In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please sit.
A hard gospel, a hard thing to hear.
If any man comes me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, even his own life too, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:26
How do we start to make sense of these very hard words from Jesus? Well, as I always say to you, when you hit a part of the gospel that is complex and difficult to understand, let’s think about the geography and let’s think about the time, and let’s think about exactly what’s going on in Jesus life in this moment.
Jesus is walking to Jerusalem. He’s walking to his cross. He knows what lies ahead of him. He knows of the sacrifice that he is about to make. He knows quite literally the cross that he is going to be carrying. But people are starting to gather around Him on his way to Jerusalem, not because they understand the sacrifice that he is going to make for them – that they may be saved and brought to His Father.
Now, what they think is going on is that he is coming as an earthly king. They think that he is coming to save them from the oppression of the Romans. And so people are gathering to see Him for that reason. They are sidling up to Him because it is politically expedient to do so. This sidling up to him because there’s a sense that maybe there’s a shift in power going on.
And it might make sense for me to get to know this person who is going to Jerusalem and is going to bring it down, is going to bring us our freedom. And then if he wins, I can hedge my bets. And if he wins and I can say, oh, well, I saw you, Jesus, when you were on your way. Do you remember? I came and spoke to you?
And so Jesus is spelling out to these people that to follow Him is not something that you do because it is politically expedient. To follow Jesus isn’t something that you do because your friends do it. It’s not something that you do because culturally it’s what we do. It is something that you do in the full knowledge of the cost of following Him.
Being a Christian doesn’t alleviate the world’s problems. Being a Christian gives you the strength to deal with them. Following Jesus gives you the ability to know that whatever happens in this life, you will never have to face it alone.
This gospel is hard because you think, how on earth can I do this? Well, you can do this because you’re not doing it on your own. You do it. You’re able to face this life because of what Jesus did for you.
So when life is hard and life is difficult, when life gives you something that is painful and hard, when you find yourself standing there wondering why on earth you’re doing this. This is the gospel to remember. Because Jesus carried his cross quite literally.
He went to Golgotha and hung upon it for us. He knows our pain, he knows our darkness. He knows what it is to be treated unfairly.
And so then, knowing this, knowing that this is what being a Christian means, how then can you do it in a lukewarm way? And that is really what the Gospel is warning us against. You cannot be a Christian in a lukewarm way. You cannot do it in passing, you cannot do it and just brush up against it. You must know what lies ahead of you and you must embrace it in its fullness
Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and with all your strength.
Luke 10:27
Jesus is warning us that being a Christian is not easy, but you will never have to do it on your own. And because of that, you should do it with every fibre of your being, day to day. That’s quite an esoteric thing to carry around. But the way that I generally see it playing out is it’s often expedient to pray when things are bad. So I’m a biker, as you all know, and if I go into a roundabout on my motorbike a little bit too fast and I can feel the front wheel of the motorbike just slipping away a little bit, I send a prayer up immediately because it is expedient to do so, because I’m in trouble and I need God’s help.
The other side of that coin is to send a prayer up when I see the sunlight coming through a tree in a particularly beautiful way, or when my son smiles at me and it warms my heart. Being a Christian and communicating with God our Father is something that inhabits all of us. Not just when we are in darkness, in sorrow and in pain, but when we are in joyful, hope and love and happiness as well.
So have a think about your faith this week. Is it a lukewarm faith? Is it a faith that is politically expedient? Is it a faith where you only call on Jesus when things are tough? Or is it a faith that is with you in everything?
Is there a faith that is well prepared for? Is it a faith that inhabits all of who you are? Amen, my brothers and sisters.