So you are a Scholar?-or reckon to be as such? And who is rewriting and reinterpreting the Scriptures?
"hate his own father" This is a Hebrew idiom of comparison (cf. Gen. 29:31,33; Deut. 21:15; Mal. 1:2-3 [Rom. 9:13]; John 12:25).
It is obvious that this cannot be taken literally because of Jesus' statement of honoring your father and mother in Matt. 15:4, which reflects the Ten Commandments.
This section speaks of death to self (cf. Gal. 2:20) and earthly priorities. In the Near East commitment to family superceded every other commitment, but Jesus must become believers' first priority (cf. Luke 12:49-53; Matt. 10:34-39).
"even his own life" Jesus sets the pattern of ministry (cf. Luke 9:23; 17:33; 1 John 3:16).
"he cannot be My disciple" This point is emphasized in Luke 14:27 and 33. It is difficult to balance the grace of God so clearly demonstrated in the parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24) with the radical call to a complete sacrifice of self in Luke 14:25-33. Both are true. Grace initiates and provides, but receivers must make a life-altering, priority choice! Followship (Luke 14:25) is not the same as discipleship. Just as in the parable of the soils, germination is not the same as fruit bearing!
14:27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross" This refers not to problems believers face, but to death itself (cf. Luke 9:23-26; Matt. 10:34-39; 16:24; Gal. 2:20). It was the custom in Palestine of the first century for condemned prisoners who were to be crucified to carry the cross beam to the place of crucifixion.
14:28-32 This speaks of the need to recognize the cost of followship! No quick decisions! The gospel is absolutely free, but it costs everything that we are and have (cf. Matt. 13:44-46). In light of this, western modern Christianity is a weak manifestation of "what's in it for me" cultural religion!
Modern western Christians have turned biblical faith into a weekly event, a place we park our car for a few hours instead of a 24 hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week relationship of service to Christ. We only give the leftovers of our busy lives and plans to Him. We worship and praise Him with peripherals and non-essentials. This is why we have such large, beautiful church buildings and elaborate organizations and programs and NO SPIRITUAL POWER, NO CHANGED LIVES, NO WHATEVER-IT-TAKES ATTITUDES!! God forgive us for cultural, peripheral, easy believism!
Just one additional thought, this emphasis on counting the cost of discipleship must also relate to the age one receives Christ. One must be old enough to
know the Scriptures
know that they violated them
understand the gospel
be able to access the "cost of discipleship"
If "decisions" are made too early they result in confused Christians or perpetual "pre-Christians"!
Luk 14:26 "If any man come to Me, and is fonder of his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own soul also, he is not able to be My disciple.
Luk 14:26 If someone comes to me, and does not hate [hyperbolically, in comparison to Moshiach] his own Abba and Em (mother) and isha and yeladim and achim and achayot and in addition also his own life [in the Olam Hazeh], he is not able to be my [Moshiach’s] talmid.
Luk 14:26 "If anyone comes to me, and does not disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
We must not take his words with cold and unimaginative literalness. Eastern language is always as vivid as the human mind can make it. When Jesus tells us to hate our nearest and dearest, he does not mean that literally. He means that no love in life can compare with the love we must bear to him.
There are two suggestive truths within this passage.
(i) It is possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple; to be a camp-follower without being a soldier of the king; to be a hanger-on in some great work without pulling one’s weight. Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, "So and so tells me that he was one of year students." The teacher answered devastatingly, "He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students." It is one of the supreme handicaps of the church that in it there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.
-If it is too much to read and ingest-let me know.
Johann
