Wednesday, September 07, 2022

Leaving Everything Behind

 Leaving Everything Behind

Luke 14:25-35[1]

To the best of my ability to understand it, our faith in Jesus Christ calls us to shape our whole identity based on the kingdom of God. It’s a call to a way of life that defines all of life. But I’ll be the first to admit that none of us starts out there with faith. Most of us start out simply hoping that our faith will enable us to have a better life here, and in the afterlife a home in heaven. But Jesus spoke about something more: about the kingdom of God that is in the process of changing all things and all people here and now. Most of us don’t start out with that in mind. If we continue to seek God’s kingdom, however, we will have to face a call that claims our whole lives.

One of the reasons why this can be difficult for us is because we don’t have to face the likelihood that following Christ will mean the loss of family ties, being cast out of our circle of friends, or even being stripped of the means of making a livelihood. And we celebrate the fact that in this country we’re free to embrace our faith without suffering the hardships that many people have suffered for Christ throughout history, and many others still suffer today. It’s good to have the freedom to worship according to our conscience. But I think it makes it harder for us to appreciate the cost of following as our “Savior” and “Lord” one who suffered a brutal and humiliating death.

I believe our Gospel lesson for today places this question front and center. In fact, it’s hard to avoid when you read this passage. Here Jesus says some of the harshest things he ever said about what it means to follow him. Because of the difficulty of this passage, it’s easy to miss the “forest” for the “trees.” I think the point is that Jesus is calling us to shape our whole identity, from the roots up, around our commitment to following him and to seeking God’s kingdom. It’s a call to a way of life that defines all of life. And that means being willing to “leave everything behind.”

Right off the bat we hear the difficulty: Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26)! This is just plain jarring to hear. As is often the case with difficult passages of Scripture, we have to look elsewhere to gain the proper perspective on all this. I don’t believe that Jesus wanted anyone to literally “hate” their families, or that he wanted anyone to literally “hate” themselves. But I would say that the NT gives us plenty of evidence that the Christians for whom Luke’s Gospel was intended actually went through this kind of thing. Their choice to follow Jesus literally put them at odds with their families. They had to leave everything behind.

Jesus follows this up with another hard demand, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:27). We’re familiar with this sentiment, because Jesus had earlier called those who would follow him to “deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). After telling them that his path of seeking God’s kingdom was going to lead him to die on the cross, he called them to follow a similar path, one that would lead them to “take up your cross daily.” Again, I think this brings us back to what it will cost us to follow Jesus: our very lives, and all of life.

Perhaps more difficult for us is that Jesus sums up what it means to follow him by saying, “none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” (Lk 14:33). This is not so much offensive as it seems downright impossible. Who can afford to give up everything they own? But perhaps the idea here is broader that just our “possessions.” Older translations say, “all one has.” I think that’s more to the point: Jesus calls us all to leave everything behind as the first Apostles did (Lk 5:11, 18). He calls us to a way of life that defines all of life. And that means letting go of everything else.

I don’t believe that Jesus wanted anyone to literally “hate” their families, or that he wanted anyone to literally “hate” themselves. I also don’t believe Jesus expected everyone who follows him to literally become a martyr for their faith. I believe that Jesus made the shocking statements in this passage to make clear the kind of demands it would take for people to follow him. He was calling people to shape their whole identity based on the way of living he demonstrated for them. And he said that it was nothing short of leaving everything behind for the sake of the kingdom of God. And he used the shocking language of this passage to impress upon all who would follow him how hard it will be.

Jesus calls us to a way of life that defines all of life. And here we learn that “leaving everything behind” to follow Jesus applies not just to the first disciples, but to us all. That’s hard for us to hear today. We begin our faith journey hoping that it will make for a better life for us. When we hear something like this it may sound like Jesus is taking all that away. Because it doesn’t fit in with our approach to faith, we may be tempted to ignore it. But we cannot do that! Although they are hard for us to hear, I believe we must pay attention to Jesus’ demands in this passage. The fact that they are so hard for us to hear today, and they probably always will be, makes this passage so important. It creates a tension that I think is meant to draw us deeper into our commitment to following Christ. These demands continually call us to follow Jesus in a way of life that defines all of life. And that means continually learning what it means for us to leave everything “behind” for the sake of the kingdom of God.



[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon prepared by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/4/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

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