Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18 C

September 7, 2025
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18 C
Trinity Lutheran Church
Sermon on Luke 14:25-35

In the Name of the Father and of the ☩Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Have you ever started a project but never completed it? Maybe your wife asked you to build that IKEA bookshelf for the living room but never did because “other things” keep you from doing it. Now you have books all over the living room because you never build the bookshelf. Or you promised to “repair” that broken digital clock for your kid; only to abandoned it once you realized that you do not know a thing about electronic repair. And now have broken a promise with your kid. What about that, one room in the house that you keep saying will get clean this weekend but never get it clean. Now you have family coming over and are staying the night, and you have no place for them to sleep, because that one room never gets clean.

All these projects can be completed only if the person’s priorities are set. For example, the bookshelf could get done in an hour if you prioritize have place for the books over “other things”. Disappointing your kid could have been avoided by you prioritize setting reasonable expectations instead of flipping saying you could fix it only to impress you kid – who is now not so impresses. And that one room could have been ready for guests if you prioritized a clean room and one ready for guests.

This week’s sermon is on the Cost of Discipleship and what that really means. Let us look at our Gospel reading again, Luke 14:25-35:

“²⁵Now 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. ²⁷Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³²And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. ³⁴“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.””

Jesus makes a radical statement that we should hate. Hate family, friends, loved ones, and even ourselves. This is a departure from what Jesus said in the “Sermon on the Mount”, where He said “… Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” (Luke 6:27) Are we to love our enemies and hate everyone else? Did not Christ say “31And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”? (Luke 6:31)

Christ statement of hate is confusing only if you look at it from a Western/European view of hate. Our Western context of hate is based on a deep emotional dislike or aversion, derived from fear, anger, and a sense of injury. When we hate something, we wish for that object of our hate to just go away and maybe to no longer exist. This is why when I was growing up, I was told to never use the word hate referring to a person, like “I hate Jimmy”, because I was wishing harm on that person.

In the Middle East, during Jesus time on Earth, hate had a different context. Hate was not based on fear, anger, or sense of injury, it was based on priority. In this view of hate, when you say “I hate Jimmy” you are not wishing harm on him, you are saying that “Jimmy” is of less priority than all other people. Think of it like leaderboard, with all the names of people you know ranked on it. On this leaderboard Jimmy ranked, say 10th, and let say that Jane is ranked 9th. Jimmy is of less priority than Jane, so you would say I hate Jimmy, because his priority is less than Jane.

Now I am not advocating going about and telling people that you hate them because they are not high on your priority list, far from it. What I am is giving you is understanding what Jesus means when He says “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.”. Christ is not telling us to hate, as we understand it, but to prioritize Him above all things. This is made even more clear when we look at the parallel passage in Matthew which says, “37Whoever 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.” (Matthew 10:37).

Jesus comment on hate is not the only unusual statement is this passage. Jesus statement on bearing your own cross seems out of place. When we hear “bear your own cross” we think of burdens placed on us, the worries and anxieties that we carry. But that is not what Christ is saying here. We learn in Psalm 55 that we should “22Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” (Psalm 55:22). Then what does Christ mean by “bear his own cross and come after me”. It means that as you follow Christ, make Him the priority in your life, you are willing to suffer for the sake of Christ.

Following Christ is not an easy road to travel. Some of use might seem to have an easier time than other traveling this road, but all of us have been, will be, are being tempted to exit this road of Christianity, of following Christ. That is the cross that we carry, that is the suffering we go through for putting Christ first in our lives. This sinful broken world constantly tempts us to turn away from Christ. We are told that Christ does not matter; that he would not want us to but him before family and friends. Worse of all though is when the world tells us a false gospel of Christ that if God really loved you, you would be rich and have an easy worry-free life.

Christ did not promise an easy life for those that follow Him. In the Gospel of John, Christ said “… In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”” (John 16:33). Christ invites us all to “28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

There is a cost in following Christ. There are responsibilities in following Christ. There is also great joy and comfort in following Christ. We follow Christ not because He is some create moral or charismatic teacher. We follow Christ for what He has done for us. “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Christ paid the price for our sins, not out of obligation but out of His love for us. We follow Christ, because through His love of sacrificial death and rising to newness of life, we are made right with God. Being made right with God, we too have a newness of life, sharing in His death and resurrection. With this new life our sins are forgive, and we are made heirs to the Kingdom of God, and eternal life with Christ. Let us go out into the world and proclaim the good news to all people, telling them what He has done from them.

Amen.