this path of discipleship means we don’t get to split our loyalties. We don’t get to say I love God and my family just as much. I love God and Caesar—I love God and money—I love God and country. If we don’t put all of this far below God and keep it in its place, we aren’t really following Jesus.
Jesus is telling all these people following him that this is the base level for entry for being a disciple. And if this thins the herd a little bit, so be it.
These aren’t proverbs.
This is also why Jesus speaks of building a house and going to war. These aren’t proverbs to encourage a general sense of responsibility in life. He’s talking about these people following him to Jerusalem where he will die on a cross. So if you haven’t taken five minutes to think past this moment, this great swell of excitement, then may I suggest we do that?
This is a moment of reckoning.
At least that’s my version. Jesus, as always, is far more direct:
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
The literal mind obsesses about the word “all”. It says: what does Jesus really mean by giving up all our possessions? Does he really mean it?
And the all-too present advocates for the devil will pick at the words and intentions: Can’t I at least keep a toothbrush and the clothes on my back? Or do I have to give those up too? Does he expect me to run around naked? No? Well then, he must be fine with the number of possessions I already have.
But given the primacy of love, loving God, loving God’s dream, loving creation, these thoughts are not reasonable. This desire to define possessions is a possession itself. It protects us from giving all of ourselves to God. Our attachment to secondary loves becomes an obstacle to the way of love.
When we are so attached to our stuff, our building, our tradition, even to the feeling of being attached itself, we aren’t following Jesus anywhere. We’re following someone; just not Jesus.
A faith built upon sacrifice
Jesus is inviting us to understand that living a life of faith is built upon sacrifice. And to understand what Jesus wants of us requires us to make this way of love the true primary love.
“Jesus isn’t inviting meaningless sacrifice. He isn’t inviting door-mat discipleship or a whiney Christianity (“that’s just my cross to bear”). Rather, he’s inviting us to a full-bodied Christian faith that stands over and against all those things that are often presented to us as life by the culture. Jesus invites us, that is, to the kind of abundant life that is discovered only as you give yourself away.”
The journey of living an abundant life begins with sacrifice. Our culture would convince us to treat sacrifice like death, like the end of our story. But it starts there. And anyone who can celebrate the gift of life knows that life is full of new opportunities to give ourselves away.
To another person, a cause, but above all, to God.
And every sacrifice turns this hierarchical, ego-driven, selfish, mad, power-obsessed world upside down. Giving away what possesses us — that’s our super power. That’s Jesus’s way of love.
Doing that, don’t we feel more alive? More free?
And here’s the thing! What happens when we give that up? When we double-down on the way of love and free ourselves of power. We become free. And what does freedom bring? Happiness. And then? Gratitude.
And when we are full of gratitude, what do we do?
We celebrate.
Let us give up that junk inside, that desire for power and recognition, so we can get free. And then we can get everybody to this party.