WISDOM 9:13-18B/PSALM 90:3-4,5-6,12-13,14-17PHILEMON 9-10, 12-17LUKE 14:25-33
Fr. Daniel Evbotokhai
THEDEMANDS OF DISCIPLESHIP.
In Luke 14:25-33 Jesus lays down the demands of discipleship. He is so honest about his demands that none is induced to follow him. Using two parables, Jesus illustrated that anyone who chooses to be his disciple must examine his choice carefully, lest he or she slip back later on. If you do not consider the cost of building a house before embarking on it you may not finish well; if your armies are not strong enough do not go to the battle field. So, Christ wants us to weigh the demands of discipleship so that we can make informed choices. You may think you are a good Christian until the cross comes. During the public ministry of Jesus he had large crowd around him but at the foot of the cross they were very few. Many of the disciples at the beginning of their conversion were very enthusiastic but when the pressures of family life and social hostilities pulled in, their fervor and passion waned. To be a true disciple, it is not enough to crowd around him and enjoy his benevolence. We must equally be ready to bear his burdens. Therefore discipleship demands the following:
*Absolute Renunciation:* The Gospel says “whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” This is a call to “Absolute renunciation”. It is a major theme in Luke’s Gospel. The disciples must leave everything: Luke 5: 11 “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Him”; in Luke 14:26 Jesus says “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother […] and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Hate as used in this verse is explained as a degree of love in Matt.10:37 where Jesus said; “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…”). To be worthy of him, we must love him more than parents and biological life. That is, Love God above all things.
Again, in Luke 18:22 Jesus says to the rich man “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give the money to the poor, […] then come, follow me.” So leaving everything – absolute renunciation is a familiar theme in Luke’s gospel. We too must leave everything; the Church is a place where we learn to leave everything; it is a place where we learn the true meaning of temporal goods. And one best way to leave everything is to renounce Satan and all his empty promises. At baptism we renounced Satan but we however went back to reclaim these things through persistent lies, fraud, greed, lust, gossips, pride, envy, idolatry and materialism. In all, a true disciple must renounce not partially, but absolutely; not temporarily but permanently.
*Take up your Cross:* In the gospel (Luke 14:27) Jesus says “whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.” Jesus had said this in Luke 9:23 when he says “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. … And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.” The cross is an essential aspect of discipleship. Discipleship without renunciation and the cross is a wrong ship. And you cannot be in a wrong ship and arrive at the right destination.
The cross is the best-known symbol of Christianity. The cross is a sign of willful humility, hatred, violence, love and forgiveness. It is a great contradiction. It reminds us of death and assures of life. The cross is everything summarized: suffering and Joy; labour and favour. Job understood divine burdens, in Job 2:10 he said “If we accept blessings from God, we must accept trouble as well.” In this light, Wis. 9:13 of the first reading says “Who can discern what the Lord wills?” He prayed for the cup to pass him by; yet he submitted to the will of the Father. He says “not as I will, but your will be done”. You prayed for that child not to die; yet he died, you have prayed for a spouse yet no one, you prayed and prayed for your marriage to work, yet to no avail, you prayed to have a child of your own, no way; you prayed for promotion and all you knew is demotion. Beloved, the cross may be bitter but it makes you better later.
*Follow Jesus:* Friends, to follow Jesus is to be open to discomforts, dissatisfactions and insufficiencies. To follow Jesus is to keep his commandments. To follow Jesus is to remain steadfast amidst pressures and social hostilities; to follow Jesus is to resist evil governments. If we follow Jesus, we may lose everything in this world but we shall be saved. If we follow Jesus, surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life and we shall dwell in God’s house forever.
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REV. FR. EVARISTUS OKEKE
THE COST OF BEING A CHRISTIAN
Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel hits us hard. He says that being his disciple is not free of charge; there is a price to be paid. This price is not in monetary terms so that we begin to consider our financial strength; it rather bears on how much we are ready to sacrifice for the sake of him. Accommodating Jesus will mean discarding many persons and things. A disciple is one who can dare to let go.
Jesus advices that we first consider the cost of discipleship because it is not negotiable. When you enter a shopping mall, you will find price tag attached to various items. You do not negotiate prices, you simply pick up what you can afford and leave out what you can’t. In our world today, a disciple is a Christian – follower of Christ. This means that those who bear the name Christian are those who have considered the cost of discipleship and have chosen to bear it. Is this true about me?
Notice that Jesus was talking to the crowd walking along with him. The crowd today is the many of us who think that we belong to Jesus by virtue of our presence in Church this morning. Jesus says we must do more – we must hate those who ordinarily we ought to love, just because of him. Hate, here, does not connate a feeling of displeasure but “less love”; meaning, we must love our dear ones lesser than we love Christ. Therefore, should it happen that the demand of our loved ones on us is contrary to that of Christ, we will be on the side of Christ. Again, Christ asks that we hate our very selves; meaning that when the demand of Christ runs contrary to our inclinations, we will choose to “hurt” ourselves.
Jesus then gave two parables that hint on planning before executing. By implication, we would have considered the above conditions before deciding to come to Church this morning. In truth, most times, the reverse is the case. We come to church not because we have decided to take up the sacrifices of being a Christian but because we want to tell God that we must not suffer; we want to give God instructions, rather than obey His instructions.
With this attitude, we will not attain success for the first reading tells us that it is God who directs the paths of men and set them right so that men were taught what pleases God. The reasoning of man is that all should be perfect for him. The first reading says that this is worthless. If we want to be happy, we must give room for perseverance. It is perseverance that gives life a meaningful outlook. Life will not become meaningless simply because you are not able to meet your set goals or because people do not act towards you as you would expect. Life will be meaningful because in the words of the psalmist in the responsorial psalm, God has been our refuge from one generation to the next. God alone is enough.
Beloved, not all problems God gives outright solutions. The solution to some problems is perseverance. When people begin to recommend houses of prayers to you, it is as if they are saying that those who go to such places have a trouble-free life. This is a big lie! When you see some church banners inviting you to their programs with the promise that all your problems will be solved, know that they have lied from the very beginning.
In the second reading, just as Paul pleaded with Philemon to take back Onesimus as a beloved brother despite Onesimus’ wrongdoing in the past, so also does God want us to walk along with him. There is no authentic discipleship without reconciliation. If we are not reconciled with God, we cannot be his disciples; if we lack the spirit of perseverance, we will not be able to put-up with the failings of others, and so, we cannot be authentic disciples.
Our goal as Christians is not to ensure that nothing perturbs us but to ensure that we are not loving someone, something or our very selves more than Jesus. The gospel acclamation says: Let your face shine forth on your servant, and teach me your decrees”. If we pray in these words, we will surely achieve our goal as Christians. *God Bless You!*
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Fr. Paul Oredipe
DISCIPLESHIP AND FAMILY TIES
“If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple”.
Did Jesus really mean that we should turn our backs on our families? Or was he exaggerating? This is a dilemma especially for those who believe in the absolute literal interpretation of the bible, though even the most fundamentalists of people preach family values, rather against the literal interpretation of this passage. The problem is that the question does not understand the culture of which Jesus was part and the style of expression in which he spoke.
Jesus was neither exaggerating nor speaking literally. Rather He was engaging in poetic expressions to emphasize the kind of dedication He expected from those who followed him – then and now. St. Luke obviously chose this because in the present passage he combines many different sayings of Jesus.
Immediately after this saying, Jesus told the parables of the man who wants to build a tower and the king marching to war against another king. The point in these parables is this “if you want to be disciples of mine, you have got to think seriously”. We might put it in these words: Christ is telling us “look before you leap”. We are reminded to give careful consideration to what it is going to cost. Count the cost and be ready to pay the price.
Like the man thinking of building a tower and the king waging war, we need to sit down and ‘count the cost’, that is, we review our life and situation, and calling upon our Saviour, we determine to go on. Christian commitment is not merely a matter of initial enthusiasm or excitement. It is far more than a noble declaration of intent or purpose. It is about following-through, perseverance, producing the goods in practice.
There is a cost to discipleship, when Jesus calls us. Our Lord Jesus spells this cost out to all of us in clear certain terms. Some times the cost of following Jesus will cost us everything. It will cost us our reputations, our esteem in the world, and perhaps for some, even our status amongst other Christians. What cost Jesus his life, costs us ours. There is no such thing as “cheap grace.” Grace is free, but not cheap.
Many of us are perhaps very much involved in counting costs and paying the price. We MUST take these statements at face value. We MUST SEE the SERIOUSNESS OF DISCIPLESHIP and the CALL of JESUS! When Jesus calls us, He calls us to our own death to selfishness and life to giving ourselves to Him completely. This is God’s Way, not an invention of man.
Our love for Jesus must be so real and true that our love for mother, father, sister, brother, wife and children, even our own lives must be compared to this love as to be contrasted to hatred. Yes, beloved, even our love for our own family and all other things must be considered secondary to our love for God, if our family calls us to abandon God’s will for our lives. We must love God first, then, our family must also obey the call of God with us.
Christ tells us the cost of following him, not in abstract terms but in terms very close, concrete and relevant to our daily life. The cost is, as we have seen, to “HATE” father, mother wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and even our own life. The word “HATE” as used by Jesus has a strong semitic background and emphasis. The actual language spoken by Christ (Aramaic) is one which has sharp and strong contrast. It admits little of comparison as we have in other languages. So when Jesus says we should “HATE” our nearest and dearest ones, the point and idea is that priority and preferences in the Christian life must not be weakened by any conflict or other tie, even those of family. Whenever any conflict arises, it is clear where the Christian allegiance must go. What it really means is that if it came to the final cruch, we have to sacrifice everything, our closest relatives and friends, even our own life.
The cost of discipleship is total commitment to Jesus. In other words, Jesus Christ must be the Lord of our lives. He must hold the first place in our hearts. Every thought, word or action, every decision, must always be seen in relation to Him and to His plan for us. So, when Jesus says that to be His disciple involves hating father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even one’s own life, He means that we are to love all these people less than we love Him. “To hate” is a hebraism meaning to “love less.” However, when we make Jesus the first love of our lives, we will know how to love all others well in Him.
When you come to think about it, that is precisely what thousands of men and women did over the centuries who died rather than deny their faith. We can think of examples of people who have heard that message and were genuine disciples of Jesus.
In today’s lessons, St. Paul would be able to verify what Jesus said. He was a disciple, and where was he when he wrote that letter to Philemon? In jail! He was in jail because he was resisting the Roman empire, its pagan culture and all that it stood for. He was proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ, and so he was in jail. We know that later he would be beheaded. He knew what it meant to be a disciple. He was ready to give up everything, and he did.
The friend that St Paul was writing to, Philemon, had this slave, Onesimus, who had run away, even robbed him before he ran away. But St. Paul drew Onesimus into the community of disciples; even while he was in jail he converted Onesimus, baptized him, made him a member of the body of Christ. So now he was a son of God, a brother to Jesus, and Paul sent him back to Philemon, who was a slaveholder. Paul pleaded with Philemon, “Give Onesimus his freedom, total freedom, because he is no longer a slave; he is your brother.”
Surely, we are called to LOVE GOD and LOVE our families as well. But, if the call of God demands that we respond and obey God rather than men and women who may call us not to obey God, then, we are to obey God first! Our love for God must even be stronger than our love for our own lives, if our lives are lived contrary to the will of God. We are called to love God more than anything or person on earth! This love we have must be of the Holy Spirit. It must be radical — to the root of our very being in God. This love for God is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Look at the context. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, the road to death. Great crowds surround Him, all sorts of people, many of them willing to join up with Him but without appraising the cost. He wants them to think it over seriously. To be my disciple is unusually difficult. Absolutely nobody, absolutely nothing, comes before me. I am your one Lord and Master. In case of conflict, your nearest and dearest take second place.
But making Jesus my number one is not enough. To be his disciple, to be a genuine Christian calls for a second condition: You have to carry a cross. Here you touch the very core of Christianity – the mystery of suffering.
Like it or not, a cross is, or will be, part of your life. Your task and mine is to take this reality and transform it into Christian living. To make human or Christian sense, pain must have a purpose. It is purpose that transforms sheer sufferings into sacrifice. And the one purpose that overshadows all others is love. Such was the driving force behind Jesus’ journey to the cross: “God so loved the world……”
Ready for the third condition? To follow Jesus, to be his disciple, you have to give up all you have. All of us?
We must count the costs before we follow Jesus Christ. This is the essence of discipleship – becoming a follower of Jesus Christ in ALL things. In the last analysis, it is a matter of keeping the proper hierarchy of charity: God must take priority over everything.
Jesus is not calling for a sudden surrender of property for all of his followers, nor is he asking all Christians to leave family ties behind. Such could be chaotic and even destructive of authentic religious values. When Jesus speaks about family ties and possession, he is primarily asking for a change in our heart and attitude. The gospel is not a call to any form of compromise but a challenge to a consistent and greater commitment to what we profess to believe in.
Like St. Paul in the second reading, we begin to see others, even those of different background, as our brothers and sisters. And with a certain measure of courage, we may ask others to do the same. Our Psalm today reminds us that we have a relatively short span of life. “Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart”. To follow Jesus Christ through time into eternity costs nothing less than everything. Are we willing enough to pay such a price?
When Jesus calls us, there is no compromise with the world, the flesh, or the devil. As in St. Paul’s commitment statement in Galatians 2:19, 20 – “For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Let us not be afraid of carrying our cross because Christ carried it first. His cross will be a source of peace and serenity, of joy and enthusiasm.
Brothers and sisters, I invite you to carry your cross every day with love. Jesus is at our side, carrying His cross to save the whole world.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
