Jesus’ approach to ministry is unconventional to say the least.  In this passage He notices the huge crowds that follow Him and decides to winnow their numbers by giving them a sobering picture of discipleship.  His sales pitch to them is, “Follow Me and your life will be really hard.”  It’s not exactly a hard sell.  What it is for the believer, however, is an excellent lesson on expectations.  We should not expect an easy life as a follower of Jesus in a fallen world.  We should not be surprised by trials or believe that comfort and ease are the default settings of life.  Jesus explicitly tells us that the disciple’s life is full of difficulty; thus we shouldn’t fall apart when hard times come.  The enemy wants us to believe that trials are outliers and misfortune is unfair.  Our Redeemer tells us that trials come with discipleship and no follower of His leads a comfortable life. 

Thankfully, however, these words aren’t the only description of discipleship in the New Testament.  The same Redeemer who tells us to count the cost also promises to never leave us or forsake us and that His yoke is easy and His burdens light.  And we also know that nothing can separate us from His love.  Yes, the disciple’s life is hard, but we never go through anything alone and we never face a situation that doesn’t stem from our Father’s heart of love toward us.

25-33
It may be a stretch to say this section connects with the first 24 verses, but perhaps Luke orders it this way to make it clear that if you ARE going to attend the Great Banquet, there’s a cost.

Notice how Luke sets up the scene – Now great crowds accompanied Him.  It’s key to understanding what Jesus is about to say.  Jesus sees how popular He is and all the people who follow Him because of the miracles and the amazing teaching and the maybe even the possibility of free meals, and it’s as if He decides to say to them, “You all like coming along because of the spectacle, but do you really know what it means to follow Me?”

He goes on to give one of the most counterintuitive sales pitches of all time (although it’s not unique – He said something similar to the disciples in 9:18-27).  The overall gist of what He tells them is that to choose to be a disciple means completely surrendering all claims to everything and everyone in this world.  The disciple’s life is not his own and he can have no expectation of a comfortable life.

Jesus first says that anyone who follows Him must put Him above all other loves.  He expresses it using hyperbole – we must hate our father, mother, spouse, children, even our own lives.  Jesus abides no rival and we must be willing to lose everything and everyone we love to follow Him.  Nothing can be more important or too valuable to give up.

It pays to stop here and ponder what this means.  These aren’t empty words.  Jesus says our love for others must pale in comparison to our love for Him.  And while it’s easy to give mental assent to that concept, it’s a little different when we consider its ramifications.  It means that if the cost of discipleship is the loss of a spouse or a child, the disciple will continue to follow and trust and love the One he’s committed his life to.  Jesus is above EVERYONE; there are no rivals.

He then takes it to another extreme by saying that disciples must be willing to carry their own cross (the second time He’s used this metaphor – see 9:23).  It’s hard for us to fully grasp what kind of message this is for His hearers.  In Roman culture, crucifixion is very real and truly horrible (there’s really nothing in the modern western world to compare to it) and to the Jews its horror is compounded by it being a uniquely Roman punishment.  To hear it used as a metaphor is likely shocking to those listening.  It expresses the true cost of discipleship.  To carry a cross means there is NOTHING the disciple has left except the One he follows.  It carries with it the idea that the way is hard and my life is not about me.  I don’t go where I want, I go where HE wants.  A man who carries a cross carries nothing else, and when he’s put on the cross he’s put there naked – he has NOTHING of his own.  He’s given everything – even his life – away.  To be a disciple in a fallen world is not easy.

In light of the enormous commitment involved, the prospective disciple must first count the cost before signing on to follow Jesus.  The multitudes following Him now haven’t considered what they’re really signing up for.  Now that they’ve heard it, they should truly consider if they want to join.  It’s like a man who decides to build a tower and must consider if he has the resources to finish the job.  If he starts construction without confirming that he can complete it, he’ll be ridiculed when he ends up with a half-built tower.  Or it’s like a king who must consider if he has enough manpower to defeat another king before going into battle.  If he goes into battle without first confirming that he has enough military might, the ramifications are dire. In the same way, the man considering discipleship must count the cost.  What Jesus calls His disciples to is not easy; don’t enter in without fully understanding the ramifications of saying yes.

He ends this thought (vs 33) by saying that no one can be His disciple without first renouncing everything he has.  This isn’t a command for asceticism.  It’s a command to acknowledge that nothing can be too valuable to give up in the service of the kingdom and that nothing ultimately is owned by the disciple.

This likely speaks to more than material possessions.  Jesus has already said the disciple must be willing to put Him before family.  Here He completes the thought by saying EVERYTHING that belongs to the disciple or held dear by him must be willingly renounced.  Comfort, security, health – all are offered in service to the King.

Note that this isn’t necessarily a call to hardship.  There isn’t a command here to forego luxuries or live in pain.  The monks and nuns of the Middle Ages who intentionally made their lives miserable by living in awful conditions have no basis in Jesus’ words.  Rather, it’s a call to consider all things in this world as both owned and claimed by our Savior.  If He brings conditions into our lives that result in loss, we trust Him and willingly suffer loss for His sake.  All things – and that means ALL things whether tangible (possessions) or intangible (circumstances of life) – belong to Him and thus are available for His service.  We’re called to have the attitude of Paul – But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ… (Phil 3:7-8).

It also calls us to a life of generosity.  If God owns and claims every aspect of our lives, then every aspect of our lives is available for service and available to others God brings into our lives.  Money, time, and possessions belong to God and are available for whatever He calls us to.  The disciple who truly understands and heeds Jesus’ call will be generous with what he’s already offered up and renounced any claims to.  In practical terms, I might be hesitant to give my own money away, but if I’m simply managing someone else’s money and that person has commanded me to give it away generously, it’s not hard to follow orders.

34-35
Jesus ends this section with a thought that at first seems a little out of the blue.  It doesn’t seem to really go with the admonitions of verses 25-33.  But notice the first word of verse 34 (NASB has Therefore – original Greek could be translated ‘Now’ – ESV chooses not to use a connecting word).  Jesus clearly intends these words to finish His teaching on discipleship.

If that’s the case, these two verses likely point to the follower of Christ who does NOT count the cost, give everything up, or forsake all others.  That disciple is of no value; he’s like salt that’s lost its flavor.  Salt without flavor isn’t salt.  By definition it can’t even be called salt.  So is the disciple who doesn’t leave everything behind.  He’s not a disciple at all.

Thoughts
There is no way to sugarcoat this passage on discipleship.  Jesus intends it to be a version of tough love.  He speaks truth to sober up the vast multitudes who follow Him and think it’s all good times watching the Messiah work and teach.  The life of the disciple is difficult and it’s why He urges them – and all who read this – to count the cost before signing on to be His disciple.

That said, however, we can never read scripture in a vacuum.  We know that the same Man who says these words also promises His disciples right before leaving them that He will be with them until the end of the age (Matt 28:20) and we know that God promises His people – a promise repeated by the author of Hebrews so we can claim it as our own – that He will never leave them or forsake them (Heb 13:5).  So while the disciple sees hardship, he never sees it alone.  We also have the guarantee from Paul that no matter how difficult life is or how many hard things come our way that nothing can separate us from God’s love (Rom 8:35-39) and all things work together to make us more conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom 8:28-29).  All this to say, we can’t look only at this passage when deciding whether to follow Jesus.  There is a cost, certainly, but there is also a sweetness and light wholly unknown to those who decide to pass on the opportunity.  We can’t miss that when we agree to become a disciple we don’t simply become a disciple; we also get to be a child.

Going back to the tough talk in this passage, however, it should act as a governor on our expectations.  We’re hard-wired to believe that ease, comfort, health, and all-around good times are the default settings of life.  This is what the Enemy wants us to believe too.  That belief, though, isn’t stated anywhere in scripture.  Jesus couldn’t make it any clearer that disciples should expect hardship.  Since that’s the case, as disciples we shouldn’t consider trials unfair outliers but simply part of life.  When the hard times come, the disciple should be the least surprised of anyone.  That doesn’t mean we welcome or downplay difficulties or try to retain a stiff upper lip as we endure them (see Job 3 and Jeremiah 20 for responses to trial that God doesn’t condemn).  It simply means we should not expect an easy life and then fall apart when it doesn’t meet our expectations.  Jesus has clearly warned us; we should accept His words and adjust our expectations accordingly.

The last thought about this passage is that we can see it being lived in the lives of the early church in Acts (also written by Luke).  In Acts 4:32-37 and 5:12-42 we get various pictures of the early church, and it shows what it means to put Jesus’ words into practice as disciples.  The believers share their possessions with each other such that no one is in need.  No one sees his property as his own but sells and willingly shares the proceeds with others.  Luke states it as follows (4:32): And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them.  Their property isn’t their own so it’s available for service to the church and to God.

That’s not the last word on the group, however.  At the same time they’re sharing among themselves and seeing great signs and wonders, they also endure persecution.  The Sadducees (temple priests and religious elite) become jealous of the works being done by the apostles and so arrest some of them and throw them in jail.  They’re miraculously released but then get called before the Sanhedrin.  There they testify to the truth of the gospel and are ultimately released.  Before they’re released, however, they’re flogged (in another great understatement in the Bible the flogging is stated very matter-of-factly in 5:40, but getting whipped with 39 lashes is not a light punishment and speaks to horrendously unjust treatment at the hands of the Jewish religious authorities).  How do the apostles react?  So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ (5:41-42).

This is the disciple’s life.  The believers share everything as if they own nothing and witness miracles and signs and enjoy wonderful teaching.  But they also suffer hardships and persecution and unjust treatment.  And instead of being disappointed or disillusioned that God doesn’t deliver them from difficulty, they celebrate it because it’s evidence of discipleship.  Jesus told them they would be persecuted for His name; that it’s occurred means they know they’re truly His.

We have a high calling as disciples of Jesus.  May we remember His words in Luke 14 and the example of the early church in Acts 3 and 4 as we live a sweet and challenging life following Him.