Take Up Your Cross

Luke 14:25-33 September 7, 2025

 

Jesus seems to be getting very real with the crowds

that are following him.

Back in chapter 6, he was comforting to the crowds

telling them that the meek were blessed.

He was feeding another 5000 people in chapter 9.

But then, in chapter 12, the crowds got an earful

when he told them that he didn’t come to bring peace,

but he came to bring division.  

Then he called them hypocrites.

 

Now, after he’s left the Pharisees house again,

after another awkward dinner party,

the crowd is still following him and Jesus

tells them that they should hate their whole family

or they shouldn’t bother chasing after him.

 

It’s almost as if he’s trying to get rid of them.

Or at least weed out the idly

interested ones from the committed ones.

But he’s telling them the truth:

There is a cost to being a disciple.

 

Now, we Lutherans love talk about free grace

and the unconditional love of God –

and that is absolutely true we are forgiven and loved

just because God does that. It’s God’s way.

We’re all going to heaven. Don’t worry about that.

 

But once we know that, and start to live in gratitude

to the one who has saved us, that life of gratitude comes at a cost.

Which Lutherans don’t really spend a lot of time talking about.

 

Jesus says to the crowds,

Let me tell you about that now, because

I don’t want a bunch of half-way followers who

chicken out when the going gets tough.

So he tells them about the costs up front.

I don’t know that most people are inclined to do that.

 

So there’s this church on the way from Austin to Dallas

And it used to have this big sign on the front of it,

that you could see from the freeway and it said,

“30 minute worship, guaranteed!”

Now there’s nothing wrong with a 30 minute worship service.

It’s no worse than a 60 minute worship or a

90 minute worship or a 2 hour worship.

 

But having an advertisement like that – that promotes

the short length of the worship – is kind of promising that your

relationship with Jesus will only take 30 minutes out of your life,

or 60 minutes, or two hours or whatever.

 

You can get this whole discipleship thing over and

done with in little or no time.

This won’t hurt a bit, you can just pop in and pop out

All God wants from you is to 30 minutes – and a little money of course.

In other words, I can give the minimum effort and still get all the benefits.

 

It sounds good I guess, it’s sold quite a few people

since the sanctuary there is pretty large.

But it’s kind of the opposite of what Jesus was doing here.

And according to Jesus, what that church was doing was

pretty much false advertising.

 

Jesus says there will be a cost.

And it’s not just going to be 30 minutes of your weekend

and a few dollars out of your bank account.

God wants you.

All of you.

God wants your body, mind, and soul.

There will be sacrifices.

 

Often in Christianity, we forget about our own sacrifices.

We focus on Jesus sacrifice, on his cross.

We say things like “he paid it all for me”

“The price for my sins was paid.”

As if Jesus was crucified just so we could be comfortable.

 

But Jesus tells us today that as followers,

we will be picking up our own crosses.

There will be a cost. We don’t all have to die.

But there will be a cost, and that cost might be pretty high.

 

“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"

 

This was not embroidered on a pillow

in your grandma’s house, was it?

There is NO church between Austin and Dallas

has a big sign with this on it. 

That would not be good advertising.

But Jesus tells the crowds this right away.

 

Now why would Jesus tell people this anyway?

Families are good, we love our families.

Fathers and brothers and sisters and wives and children

are awesome and are seen by some as

the pinnacle of commitment and Christian life.

But Jesus says we are to hate them.

 

Now I don’t like it when we preachers say that

Jesus really didn’t mean what he said.

But I really do think that Jesus is using hyperbole here.

He’s exaggerating to prove a point.

I don’t know that he wants us to actually hate

our father and mother, spouse, and children, and brother and sister.

 

Jesus has said many other places to love one another.

Even to love our enemies. And I’m sure family is included in that.

Sometimes they’re the ones we need to learn to love the most.

 

So I don’t think that Jesus is telling us to hate anyone actively:

to stop talking to them, or call them names, or egg their houses,

or sign them up for embarrassing magazine subscriptions.

 

But Jesus is saying that being a disciple

sometimes does cost us our relationship with our families.

The path that God leads us on sometimes puts us at odds with

the people we love the most.

Sometimes as a disciple, we are asked to put God’s will

before the will of our families.

Jesus is telling us to be ready for that choice.

 

Jesus is saying, contrary to the belief of many, many Christians

today, that family is not always the

highest priority in a Christian life.

Doing God’s will is.

And sometimes, doing God’s will can cause

division in our families.

 

In Jesus time, family was everything.

Blood lines, kinship, country, common lineage, descendants,

were the most important thing.

Things were basically black and white.

You were part of our family, clan, or religion or you weren’t.

and often that meant that you were the enemy.

Family was the priority

 

But Jesus was in the process of creating a family that was not based

on race, or nationality, or religion, or blood line.

Jesus was creating a family based on the love of God

which reaches across these lines and knows no boundaries.

Things were no longer black and white, gentile or Jew,

My family or yours. Jesus was reorienting people towards

God’s Kingdom and God’s priorities of justice and grace.

 

The divisions were being blurred and

Jesus told his followers that their loyalties were to a larger family,

the commitments of Jesus followers are to the least,

to the poorest, to the outcast, to the most rejected ones,

which sometimes meant helping out

and standing up for the ones outside your own family or clan

maybe even against your own family or clan.

  

And that could lead to a division with

father, mother, sister, brother, or child, cousin, or everyone you know.

That could lead to losing your identity,

your security, “all of your possessions”, as Jesus puts it.

That was the cost of building the tower to quote the parable.

 

And Jesus tells the people in the crowds that if they

can’t handle that, then they should just stop following.

Unlike most salesmen, Jesus is just telling us 

all the possible costs up front.

 

In Jesus time, making a choice for God’s family

over and against your own family, or country,

or race could be immediately costly.

And today, that risk is still there.

 

As Christians, we are asked to recognize the humanity

and rights of those different from us, whoever we are.

To be compassionate to those of other races,

other countries, other backgrounds and religions.

We’re asked to stand up for the rights of immigrants, refugees,

the poor, the hungry, the underfed, the underrepresented.

We’re asked to stand up for gay, lesbian, and transgender people.

We are asked to stand up for our neighbors.

 

This has become controversial.

More controversial than it was even in the recent past.

More controversial than it needs to be.

How many of us have kept silent with family

and friends about these basic tenants of Christianity

just to keep the peace? Just to avoid arguments?

I know I have certainly done it.

 

Jesus is telling us that, as his followers,

keeping the peace is not our priority.

It’s actually not even one of our goals.

Jesus is actually telling us to not keep that peace

and to speak up for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

At the least, this could lead to some uncomfortable discussions.

At the most it could cost us even more.

Jesus wants us to consider that and be ready for that.

God doesn’t just want 30 minutes of us.

God wants all of us.

Jesus wants us to take up our crosses and follow.

There will be sacrifice involved. Which is painful.

 

But every time we give up part of our lives

for the sake of the gospel,  we receive this new life,

one that is full and complete. 

And we receive a new family and friends in Christ.

 

And when we put ourselves out there for the Gospel like we have,

when we do God’s work, we come close to the heart of God. 

And anyone who has been close to the heart of God.

knows that there is nothing that compares with that.

 

Dying to yourself, and rising with Christ. 

Losing your own priorities and taking up God’s. 

That is what taking up our cross means.

Dying hurts.

But rising makes up for what has been lost. 

 

And something that is given up for God is not actually given up 

In the end, it is something that is gained. 

We forfeit ourselves but we gain the whole kingdom 

Not just in heaven.

Not just after we’ve died - but here and now. 

 

Jesus has warned us fair and square.

This is going to cost us. 

But he also promises,

the more we lose, the more we get.