Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled

Luke Chapter 14

LUKE 14:1, 7-14

[Lk 14:1] It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. [2] And there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. [3] And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” [4] But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. [5] And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” [6] And they could make no reply to this.


[7] And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, [8] “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not  take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, [9] and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you  proceed to occupy the last place. [10] “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. [11] “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”


[12] And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. [13] “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, [14] and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

LUKE 14:1-7

[Lk 14:1] It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. [2] And there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. [3] And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” [4] But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. [5] And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” [6] And they could make no reply to this.

The house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees

Many translations will say that Jesus happened to be in the house of a leader of the Pharisees, but there was nothing happenstance about this meeting.


Luke himself is showing a definite progression of our Lord. Jesus had a determined march that included encounters with religious leaders for a singular purpose, to highlight the difference between their religion of ritual and his acts of mercy.  So, this event was no chance encounter by either Jesus or the Leader of Pharisees.  Neither was the presence of the man with dropsy happenstance.  The religious leaders set up this incident with Jesus and “were watching Him closely.”  The word closely [G3906 Paratereo] means scrupulously.  Jesus told his disciples that they were to be like “lambs among wolves [Luke 10:3].”  Here he modeled that behavior, Jesus was invited to dinner where he was to be the main course.


The man with dropsy was a ploy, a tool of manipulation the religious leaders were using against Jesus.  This is just one of many incidents where the religious leaders used a vulnerable man or woman to entrap Jesus.  Of course the Lord knew their intent and he could have played it safe.  The man with the crippled hand, the woman bent over double for 18 years, this man with dropsy; they could all have returned the next day; the day after the Sabbath.  Would that be too long to wait for people who had already waited years?  For our compassionate Lord, one day of suffering – let alone one more – was too much


One more day of disease was intolerable to Jesus. 


Shouldn’t I feel that immediacy about reaching the lives of the vulnerable around me?  Jesus couldn’t wait one more day even though that would have been the safest solution. It would have been an understandable compromise, a mere inconvenience… to everyone but the diseased and their Lord.


What does that tell me about the immediacy of faith?

Do I exemplify such uncompromising immediacy for the needs of the vulnerable?

Is compassion unquestionably more important to me than religion; rites, rituals and theological debates about God?

Do I accept the command to act like a lamb to the least of these even when it leaves me open to an attack by wolves?

Do I have a faith that is measured in “the liberated” and “the restored” or am I a “scrupulous observer” like the Pharisees?  Do I spend more time criticizing the imperfections of others or am I perfectly focused on the compassion of Christ; a compassion that sees people into wholeness especially when they are terribly broken?

But they kept silent...

I wonder if there is a greater condemnation in the bible.  When asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” these men kept silent.


To stand silent when the power to heal is within reach is sin.  They knew Jesus could heal, that wasn’t the question.  The question was whether he would heal on the Sabbath!  They’re silent when all they had to do was say, “Please, heal the poor man!” 


In like manner, our communities have the ability to empty our jails of crime, our shelters of the abused, our rest homes of the lonely and our streets of hopelessness.  Our world could beat hunger, fight AIDS, educate its masses and so much more; but we lack the commitment.  Perhaps, we should say; we lack the committed!  Too many are silent, too many are scrupulous observers, critics and cynics. We need to pray for laborers in the harvest. We need to pick up a scythe.


Lord, do not let silence be my sin.  Let me be a voice for the silent and an advocate of the disenfranchised.

“Which one of you will have a son or an ox...?”

Exemptions and exceptions; the legal system and the tax system are filled with them. Loopholes usually steeped in favor of those who can make or afford to influence the law.  It wasn’t any different in our Lord’s era, it was just exacerbated by the fact that the Jewish religious system also oversaw the legal and tax systems. The system itself had become self-focused, corrupt and manipulative. The poor and diseased had become an interruption of the religious, rather than the focus.


Here is an instance where the compassion of Jesus simply leapfrogged legalism.  He personalizes the issue with the “scrupulous observers.”  He asks, “If the victim were your son you would change the rules.  If it meant losing your ox, you would find the exception.” 


These guys knew it was true, they just wouldn’t admit it.  Laws would change, exceptions would be found.  They would do what they had to do to make an exception for their own self-interests.  They would also do what was necessary to change things for a wealthy patron.  But for the man with dropsy, for the disconnected, the vulnerable and the poor — the law was the law. How often have we heard it said, “Making an exception for you means making an exception for everyone.”


The greatness of a society can be measured by its treatment of the least of these.  Jesus is asking these lawmakers to consider two simple issues:

1.      Would you find a loophole to this law if it would benefit you personally? If strict adherence meant injury to your child or damage to your property would you change it then?

2.      Place yourself in the lives of the least of these. How would you want the system to change if you were on the outside looking in?

Jesus isn’t even asking for a change in the Sabbath; he is bringing to fore the heart of the law [Matthew 12:6-8].

The singular reason for the very existence of the law was to focus on God and to empower God’s people.  Yet, God’s law had been warped to the point where the religious leaders did not even recognize God’s divine son despite his amazing miracles and teachings. They used their heritage and knowledge to cushion their own positions and exploit the poor.


As Jesus ventures ever nearer to Jerusalem, Luke shows us how our Lord turned this system inside-out and upside-down.  Jesus still wants to do this in our lives and our systems.  In fact, it would be more appropriate to say that Jesus wants us to do this with our lives and in our systems.  Do we test our communities with the same questions that our Lord asked these men?


Am I asking this of the system around me?  “What if it were your son?”   “What if it were your property?”


Whatever I do, God forbid that I should be found silent like the leaders in this story.

LUKE 14:7-11

[7] And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, [8] “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, [9] and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. [10] “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. [11] “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Do not take the place of honor...

Jesus uses many illustrations that include wedding feasts.  Such feasts were rare breaks in the monotonous lives of the common people of Jesus’ time.  Wedding feasts lasted for days and some guests would travel additional days to attend them.  They were grand affairs attended by the entire village regardless of age or class.


There were many traditions surrounding the wedding and seating was one of the more important issues (similar to seating people at contemporary weddings or funerals).  Yet, unlike all other religious events in the Jewish life of Christ’s time, family ties took precedence over title or wealth.  In circumstances such as this, an impoverished grandfather might very well outrank a Jewish priest.


This is the premise for Christ’s heaven – not ritual or worship – but a wedding banquet where guests are honored by their closeness to the family. As with Lazarus and the Rich Man, our portfolio or position will be meaningless then. Christ will ask, “Did you love my family?”


In another parable about wedding feasts, Jesus was even more direct about our proper place at the feast.  In that story [Matt 22:1-14], we are called to be the debt-servants [G1401 doulos] of the feast, not even invited guests!  Our role was not to scramble for seats but to run to the crossroads and invite more guests [Matthew 22:8-10]

So what is our proper place?  It is not the place of honor, not even the last seat by the bathroom door. Our place is servant, rushing about the roads insuring that not one seat at the table is found unoccupied!
Paul purposely chose the title “debt-slave” in reference to Christ and his budding church: “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more [1Corinthians 9:19].”


A servant actually had rites under Roman law. But a debt-slave owed a debt he could not pay. Until he could pay it, everything was taken from him or her. The debt-slave labored by day to pay his debt and eked out a living by night trying to find scraps to eat (see the story of the Prodigal Son [Luke 15:11-32]). Do I think my title, my seat, at the banquet will be any greater than Paul’s? Paul struggled to rid himself of titles throughout his Christian life. From Pharisee, to Apostle, to Servant, to Debt-Slave and finally to “a Prisoner for the Lord.” Am I laboring towards the same progression? Ridding myself of titles and pretenses so that I can be one with the family of God?


Lord, help me remember the progression of Paul in a world that idolizes people for purposes unrelated to your holiness.  Help me remember you will not be seating guests by stature – but by compassion; “Who does my family consider the most beloved?”


Help me remember, Lord, that if I am to be exalted, it will be because of my love and service to your family, not by any standard this world exalts.


”For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted [Mt 23:12].”

LUKE 14:12-14

[12] And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. [13] “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, [14] and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

“When you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind...”

Here is a premise that is central to Christ but often overlooked by Christians; the way into the “resurrection of the righteous” is through giving to those who cannot give in return.


We tend to think that if we 1) call Jesus our Lord, 2) go to church, 3) pray, and 4) study the word, then we are a shoe-in for heaven.  Not so, according to this reading:

Luke 14:13-14

[13] “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, [14] and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

“Invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and you will be blessed…”


The way to the resurrection of the righteous is to give to those who cannot give in return. Yet this principle brings joy long before we arrive in heaven. I see this principle borne out in recovery ministries; it liberates the self-focused, the incarcerated and breaks the bonds of apathy and cynicism – two demons so prevalent in our cultures. 


I have seen men and women released from jails that pray, go to church and carry their bibles with them almost everywhere they go. Our prisons are not devoid of bible scholars. Upon release, the desire to change is on their lips; but the long-term belief that they can change is absent from their hearts.


There is only one thing that changes self-undermining beliefs on that deep of a core. We need to change down deep where the negative messages of a lifetime of neglect or abuse have taken root.  On that level, a person changes beliefs about themselves – not because they changed their minds -- but because they changed their behaviors.  As adults, the only way to learn we are loved is to love. So many people are still waiting on words of affirmation they will never hear spoken by a fragile or broken parent. Instead of waiting in hopeless expectation, we need to practice loving until it becomes habitual in our lives.


In our outreaches we restore lives by creating opportunities where those around us can “catch themselves loving.”  The people we work with are frequently at the crossroads of the hopeless, forgotten and defenseless. What a better place to practice being a “stream in the desert,” or a “lamp in the darkness.”  This is what restores dignity and recovers lives.


The “resurrection of the righteous” will include those who do the right things; and that – according to Christ – occurs when we love those who cannot love us back.


Jesus looked at the “table” on that Sabbath day some 2,000 years ago.  He saw greed, neglect and the abuse of the poor.  He saw people pushing and shoving for “the place of honor” and others being denigrated to the “least places.”  Our Lord saw all of this as the state of man and confronted the leaders around him with a message similar to, “This is a taste of hell and you are the headwaiters.”


But to the forgotten man with dropsy – whose joints were swollen immeasurably with constant pain – it marked a day of new life.  It was a day of new life because one man (our Lord) saw him as more than a legal “fine point” and a hopeless cripple.  Jesus put the law in its place on that day; he demoted the system and elevated its victims. 

Through this reading, we can clearly see through the path of religious pride and legal condemnation and into the compassionate way of the resurrection of the righteous.

Which path will I choose?

Count the cost

LUKE 14:25-33

[Lk 14:25] Now large crowds were going along with 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 carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. [28] “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? [29] “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, [30] saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ [31] “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? [32] “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. [33] “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

LUKE 14:25

Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them...

Large crowds were going along with Him

At what point do I move from “going along” with Jesus to actually being his disciple?  That is the question at the heart of this reading.  These people had no idea where Christ was leading them.  Sure, they knew they were headed towards Jerusalem, they knew the Passover was drawing near; they had eaten their fill with leftovers, seen the miracles, and witnessed religious leaders set in their “place.”  Yet, they had no idea that where Jesus was symbolically heading (Jerusalem—the symbol of religious power and authority) was only symbolic of where he was leading them (the cross—the symbol of forsaking self for God).

So, despite the thousands flooding through towns and trampling over fields, Jesus turns to warn them.  “You have no idea what lies ahead so let me tell you the cost.”

When John tells us this story, he brings a refreshing perspective [John 6:66-68].

So, when do we move from “going along with Jesus” to being a disciple? 

It is when, like Peter, we have left behind every alternative, it is when — like the Apostles and Mary Magdalene and a few others — we have no one else to whom we can go.

LUKE 14:26

“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.”

Even his own life

Jesus was now talking in heated extremes because those following him wanted to live in lukewarm comfort.  A consistent theme of Jesus (as he neared Jerusalem) was to challenge his followers into a radical relationship with God; to quit living in the middle.  It is the comfortable man that Christ calls “the fool” [Luke 12:19-20].

It is the lukewarm church that the risen Christ condemns in Revelation [Revelation 3:15-16].

And, it is the people that lack compassion that God condemns in Amos [Amos 5:21-24]

Jesus wants to knock us out of our complacency, to awaken us from our stupor.  We are in danger—not from without—but from within!

All the way to Jerusalem Jesus confronted religious leaders who have become too smug, the wealthy who have become too greedy and now… followers who have become too complacent.

Where am I on the list, smug, greedy or complacent—or maybe all three?  “Wake me up, oh Lord, lest I lose you in my slumber!”

There is but one cure for all of these sicknesses, action!  I cannot be cured of complacency without becoming compassionate for the needy.  I cannot be cured of comfort without pushing myself to the extreme.  I cannot be cured of greed without breaking my heart for the most vulnerable.  The cure lies in taking the love of Jesus to those who have felt it the least.  “Here I am, oh Lord, send me!”

LUKE 14:27

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

“Carry his own cross and come after Me”

It is hard for us to comprehend the full gravity of this statement to the early followers of The Way.  We buy golden crosses and wear them around our necks; we put chrome crosses on the rear bumpers of our Lexus’.  We have priceless bejeweled, crosses prominently adorning our churches.

When Jesus preached this message there was only one image of the cross; it was the worst forms of torture that imperial Rome—in all its barbarity—could invent.  On feast days, the Romans would line the road into Jerusalem with crosses bearing men agonizing in death and the corpses of those who had already died.  They were left there for days to the vultures and the elements as an example of Rome’s power and dominion — that was the view of pilgrims on their last sobering steps to Jerusalem as God’s pilgrims neared the holy city.

No synagogue would display a cross and no Jew would wear one.  The cross was a symbol of enslavement, subservience and the utter powerlessness of the Israelites.  Yet, that was the symbol the Christ used to portray his purpose.  He would become enslaved for our freedom, servant for our debt and powerless for our salvation.  Then, he would invite us to share in the same freedom — the freedom of the cross, the freedom of subservience, service and humility.

That is the way of Christ.  That is the cross of Christ.  That is the freedom of His salvation.

LUKE 14:28-32

[28] “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? [29] “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, [30] saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ [31] “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? [32] “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”

“This man began to build and was not able to finish.”

The majority of those “going along” with Jesus did not have what it would take to finish the course.  They were following because of his miracles and feedings, maybe even because of his preaching.  Jesus, to them, was merely the “movement of the moment” and they wanted to be a part of the crowd.  Is my faith any deeper than theirs; is my faith more than emotional highs, potlucks, and hanging out with the right people?  Has my faith progressed beyond worshipping comfortably with Christians to going out to the lost and vulnerable?

If it hasn’t — then I have yet to count the cost; I am the man who “began to build and was not able to finish.”

Do I have what it takes to be Christian or am I going along with the crowd?  Do I even know what it takes?

Christianity shines brightest in the darkness of trial and persecution and I am not talking about being persecuted by a rude driver on my daily commute.  Persecution is not having a “bad day.” Persecution is being targeted for your beliefs and your advocacy of the least of these.  Jesus was killed for his popularity among the poor — not his theology.  Messiahs and prophets came and went in Israel but rarely did they march into the Jerusalem and accost the inner financial workings of the Temple Priests.  Access to worship was being denied to the least of these; the temple treasuries overflowed with the blood money of widows and poor while the religious leaders amassed immense power and obscene fortunes.

The “least of these” were following Jesus—and the least of these were over ninety percent of the people in a land of grotesque poverty and an incredibly unhinged distribution of income.  Christianity should always shine brightest in that type of darkness. Christianity should be the light of advocacy in the darkness of inequity and injustice.  Christianity should be the light of compassion in the darkness of trial and persecution. 

Christians should not wait passively for trial and persecution to possibly come their way—we should not sit and hope against persecution occurring in their lives!  A true disciple goes to where trial and persecution exist and picks up his/her cross in that place!  Jesus didn’t stay in Galilee and pray for change; he didn’t wait for a cross to come to him.  He charged the gates of Jerusalem and turned over tables at the heart of the political/religious institution; he took his body to the cross.

Do I have what it takes?  Will I count the cost?  Will I go towards the darkness with Christ’s light in my heart?

Jesus was threatening the complacency of followers then and the comfort of followers now.  A Christian doesn’t sail safely around the harbor; he sets a course into the storm.

LUKE 14:28-32

[28] “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? [29] “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, [30] saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ [31] “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? [32] “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”

“This man began to build and was not able to finish.”

Christ closes this illustration with two parables and a statement of true discipleship.  The first parable would come from his own experience as a carpenter and it would be embraced by many of those laboring in Jerusalem and its suburbs.  Construction there had been a high priority of Herod the Great.  The temple project alone would span more than half a century (and then be destroyed within six years of its completion). 

Jesus warned his disciples about this folly as they left Jerusalem one day: “And He said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down [Matthew 24:2].’”

Instead, Jesus tells his followers to seek a temple that will stand the test of time [John 2:18-19].

Clearly, the question is; “Am I spending my life building something that will stand the test of time; something eternal?”

The temple of Herod was not permanent; it was not eternal.  What is permanent — what will be remembered about Herod eternally — is the way he treated the infant Jesus, born in Bethlehem.  In his foolishness, Herod became a footnote to Jesus; remembered for his cruelty and the mini-despots he raised.

What am I building that will last eternally?  Like Herod, I will be remembered for the way I react to the vulnerable Jesus who is born today somewhere in an obscure part of my own community.  Will I seek him in that vulnerable state and elevate him to his proper place; will I place him at the top of my personal throne?  Will I seek him in his vulnerable form and offer the protection and love due a true king?  Or, will I, like Herod, try to wipe out any trace he existed?

And furthermore, will our Lord say that I counted the cost and finished what I set out to do?

The word Jesus uses for “finish [G1615 Ekteleo]” is a combination of two words: Ek (or ex) [G1537] meaning from or out of and Teleo [G5055] meaning perfectly focused, complete or fulfilled.

This word is used frequently in the Greek translations of Christ’s words.  However, two distinct uses of this word stand out:

1.      “Therefore you are to be perfect [G5055 teleo], as your heavenly Father is perfect [Matt 5:48].”

2.      Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished [G5055 teleo]!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit [John 19:30].

Jesus was perfectly focused and he perfectly completed what he set out to do. He set out to become the perfect sacrifice of God.  He calculated the task ahead of him and knew the cost; then he paid it with his life.

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple [v27].”

Jesus tells us the cost upfront—directly and with no fine print.  Will I pay the cost of the disciple or will I be a fool who was both poorly focused and incomplete?

“He sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”

The second story that Christ shares is of a wise king who chooses humility before he is humiliated.  It goes against our grain to “give up” or “give in” but this king is wise enough to count the cost and retain his position as a result.  A king who lost the battle in Christ’s day would be humiliated.  His wife and children would very likely be killed or sold into slavery in front of him and that would likely be the last thing that he would ever see.  He would then either be killed or blinded and made a public laughingstock; “This is what happens to those who stand against us.”

Just who then are the two kings in Christ’s story?  Can there be any doubt that one of these kings is a depiction of you and I?  We represent the king that must take stock; who must choose between humility and humiliation, between wisdom and stupidity.  In the end, only one king can sit on our throne and only a fool throws his weight against God.

We need to be careful though, because a subtle aspect of this reading is that the world is full of would-be kings who would willingly send us into their battles; battles against the inevitable.

How often do we labor for the wrong person’s approval?  How frequently do we strive for the wrong kingdom’s treasure?  Thinking we are kings, we are rarely more than cannon fodder.  If we are going to die — and we are — will we die for the right cause?  If we are going to invest all we have in something — and we do — will it be something eternal?

Jesus tells us that compassion, mercy and humility are the towers that will last for eternity.  Is that the tower I am building and the King that I am serving?  If not, I need to change — not someday — but today.

LUKE 14:33

[33] “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

“Give up all his own possessions.”

Here is one of the most uncomfortable sayings of Jesus, one most pastors will explain away with the statement; “What Jesus really meant...”

In fact, “what Jesus really meant” was even stronger than what we read here.  We are called to give up not only our possessions to build his tower and serve our King; but we are also called to give up our very existence [G5225 huparcho], which means property, possessions and being.  It isn’t ours anyway.  We didn’t create it — we manage it, we won’t take it with us and it is worthless outside of restoring God’s people anyway.  So, why do we cling to it?

For safety?  Is God not our safety already [Psalm 18:2-3, Isaiah 40:1-5]?

Is it to prevent worry and fear about our future?  Would a God who gave His only Son for our salvation forget our daily bread [Matthew 6:25-34]?

Why would I let anything stand between God and me?  Why would I let anything keep me from being a true and complete follower, a perfectly focused or fulfilled [G5055 teleo] disciple?

Count the cost.  Is there anything I have or do that is comparable to bringing one more child safely into Christ’s arms?  Count the cost.  Will I pay it?