Luke 14:25-27 - A Disciple of Jesus

Luke 14:25-27 (ESV)

[25] Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, [26] “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. [27] Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

People were following Jesus, and the word disciple was used even of the curious crowds at times, yet Jesus challenges them as to what it truly means to be his disciple. These are hard words. Clearly, he is using hyperbole. God’s law requires that we honor our parents. Hating them would then break God’s law. Jesus’ point, however, was clearly stated by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “When Christ calls a man, he calls him come and die.”

Too often Jesus is a part of our lives. He is another thing we do. If we are really committed, then he gets a half hour in the morning and a few prayers throughout the day. But he has called us to something more. Being a disciple of Jesus means that he permeates everything we do every day of our lives. It means we give up our comfort for the good of others. It means we forgive those who have offended us. It means that we not only reach out to the nice neighbors across the street or down the road, but that we reach out to those weird, scary neighbors we try to avoid. It means we represent Christ in all we do even when everything goes wrong. It means trusting him as our world turns scarier. It means dying to our own will and desires in order to graciously serve our spouse, our children, our enemies, and the strangers around us.

I found myself walking through a store recently thinking, “I get why people get angry and lash out at people they don’t know.” It would be easy to give in to the frustration of stupid people, but that is not what God has called me to. He called me to peace. He has called me to represent him well even when people block the aisle. He has called me to represent him well even when people chat about nonsense instead of doing their job. He has called me to represent him well even when people are rude or angry. My pray today was that I would see people through Jesus’ eyes rather than through my own. That I might see them as broken and hurting rather than as unclean, unacceptable people to avoid. My prayer is that I might be Jesus to them, but that requires dying to my self and my will. It requires me to be truly a disciple of Jesus.