Luke

By Joyce Webb 2020

Chapter 14 Verses 25-35

Verse 25-26 Jesus is talking to a large group of people. He tells them that if they want to be his disciples and follow Him, they will have to hate their father, mother, brothers, sisters—etc.

Sometimes in translating Greek and Aramaic into English we lose some of the meaning. In English, the word “hate” means a strong feeling of not liking, not wanting, stay away from—etc.

Are we to have those kinds of feelings to our family? Not when Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as we love our self.

Jesus is trying to show and tell the people that to follow Him—they may have to give up their family. Most of the people Jesus was speaking to were Jewish. If they would believe that Jesus was God’s Son come down from heaven, this would be upsetting to most of their families.

Most of the Jews never accepted or believed that Jesus was God’s Son from heaven.

The Jews who did receive Jesus’ teachings were not welcome. They were treated badly. The Jews were against them. The twelve disciples went around preaching about Jesus—-they were put in jail, beaten, etc,—in the end 11 of them were killed for preaching about Jesus. Only one, John, lived a long life, but he was put in prison on an island.

In many countries in the world today, if someone decides to follow Jesus’ teachings and believe in Him—-they will be shut out of their family. They may lose their job. They may go to prison. They may have other bad things happen to them.

Even in the USA, these days, there are people who will make fun of Christians and say bad things to them and about them.

Jesus is warning the people. If they decide to follow Jesus—it may not be a easy thing.

Verse 27 Jesus goes on to say—if you are not willing to take up your “cross”—–if you are not willing to go through the bad things that will happen—-then you can not be my disciple.

We have to be willing to put our love of Jesus first. We must be willing to obey Jesus first. Our family comes second. And if our family will not allow Jesus—and not accept us if we follow Jesus—then we have to choose Jesus and separate from our family.

Verse 28-32 Jesus says that before you choose to follow Him and be his disciple—-you need to think about what it will cost you.

Just like a person who is going to build something. They sit down and write down the cost of everything, and they think about how much money they have and if they have enough money to build it.

It would be embarrassing to start to build and not have enough money to finish.

Also, like a king who thinking about going into a battle or war with another king. He would think about his army men, horse, weapons, etc. to see if he would win the battle—-before he started.

If he sees that he does not have enough power to win a war, he should send men to talk to the other king and see if they can come to an agreement of peace.

Before a person decides to be a Christian and follow Jesus—-they need to think of what it will cost them.

That will depend on the rules and beliefs of those around them.

Verse 33 Jesus said this is like a person who wants to follow him.

They will have to be willing to give up everything they have—-to follow Jesus.

In some countries, that is what a person has to do. If they decide to be a Christian, they will have to give up their family, their job, maybe their house and things they have. Some countries are very much against people being Christians. They put people in prison for being a Christian. They kill them for being a Christian.

In the USA, so far, we have freedom to be Christians. That may change. More and more, there are people who hate Christians.

Verse 34.35 Jesus said that being a Christian was like being “salt”. Salt is put into food to make the flavor of the food better.

Salt is used to keep food from spoiling. In the old days before there were refrigerators, people put fish and meat in salt—lots and lots of salt. The salt went all through the meat and kept it from spoiling.

Christians are like salt. They make the world a better place. Christians are kind, and helpful, and honest.

Christians help keep the world a better kind of place—keeps it from “spoiling, and going bad”.

If salt , loses the ability to be salty—it is not good for anything and you throw it away.

A Christian who does not obey what Jesus taught—-is not a true Christian. They are not “salty”. If they do not act like Jesus—then they are like everyone else. What good are they to the kingdom of God?

Why do people choose to be a Christian —when they would have to give up their family, or job, or be put in prison, or killed?

Because they understand that eternity is a long time.

Eternity goes on forever–millions, and millions of years.

Our life here on earth is 80 years or so. Eternity—millions.

Heaven for millions of years, or burning in hell for millions of years.

Is heaven worth giving up everything here on earth? Is heaven more important than a long life here on earth?

Each one of us has to decide.