SERMON—“Hearing hearts series—Humble hearts: following Jesus, whatever it takes”
Your mechanic informs you that some major repairs are needed on your engine…and you ask: “So how much is it going to cost?” You’re told that you need to undergo a medical procedure…and you ask: “So how much is it going to cost?” You plan the week’s grocery shop and budget for the power bills…and groan: “So how much is that going to cost?” What about the Christian faith? How much is that going to cost?
As the crowds travel around with Jesus in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches them that being his disciple costs quite a lot. The word ‘disciple’ comes from the word to learn, as a student learns in a disciplined and dedicated way by listening to their teacher. Jesus says to the crowd that if anyone would come to him, they must listen and learn from him as they follow him in his ministry on earth.
What is it they need to learn? That they need to pledge their allegiance to him above everything else. This is what lies behind Jesus’ quite sharp and confronting teaching in today’s Gospel reading. He says to the crowd: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” This talk of hate is hard to hear. Is Jesus saying we should disobey the fourth commandment to honour our father and mother? Are we really to hate our wife or husband whom we have promised to cherish, love and honour till death do us part? Is Jesus—who had earlier said that if anyone was angry with their brother or sister they would be subject to judgment—now contradicting himself?
No. Jesus highlights the family unit as a symbol of everything that is our earthly reality and uses the language of ‘hate’ as an extreme exaggeration to make a point. He is teaching that if anyone would be his follower they must be completely committed, invest total effort and show undivided allegiance to him. Jesus summarises this with his statement: “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus speaks these same words to his church today, too, when he says: “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
The Christian faith is not just believing in Jesus…it is about swearing our allegiance to Jesus and following him as his disciples. What is that going to cost us?
Much more than our wallet. It will cost everything. It will mean giving up everything we have—our very lives.
That’s why Jesus says anyone who does not carry their Cross and follow him cannot be his disciple. What is our cross we have to carry? Is our cross some kind of health issue, or some kind of problem? We should be clear about what Jesus means because he says that whoever does not carry their cross cannot be his disciple. So what does Jesus mean? The mention of ‘travelling’ at the beginning of today’s text gives us a clue, reminding us that Jesus is journeying to Jerusalem. There he will be made to carry his Cross and be crucified on it. To follow Jesus by carrying our cross means a death for us too.
This week the sanctity of life, free speech and the Christian church were all rocked in the same event: the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Kirk has been described by the media as a conservative activist, podcast commentator and influential ally of Donald Trump, but he was foremost a Christian apologist. Kirk went into college campuses to witness to Jesus as the world’s source of hope and truth, in his debates with college students about the Christian faith and contemporary issues. The attack on Charlie has been condemned as a brazen and disturbing attack on freedom of speech and democracy. But it is actually much more than that. It is not just a physical attack. It is not just a political attack. But it is a spiritual attack. Some people will do anything to silence God’s word—including political gagging, bullying and even murder. This should not surprise us because the Apostle Paul warned in Romans that the world considers God’s people little more than sheep to be slaughtered (Romans 8:36)—after all, the world wanted to silence the Good Shepherd too, when he was crucified—killed like John the Baptist before him, and the faithful prophets who were stoned for daring to speak God’s truth and calling people to repent.
Literal death may come to God’s people for their faithful witness…but that is not what Jesus is meaning in today’s Gospel reading. He is saying we must die to ourselves; put to death the old Adam; to daily die to our old sinful nature. The Christian faith is not just believing some facts or information, or a hope of life after death in heaven—but a profound shift in where—and in whom—we place our trust and dependence. The cost of following Jesus, then, is a cost far more than our bank balance. It is going to cost our heart—the things our heart has allegiance to. Jesus calls us to shift our reliance—away from the things, philosophies, and relationships of this life—to rely on him alone. It means in matters of life and faith to listen to the teaching of his word rather than the religion of the world.
For this total commitment, for this dying to ourselves and following Jesus whatever it takes, Jesus wants us to make very carefully considered decisions. In the midst of all that we as human beings prioritise, focus on and work so hard for—the empire of our life we seek to build—do we have the resources, the strength, and wisdom to build the tower of our Christian faith and life? Do we have the power and capability to win the victory against the world, the devil and our sinful flesh?
Jesus wants us to count the cost to realise we are not able to in our own strength, our own resources and effort, to finish building the tower of our Christian faith and life; indeed we do not have the resources within us to even lay the foundation. We don’t have righteousness in ourselves to enter the Kingdom of heaven or overcome the condemnation of the law and the devil’s accusations. We can’t work our own way to holiness. In our natural condition we don’t love our Heavenly Father and the family of God more than ourselves and our own family. It is natural for us to all too often prioritise the wisdom of the world over what the world sees as the foolishness of the word. By our own strength we are like Peter who said: “I will never deny you Lord!” but then did so three times before the cock crowed. In our own strength we haven’t got the power to carry our cross and put our old sinful nature to death.
But the gospel is for us in this Gospel reading today is found in the word ‘travelling’. In the Person of Christ God travelled all the way from heaven to earth, and to the Cross, giving up his own life to bring life to the world. There, on the Cross, the righteous Son of God became sin for us, that in him, we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). And so Jesus’ two little parables in today’s Gospel reading are a call to turn and trust in the One who journeyed to the Cross, and rely on his righteousness as the only source for our own. It is a call for us to let go of what we cling to (other than Christ) for our righteousness, holiness, identity, approval, worth, dignity and peace, so that we have empty hands for Jesus to fill. He says: I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. To listen to Jesus as our teacher, not only through his words in the Gospels, but also through Moses and the Prophets, the Evangelists and Apostles, and to learn to submit to his teaching alone, is the path to life. To rely on Jesus as our teacher is to have the Father’s favour, blessing, and approval of us, not because of our worship and works, but because of the merit of Christ that surpasses our weak effort.
That is precisely why God sent Jesus—that by his death he would bring life to the world. And through water and the word the Holy Spirit brought his life to you personally, by joining you to Jesus and his own death and resurrection in baptism. When you were baptised into Christ, you were clothed in him, covered over in him, and your sinful nature was crucified and buried, and Christ and the power of his resurrection lives in you. Paul writes in Romans 6:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Don’t you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
“…that we too might walk in newness of life”—in other words, that we too might be Jesus’ disciples, following him, a daily drowning of the old nature, a daily putting to death of clinging to the comforts of this life and following the teachings of the world.
Following Jesus—whatever it takes. What does it take? It took God to give his only Son Jesus. Unlike someone who starts building a tower but cannot finish, Jesus came to earth and came into your life to be the foundation of your faith and the One who will bring your faith to completion. He is the one who came from a long way off to ask for terms of peace with God for unworthy sinners. The cost of discipleship is high. God himself knows that it is, because he gave up everything for you in Christ. To quote Luther: “At great cost he has saved and redeemed me, a lost and condemned person.” Christ did this not with silver or gold, but with his holy and precious blood and innocent suffering and death. It was Jesus who held nothing back for you, but paid the greatest cost with his own life, to forgive you and reconcile you to God. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Time after Pentecost, 2025
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION POINTS:
“The Christian faith is…a profound shift in where—and in whom—we place our trust and dependence.”
- What parts of your life do you find difficult to give over to God?
- What challenges are you experiencing in your life recently?
- What might God be teaching you in the midst of these?
- When we feel powerless and weak, how can reflecting on God’s work for us in baptism be an encouragement?
- A daily reading habit of God’s word helps us follow Jesus as we live in the world. What daily reading plan can you access?
- Reflect on the Good News: There is rejoicing in heaven over every sinner who repents. God delights to call you as a disciple of Jesus. How might this give you grace and hope as we aim to follow him?
