Commentary - Luke 14:25-35

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, and great crowds are following Him. His popularity is cresting. But Jesus is not interested in accumulating fans; He is calling disciples. And so, He turns to this massive, enthusiastic crowd and lays down the most stringent terms imaginable. This is not a seeker-sensitive message. This is a seeker-repelling message. He is deliberately thinning the herd. The central point is that discipleship to Jesus is absolute. It is an unconditional surrender of everything you are and everything you have to His total lordship. He uses three shocking statements, two parables, and a concluding metaphor about salt to drive this point home with force. There is no room for half-measures, divided loyalties, or casual affiliation in the kingdom of God.

The cost of following Christ is nothing less than everything. He demands a loyalty that makes all other loyalties, even to our closest family and our own lives, look like hatred by comparison. He demands a willingness to be executed as a criminal. He demands that we renounce ownership of all our possessions. This is not a call to some elite super-Christian tier; this is the baseline for every single person who would call himself a disciple of Jesus.

Outline

Context In Luke

This section of Luke's Gospel (often called the "Travel Narrative") details Jesus' final journey to Jerusalem, where He knows the cross awaits Him. The teaching becomes more intense, the warnings more stark. Jesus is preparing His followers for a reality where their master is arrested and executed. The crowds see a popular miracle-worker and an inspiring teacher. Jesus sees a mob that will soon be shouting for His crucifixion. Therefore, His teaching is designed to strip away all superficial enthusiasm and force every person to confront the true nature of His kingdom and the radical cost of entering it. This is not a peacetime address; it is a wartime summons.

Commentary

Luke 14:25

Now many crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them,

The scene is set with "many crowds." This is not a small group of dedicated followers in a private seminar. This is a mass movement. Jesus is popular. But this popularity is a shallow thing, and Jesus knows it. The word for "turned" indicates a sudden, deliberate action. He stops, pivots, and confronts the very people who are enthusiastically following Him. He is about to throw a bucket of ice water on their unexamined excitement. He is not going to let them follow Him under any false pretenses.

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."

This is the first great filter. The word "hate" here is a classic example of Semitic hyperbole. It is not commanding emotional animosity. The parallel passage in Matthew 10:37 clarifies it: "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." The point is one of supreme loyalty and ultimate love. Your love for Jesus Christ must be so absolute, so all-consuming, that in comparison, every other love, even the most precious and God-given loves for family, looks like hatred. If your mother tells you to do one thing, and Jesus tells you to do another, there can be no hesitation. Your family cannot be your god. Your children cannot be your idol. And notice He concludes with "even his own life." Self-preservation is not the highest good. If you are not willing to lose everything for Christ, you cannot be His disciple. Period.

Luke 14:27

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

This is the second filter, and it is just as stark. In the first-century Roman world, a man carrying a cross was a man on his way to his own execution. It was a symbol of ultimate shame, suffering, and death. This is not a metaphor for dealing with your arthritis or a difficult boss. It means you must be willing to die. To follow Jesus is to identify with a condemned man. It is to sign your own death warrant. Your old self, your ambitions, your rights, your reputation, they are all nailed to that cross. You are walking dead. And you are to "come after Me," following the one who is leading the procession to His own crucifixion. Discipleship is a death march that leads to life.

Luke 14:28-30

"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? Lest, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’"

Jesus now gives two illustrations to drive the point home. The first is about common sense in construction. No sane person starts a major project without first determining if he has the resources to see it through. To start and fail is to invite public ridicule. Jesus is saying, "Do you understand what you are signing up for? Have you counted the cost?" The cost of discipleship is not a tithe, or a few hours a week, or a commitment to be a nicer person. The cost is everything. And the ridicule of the world is precisely what awaits the person who makes a public profession of faith but then shrinks back when the real cost becomes apparent. The half-finished tower is a monument to foolishness.

Luke 14:31-32

"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? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace."

The second illustration is military. A wise king assesses his strength before going to war. If he is hopelessly outmatched, the only rational course of action is to sue for peace while he still can. In this analogy, you are the king with 10,000. The one coming against you is Jesus Christ, with an overwhelming force. You cannot win a war against God. You cannot stand against His kingdom. The only sane, logical, rational thing to do is to surrender. You must send a delegation, that is, you must repent, and ask for His terms of peace. And His terms are unconditional surrender. You don't negotiate with King Jesus. You abdicate.

Luke 14:33

"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."

Here is the conclusion drawn from the two parables. This is the application. The Greek word for "give up" is apotassomai, which means to renounce, to bid farewell to, to formally separate from. It's a relinquishing of your claim. This does not necessarily mean every Christian must take a vow of poverty and sell all their material goods. It means you must renounce ownership. Nothing is yours anymore. Your house, your car, your money, your talents, your time, the title deed for all of it has been transferred to Jesus Christ. You are now a steward, a manager of His property, and you must manage it according to His will. If He tells you to sell it, you sell it. If He tells you to keep it and use it for His glory, you do that. The issue is lordship.

Luke 14:34-35

"Therefore, salt is good, but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Jesus concludes with a final, sharp metaphor. Disciples are to be the salt of the earth. Salt preserves, it flavors, it creates thirst. It is distinct. A disciple who has not counted the cost, who has not surrendered all, is like salt that has lost its saltiness. He is a compromised, worldly, useless Christian. And notice the severity of the judgment: it is useless for anything. You can't even throw it on the manure pile to help with decomposition. It is utterly worthless and is to be thrown out and trampled. This is a terrifying warning against nominal Christianity. A disciple who is not distinct from the world is good for nothing. The final line, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," is a summons to take these words with the utmost seriousness. Are you really listening?

Application

The message of this passage is as bracing and necessary today as it was when Jesus first spoke it. We live in an age of cheap grace and easy-believism. The gospel is often presented as a simple add-on to improve your life, a fire insurance policy with no down payment. Jesus will have none of it.

To be a Christian is to have your entire life reordered around the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ. He is not co-pilot; He is the pilot, and you are not even in the cockpit. He is King, and you are His subject. This requires a sober calculation. Look at the cost. It is your family's claim on your ultimate loyalty. It is your own life. It is your reputation. It is all your possessions. The cost is everything.

But the parables also show us the logic of it. It is foolish to start a project you cannot finish. It is insane to declare war on an invincible King. The only rational choice is to surrender. And in that surrender, we find true life. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. The call of Christ is a call to die, yes, but it is a call to die so that we might truly live. We must count the cost, and then, by God's grace, joyfully pay it.