Count the Cost
Luke 14: 25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.4 - The Parables of Jesus, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev
With this preamble, Jesus delivers two parables: that of the tower builder, and that of the king preparing for war. Before coming to the parables, an examination of this preamble.
Jesus here speaks of absolute faithfulness to himself and to his mission, which requires complete rejection of any relational ties, but only if that is necessary.
We saw this with some of Jesus’s disciples, in cases where one’s family activity hindered them from fulfilling the mission.
Luke 18: 28 Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
29 So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
It was a radical demand, to leave – even “hate” – one’s family. Yet, we do see that it was demanded only for a time. Peter remained married, receiving Jesus in his house; even years after Jesus’s death and resurrection, Acts 9 records the marriages of the Lord’s brothers and Cephas.
In other words, it is not a universal imperative. Jesus is making a point: count the cost. Almost all of the disciples demonstrated that they understood, ultimately, the cost: they did renounce all for the sake of Christ via their martyrdom.
Now, to the parables: these two parables, the tower builder and the king preparing for war, are considered twin parables. These are offered by Jesus to give and example of the caution He was offering: given what Jesus is asking of them, they are warned to first count the cost.
The tower builder will first sit down and count the cost, not wanting to lay the foundation only to discover that the available means are insufficient to the task – leaving others to mock him: ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Then the king, preparing to go to war: could he, with ten thousand, take victory against the enemy with twenty thousand? If he deems it unlikely, he should send an ambassador and sue for peace – this as opposed to losing his entire army.
Luke 14: 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
We see these same two characters in the book of Proverbs, chapter 24:
3 Through wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established…
6 For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.
The connecting tissue is wisdom, and Jesus is warning those who might follow him: be wise in your understanding of what is being asked of you and what challenges you will face. To see this through to the end may very well cost you everything.
This parable, like many others recorded in Luke, was told on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus knows what is in store for Him there. He is letting the disciples know just what it will mean if they follow.
Metropolitan Hilarion uses as examples those who wish to enter the priesthood or a monastery: first, count the cost. Once one enters, there is no turning back. Yet, Jesus’s teaching is for all Christians, not only the priest or monk.
Conclusion
The spiritual life of every Christian – not only the monk and the priest – is subject to the laws of warfare. In this war, we need sober judgement. No person should pick up a burden that he will not be able to carry later. This is the main point of the parables of the tower builder and the king preparing for war.
He cites, from Ephesians 6:
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
After which follows, just as in war (but a different type of war), the need to put on the full armor of God.
Epilogue
Nothing is directly mentioned by Metropolitan Hilarion about Jesus’s other warning, that of bearing one’s cross and following Him. I recall hearing a wonderful comment in a sermon, very simple yet illuminating: we all have a cross to bear – every one of us, in life, carries some such burden.
The point isn’t to merely carry the cross – yes, a heavy load in any case. This issue is: how will you carry it?
Bionic,
More than a dozen years ago, I wrote and posted an article to my blog on this very subject.
https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2012/07/29/the-cost-of-discipleship/
At the time, I was struggling with acknowledging that Jesus the Christ truly was my Master and still quite insistent on going my own way. Today, I have no problem with that recognition but hold onto so many areas of my life where this has not yet worked its purifying power. I am not alone. Everyone who calls themselves Christian experiences this in some way or other.
Today, my battle has to do more with apathy than outright rebellion and I find this much more disturbing. Apathy is an attitude which doesn't care and is willing to simply drift, while rebellion, even though it may be dead wrong, exhibits passion and skin in the game. Jesus referred to this in Revelation 3:15-16 with this warning to the church at Laodicea.
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
The problem, as I see it, is that most people today suffer from a lack of understanding (wisdom, as you put it) regarding this truth. Christianity is a garment put on, an addition to one's already busy life, something to be played at, yet never really taken seriously. It is an emotional crutch which fills a need to a point and, beyond that, we do not venture. We stay in our own private, safe cocoon and never think about emerging from it as a butterfly. We never realize how much we are capable of in this life. We consign ourselves with picking up the crumbs which fall from the richly laden table and call this good. This is, in my opinion, a major cause of the situation we find ourselves in today, because all it would take to upend the world order for good would be for massive numbers of Christians to become willing to give up everything to reach consistency between their actions and their stated beliefs.
On the other hand, there are those few who do realize what total commitment means, where it will take them, what it will cost, and the reward for taking that road, yet refuse to take the plunge into the depths. I have thought deeply about my own potential and, to be quite honest about it, it has been one of the very few things which has thoroughly frightened me. Such a course of action would mean that everything, everything in my life would have to be served up as "fair game" regardless of the importance I attach to it AND this alone would require an attitude of complete and total trust in God, which is anathema to my own sense of self-preservation. Rebellion still rears its ugly head.
One "proverb" which helps me considerably is seen in Luke 9:61-62, which says,
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, if fit for the kingdom of God."
In plowing a furrow, it is important to pick a point on the horizon as reference and never to lose sight of it. This ensures a straight furrow from beginning to end and, even though there may be jogs and deviations along the way from obstacles hit, it is fairly simple to get back on track. However, if the plowman uses anything as reference or is constantly looking behind him, he will not plow a straight furrow, but will always be meandering.
I apologize for the length of this, but I needed to "preach to my own choir". Again. Thanks for letting me ramble.
For the record, when Christ says one must 'hate' ones family the writers in Greek are translating the semitic form of making comparison: to say one is to care more for X than Y, one would say X is loved and Y is hated... So, for example, 'I like cake better than pie' becomes 'I love cake, but I hate pie'. In context, it's understood that the speaker does not hate pie'. Unfortunately, translations and lack of cultural knowledge have made the statement harder to understand than it ought to be.