COMMITMENT TO DISCIPLESHIP

Luke 14:25-33

Luke’s gospel is well known for its extremes in showing the radical and uncompromising demands that Jesus makes on those who would be his followers. In today’s passage we see Jesus, as was often the case, surrounded by a huge crowd of people. They are full of enthusiasm and expectation but Jesus very quickly pulls them up short. If anyone comes after me, Jesus says, and is not prepared to hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters and indeed his very own self, he cannot be accepted as a disciple. This is a very shocking demand, especially for a society where people’s whole lives were centered on their families.

We all know this commandment, “Honor your father and your mother”. We all know the new commandment of Jesus, “Love one another, as I have loved you”. And we come here today and we hear these words of Jesus: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple”. How can we reconcile these seemingly contradictory demands? How can we “hate” those we are supposed to love? And, more importantly, why should we hate them?

Today’s gospel, therefore, shows us how absolute and how radical are the demands of discipleship. Jesus implies that to be his disciple is to relativize every other thing in life: family or wealth, prosperity or health, pleasure or fame. Jesus was utterly honest and spared no words to tell his disciples that it would cost them dearly to follow after him. Jesus used strong language to make clear that nothing should take precedence or first place in our lives over God. To gain all, one must be willing to give all. We also have to say that Jesus is not recommending a literal abandonment of one’s family. That could be highly irresponsible and a violation of that commandment of universal love. It is rather a dramatic way of saying that anyone who puts any person, even those closest to them, before total commitment to Christ and his mission is not ready to be a disciple.

It is important for us to hear this. Following Christ is not just like football fans stalking their favorite player or ‘groupies’ following a pop star from city to city. There is a price to be paid and we need to know that this price is the cross, a level of sacrifice and suffering – perhaps even of one’s life – that each one must be prepared to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel and the building of the Kingdom. It is clear that, for those who want to be part of Jesus’ work, have to give themselves completely and unconditionally.

We are living in the society where pain or suffering is considered as the downside of life and so it has to be avoided or as much as possible less felt. The advances in the field of technology and medicine show how much time, resources and human intelligence are put together to respond to this human desire to avoid any pain. Medicine offers us fast relief from body pains. Laws are made in such a way that nobody should or would never experience pain. What is the message of Christ for us today when he says “If anyone wants to follow him, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow”; and that whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it?

I think, denying the reality of pain and suffering in our Christian life might have a negative repercussion in our society today. Look at the growing of infidelity in our society, the inability for lifelong commitment, and the horrific data of abuses in the society. All of these can be traced to modern people’s incapacity to bear pain and to suffer for somebody, for something or for higher values such as freedom, justice, peace, equality and other noble values.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came to oppose sufferings and sin in all forms. This can be seen in all his miracles. But yet he gave himself up to suffering even including death on the cross and he invites us today to take up our crosses as to tell us that for Christians suffering or pain is necessary. The gospel today challenges us to embrace the cross as a redemptive way in our life. The reality of pain in Christian life leads us to be patient in suffering and be compassionate with those who are suffering. Are we ready to be his disciples? What are the things I am still clinging to? What are the things I cannot let go of? And why? May the Lord help us to be able to face our life with the eyes of faith and to be able to sacrifice ourselves out of love the sake of our brothers and sisters who are suffering.