It was well past midnight when the phone rang at Dr. Winters' house. The surgeon awoke with a start. The voice at the other end told him the story of a late-night accident in which a young boy was seriously injured. He needed Dr. Winters' skills immediately.
The quickest route to the hospital lay through the roughest part of Chicago. But, since time was a critical factor, Dr. Winters chose to take the risk of that route. He almost made it safely. However, at the last stoplight, his door was jerked open by a man in a gray hat and a dirty flannel shirt. “I've got to have this car!” the man yelled as he pulled Dr. Winters from the seat. Dr. Winters frantically tried to explain the gravity of his situation, but the man was not listening. He jumped into the driver's seat and was gone in a flash.
For a half hour Dr. Winters wandered the dark city streets. Finally, he found a phone, called a taxi, and got to the hospital an hour later. Bursting through the doors, he ran to the nurses' station only to have the nurse shake her head, “It's too late,” she said. “The boy died 30 minutes ago. His father got here just before the end. He's in the chapel now and is awfully confused. Please go and see him. He can't understand why you didn't come.”
Dr. Winters hurried down the hall and quietly entered the chapel. At the front kneeled the form of the weeping father. He was dressed in an old gray hat and a dirty flannel shirt - the same ones worn by the man who had pulled Dr. Winters from his car an hour before! Tragically, the man had pushed from his life the very one who could have helped him and saved his son.
In matters of faith I think I've seen that man. With a marriage falling apart, he couldn't find time to spend with the Lord, and pushed Him from his life. With a son running around addicted to drugs, he didn't have time for church and pushed it from his life. With the loss of his job, he couldn't take the time to read the Bible, and pushed the Word of God from his life. Have you ever done a similar thing and pushed the Savior from yours?
May that never be the case with any of us for that is not what a disciple does. Will You Be His Disciple? Watch out lest you push Him from your life, the Savior warns in our text today. Even I. if the family is against you, or II. the effort is too great for you, carry your cross and follow Him. Will You Be His Disciple?
I. When the family is against you.
Discipleship. How would you describe it? What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it entail? Are you a disciple?
A disciple is a learner, a student. In ancient times, students would pick a teacher from whom they wished to be taught the truths of life. Then they would follow him around wherever he went, walking in his footsteps, listening to him, learning from him, emulating what he said and did. It's that picture of the student walking behind the teacher and benefiting from him that Jesus had in mind when He said, “Anyone who does not carry His cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Those words make it clear that our discipleship, following the Master Teacher, Christ, is going to be hard work, exhausting work, work that calls for a lot of effort, and yes, even a good deal of pain. It's work that goes beyond what we are, beyond what we have, beyond what we are able to do. Following Jesus is no casual stroll down the road of life. It's a determined journey of total commitment to Him. Such commitment is complete and may carry repercussions with it.
Some of the first repercussions of that commitment take place in the family. In our text Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Think of that, dear friends. You all have families, whose members in some way or other, even if there are problems, are dear to you. Hate them? This is hard what Jesus is asking; they are startling words. What in the world does He mean? Hate my mother? Hate my father? Hate my wife and children? Hate myself? How could the Savior say such a thing? After all, He's the one who gave them to me in the first place and told me to love and honor them. What does He mean now by telling me to hate them?
Here Jesus has in mind that person who has to make a choice when His family , whom he loves, is against the Lord Jesus and a person's faith in Him. Whoever stands in my way in walking with the Savior and holds me back from following Him as His disciple, is to be renounced, even if that person is the closest one to me in life.
Oh, don't get the Savior wrong. He's not going back on the Fourth Commandment where He teaches us to honor our fathers
and mothers, and to love our spouses and children. That still holds true. At the same time, we are to love and honor Christ above all. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind,” the Scriptures say. So, if my mother or father or sister or brother or even my wife should somehow stand in the way of my life of faith in the Savior, they must be renounced for the sake of Christ's glory and my eternal welfare.
Will You Be His Disciple? Will you steadfastly follow Him who gave His life for you on the cross to save you eternally, or will you let others, even those closest to you, pry you away from Him? If the family is against you , Will You Be His Disciple?
For example, the following story is one that goes back a number of years and was told by one of our missionaries in Japan. He writes, “For many years Mieko Katoh did not know the Lord Jesus as her Savior. Then the Lord used our radio broadcast to help set her free. Finally, on Palm Sunday, after years of instruction, she was baptized and confirmed in the faith.
At this time she is suffering a very severe persecution – from her family, which is not Christian. In addition, her grandmother arranged a meeting with a young man for a marriage interview. Mieko explained that she was a Christian and there were certain things she could not do. After considering everything, the suitor backed out. All of the family felt Mieko should give up her faith and marry the man. In fact, her mother gave her a choice: ‘Give up your faith and get married, or get out of the house.” Mieko called here last night and said she would not be coming to church for awhile. Right now, we don't know what will happen. We pray that Mieko will remain strong in her faith, make the sacrifices necessary, and take up her cross to follow the Savior. But Satan works strongly in this land of false gods. And when the family is against you, it's hard.”
And we think that we have difficulties? True, we may have our own struggles within our families. But what would it be like to be thrown out by the family for our faith in the Lord Jesus? It can happen, or at least it can happen that we listen to them instead of the Savior and His Word. If your family were against you, Would You Remain Jesus' Disciple?
Yes! I pray you would say, “Yes,” because He's the only Savior from sin, death, and the devil that you will ever have. He's the Savior who loves you above all, even above His own life. He's the
Savior you need, the Savior you love. Push Him from your life because the family is against you, and you will forfeit everything – forgiveness, life, salvation, peace with God, hope of heaven, divine help and strength in everything.
You know, the Lord Jesus once told us the stark reality of a life of faith, “All men will hate you because of me.” Then He promised, “But he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Mt.10:22).
The daily sacrifice may be costly, but the eternal blessings are worth it!
By the way, our missionary continued the story. After his letter was published, Mieko returned to Bible study and worship. She had counted the cost, the cost of discipleship, and would not push the Savior from her life because that Savior meant everything to her, more than her own family. He meant eternity with God as a redeemed, restored, forgiven sinner turned saint.
Will You, too, Be His Disciple? When the family is against you, cling to the Lord Jesus. The blessings are eternal.
II. When the effort is too great.
Yes, the blessings are eternal. But much of that is in the future. The present may still be hard as the effort seems too great. Jesus wants you to know that. He doesn't want you to fool yourself. Discipleship is not a bed of ease. It calls for effort , daily, life-long.
In our text Jesus gave two illustrations to underscore the intensity of the effort. In the first He talked about building a tower and sitting down at first to estimate the cost to see if a person has enough money to complete it, because the effort is great.
What if you decided to build a house this fall? What would you do? Would you immediately contact a builder and tell him to start right away? No. You want to know all that's involved in such a project. You're going to sit down and look ahead as best you can at what it takes to build a house. If you only have $10,000 of your own money, you'll only get the foundation laid, and then the house will sit there, an uncompleted disaster. You've got to look at the cost, the whole cost to the project and see how great the effort is.
Likewise Jesus talked about a king going to war against another king who had twice as many soldiers as he did. It's going to take a huge effort to beat the king who is better equipped than he is.
What if you found yourself in a battle today? Would you go out against a machine gun or a tank to fight it brandishing only a stick
in your hand? That would be suicide. You don't go into a fight if you don't have the strength or the weapons to ensure success.
Jesus' point of comparison with these two pictures is this. The cost of discipleship is great, it goes beyond our resources. Besides that, following Him involves warfare. We are at war with the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. Paul describes that warfare: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ep.6)
The cost is higher than we can pay; the enemies are stronger than we are; the effort is too great. What shall we do? We lean on the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid the price with His own blood; He won the battle for us. And whenever we need Him as we journey onward, He will be there. With our own selves we falter; with Him nothing is impossible. Don't push Him from your life if you would be His disciple. Rather, build on Him boldly, using the resources of Word and Sacrament that He gives. And fight the good fight of faith knowing He is with you.
Will You Be His Disciple, when the family is against you, and the effort is too great? God grant us the strength we need to look to Him in faith and reply, “Yes, Lord, where else should we go. You alone have the words of life.” And then follow wherever He might take us, through thick and through thin, following Him at last to our home above where we shall be at rest forever. God grant it to us in faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.