Today’s readings challenge us to total commitment to the will of God, putting God first in our lives. Today’s gospel reminds us to count the cost of being a Christian, because the cost is high. Christian discipleship requires one to "renounce" both possessions of the earth and possessions of the heart (i.e., one's relationships). In Luke's gospel, Jesus lays out four "trip wires" for true Christian discipleship: i) renouncing the attachment to family; ii) severing the attachment to possessions; iii) accepting the hard consequences of discipleship which may involve even losing one’s life; and iv) calculating the cost involved. The first reading instructs us to ask for the gift of discernment and wisdom from the Holy Spirit in order to obey the will of God as a disciple. The second reading teaches us that detachment and renunciation are necessary for a true disciple of Christ. The responsorial psalm instructs disciples to be constantly aware of the brevity and uncertainty of life.
Exegesis: Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem where He would be crucified. But the crowd thought that he was going to Jerusalem to oust the Romans and to reestablish the old Davidic kingdom of Israel. Jesus was enormously popular with the crowds as a great healer, brave teacher and miracle worker. Looking at the cheering masses, however, Jesus frankly put before them the strenuous conditions for discipleship.
1) Renounce family relationship, giving priority to God. Today’s passage in Luke puzzles a lot of people because in the Middle East, anyone who deliberately cut ties with family and social network would lose the ordinary means of making a living. Besides, a person’s life and family relationships were a necessity for security and identity, regardless of social position. Moreover, Jesus, who had been recommending that his followers love everybody --including their enemies--suddenly announced that no one could be His disciples unless he hated his own family. So it is clear that Jesus’ “hating” one’s family is a Semitic hyperbole or exaggeration, spoken for effect. Matthew’s gospel makes it clear. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10:37-38). When Jesus said to "hate your family,” he was talking about spiritual detachment, the ability to put God first, before other relationships and self-interest. Without such detachment, one does not have the ability to truly follow Jesus.
2) Bear your cross: Though “bearing a cross” is often equated with welcoming chronic illness, painful physical conditions, or trying family relationships, it also includes what we do voluntarily as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus Christ. Further, it is the spirit in which we freely and deliberately accept and endure the pain, difficulties and even the ridicule involved with these choices, that transform them into real cross-bearing. For the early Christians, however, cross-bearing had a far more literal meaning. Just as Jesus went to the cross, some of his followers would also taste death for their devotion to the Master. Only if the disciple is firmly committed to Christ will he be able to spend his life in sacrificial service for others.
3) Calculate the cost of discipleship. Using the two parables of the tower builder and the king defending his country, Jesus says: think long and hard about Christian discipleship before a decision is made. In the first parable, the builder was not financially able to finish the building. The second parable spoke of a king planning strategy against a belligerent opponent. Could the king win the battle against an army twice the size of his own? Or should he sue for peace? Perhaps these parables also illustrate that discipleship is not a one-time decision and that the commitment involved needs to be an ongoing decision to persevere in the ministries that are integral to following Jesus. When we first decide to follow Christ, we know simply that there will be a price to pay. Only as life unfolds can we begin to assess the full cost. Jesus warns us to expect significant cost overruns because the cost for him was the cross at Calvary.
4) Say good-bye to possessions: The fourth condition for being a disciple of Jesus means not only surrendering material possessions but sometimes one’s very life. In today's reading, we hear the phrase, “whoever does not renounce all of his possessions and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” When Jesus says that we must give up all our possessions in order to follow him, he doesn’t mean that we must all hold a giant yard sale and live as mendicants on the streets. He means that we should lead a detached life, willingly sharing our blessings with others. The four conditions of discipleship as outlined by Jesus indicate a kind of total commitment that every follower of Christ should be prepared to live. The radical demands of Jesus call us to center our lives on the suffering and risen Christ.
5) The paradox of Jesus’ strenuous conditions: Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations (not "make members"). On the one hand, our text repeats the necessity of putting Jesus first – an extremely demanding condition. On the other hand, even "street people” were generously invited to the banquet. The only "demand" was to come and eat and enjoy the feast that had been prepared. Do we live in this tension between free grace and costly discipleship? Is there a difference between believing in Jesus and being a disciple? Yes! Just being an active church member is not enough. Jesus doesn't want disciples who just "go along with the crowd." He wants committed Christians -- those who are aware of the costs of following him -- who choose to follow him anyway. Being Jesus' disciple has never been convenient. It is costly -- costly in terms of money, time, relationships, and priorities.
6) Cheap grace and costly grace: Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, and grace without Jesus. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price for which the believer is willing to sell everything he/she has. Costly grace is the gospel which must be lived and preached; it is the gift which must be asked for, the door at which every disciple must knock. Costly grace means following Jesus, aware of and prepared for the pitfalls of discipleship but still willing to meet them and manage them daily.
7) Cafeteria Christians versus committed Christians: Jesus does not want a large number of “half-way” disciples who are willing to do a “little bit” of prayer, a “little bit” of commitment, a “little bit” of dedication, a “little bit” of love. Jesus wants disciples who are truly committed to prayer, to discipleship and to being ruled by him as their king. With a few such dedicated disciples, Jesus could change the world. Today, more than a billion people gather to worship, but many of them are half-hearted Christians. We are tempted to forego the call to faithful stewardship, faithful worship attendance, faithful sexuality, honest business practices, accurate tax returns and compassion for the less fortunate. Ironically enough, churches with high standards attract people with high standards. Integrity and commitment attract others. On the one hand, Jesus makes it very difficult to be his disciple. On the other hand, Jesus may be making it impossible to be his disciple just using our own abilities. When we confess, "I can't," then we are open for God's "I can." With God’s grace everything is possible.
Messages: 1) Practice true Christian discipleship. In the book Power Surge, Mike Foss lists "six marks of discipleship for a changing church" which he expects Christians to practice: 1) daily prayer, 2) weekly worship, 3) diligent study of the Bible, 4) service in and beyond the parish, 5) spiritual friendships, and 6) giving time, talents, and resources to the Lord’s work.
2) Accept the challenge with heroic commitment: Jesus’ challenge of true Christian discipleship can be accepted only if we practice the spirit of detachment and renunciation in our daily lives. Real discipleship demands true commitment to the duties entrusted to us by life, circumstances, the community or directly by God Himself, and by loving acts of selfless, humble and sacrificial love offered to all God’s children around us. Let us remember that all this is possible only if we rely on the power of prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Cheap grace and costly grace: During the era of World War II, the great German protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) wrote a book entitled The Cost of Discipleship. “Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote in his book "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship, while 'costly grace' is the gospel that must be sought again and again, the gift, which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock... It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life." As a religious scholar in a country where the Nazis were bent on expanding an ideology of national and racial superiority, Dietrich Bonhoeffer struggled inside himself and chose to resist the Nazis as a true disciple of Christ. He joined the underground on the conviction that it was his duty as a Christian to work for Hitler's defeat. His convictions inspired many to resist, but this cost them their freedom and lives at the hands of the Gestapo. Bonhoeffer's theologically-rooted opposition to National Socialism first made him a leader, along with Martin Niemueller and Karl Barth, as an advocate on behalf of the Jews. Indeed, his efforts to help a group of Jews to escape to Switzerland were the cause of his arrest and imprisonment in the spring of 1943. He was hanged in the concentration camp at Flossenbürg on April 9, 1945, on the false charge of plotting to assassinate Hitler. Thus he paid the cost of discipleship with his life and death.