Luke 14:25-35
September 7, 2025
When I was growing up there was a popular commercial on television with a jingle to it that went like this: “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us, all we ask is that you let us serve it your way.” You may remember those words from the old Burger King commercials as the servers behind the counter would sing those words to customers as they placed their orders. (If you never saw commercial, you can definitely check it out on YouTube.) Burger King was just like many other fast food restaurants at the time, but they were separating themselves from the others by the fact that you could get a burger made any way you wanted fast, without delay; while some fast food restaurants only served their food one way and others could make it any way you wanted, but it would usually take a while since it was considered a “special” order.
Today almost every restaurant will serve a meal the way you want it, without delay, because speed, convenience, and ease are all important concepts to us. Producers of goods and services pay attention to these concepts, because they know that many people are sometimes willing to settle for less in terms of quality and value as long as the product can be delivered into their hands quickly and without difficulty.
But can you blame us? We live in a complicated and busy world, and we welcome almost anything that can simplify our lives or give us more free time. However, we also know that the easiest way is not always the best way. Some things are still worth doing the hard way. There are causes and goals that are worthy of an all-out effort on our part in order to achieve them. The challenge, though, is that many times we start well or we start with good intentions, but we don’t finish well. There was a book that came out several years ago titled, “Finish,” and author stated that 92% of people do not finish their New Year’s goals or resolutions that they set out for
themselves. And that failure percentage is probably true with the promises we make to God or goals we set for ourselves when it comes to worship and Bible study. We want to be in worship on a regular basis, we know we our faith will grow through Bible study, or we try to pray every day, but things happen, life gets busy, and before you know it, we have missed several weeks of worship, we never got started in a Bible study, and our prayer life is limited to quick prayers before we eat or only when we need help. But before we can do the things God wants us to do, we need to understand that Jesus does not invite us into a religion, He invites us into a relationship with Him. The problem, though, is many people want to be in a relationship with Jesus or they claim to be followers of Jesus, but they take the approach of the old Burger King jingle – they want to follow Jesus their way, according to their terms, not His.
The same thing was also happening in our Gospel lesson for today from Luke 14. A large crowd of people was traveling with Jesus and they were really impressed with the things He did and the things He said. They knew that Jesus had something to do with God, and I’m sure they imagined all kinds of blessings coming their way while following Him. But did they really have any idea what it might cost them to be with Jesus or to stay with Him? Were they along for the ride merely to see what they could get out of Jesus or were they actually ready to count the cost? In other words, were they like many people today who look to Jesus to solve their money problems, relationship problems, or health problems, but who quickly grow disillusioned and unwilling to obey Jesus completely when following Jesus doesn’t solve these problems or following Jesus requires real service and sacrifice in their lives?
And so what Jesus appears to be asking this large crowd of would-be followers is: “If you think you want to follow me, have you considered what that decision will mean for you, and are you willing to pay the price?” I’m sure many of them thought they were ready to follow Jesus; so imagine how shocked they must have been when Jesus said in verse 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.” Can’t you just see these people looking at each other and asking, “Hate parents? Hate spouse and children? Do you think Jesus really means that? After all, isn’t this the same person who told us earlier to love one another, even our enemies?”
Now I don’t know if the word, “hate,” here carries the same emotional baggage that we often give to it, but I do think Jesus intended to shock everyone in the crowd, to make them realize that nothing should ever come before Him in their lives. And that’s hard. This question concerning the cost of following Jesus should cause all of us to look at our own lives and realize that we have often turned away from Jesus or we often do not represent Him very well to others. How many times have we questioned Jesus’ love for us when things got tough? How many times have you and I had huge blessings given to us by Jesus, only to tell Him, “Lord, I’m sorry I don’t have time for worship or Bible study, but I’ve just been so busy.” How is it that we can manage all of our social media accounts and streaming services, but claim that we are just too busy to spend time with Jesus? I do not believe it is a time issue, but a priority issue.
Many of us say that Jesus is our #1 priority, but I don’t think that’s what our actions often show. If Jesus is our #1 priority, then why is it so difficult for us to make time for Him? If Jesus is our #1 priority, then why is He often the first thing that gets cut when we are busy? If we are struggling to do the things He asks, my guess is that we haven’t been spending time with Him like we should.
Just think about the people you spend time with on a daily basis. I’m sure we would all agree that the people we spend time with matters. In fact, many times we will even start acting like them or we will say some of their words or phrases by accident. Sometime parents will tell their children that they don’t want them hanging around certain children, because they don’t care for the behavior of those other children and they don’t want their own children acting or sounding like them. Well, if we want to live like Jesus, then we need to hang out with Him. The more
time we spend with Jesus, the more we will be like Him, and the more effective we will be at eventually doing the things He wants us to do. In other words, our doing will flow out of our being with Jesus. The more you are with Jesus, the more you will understand what He’s done for you, the more you will be like Him, and the more you will want to serve Him.
This teaching of Jesus is not difficult to understand, but it is difficult to accept. As human beings, we all fail in our commitment to Jesus, no matter how hard we try; but the thing Jesus is confronting here is not our ability, but our willingness to follow Him and serve Him. So starting today and over the next 2 Sundays, we will list in your bulletin and we will have on display in our lobby area different ways you can be with Jesus and serve Jesus here, in our community, and with each other. Now saying you are interested in serving is easy, but following through in that service on a regular basis is more challenging. But the good news is we have a God who always completes what He starts. You and I may start some things and not finish, but God always finishes what He starts. After all, He went all the way to the cross, giving up everything, even His own perfect life to save us; and when His work of saving us was complete, He even said, “It is finished.”
But people in our world tried to stop Him. They nailed Jesus to a cross, killed Him, and buried Him. In essence they were saying, “You’re done. You’re finished.” But God said, “No, I’m not done. You don’t get to tell me when I’m finished. I’ll finish this on my own strength, according to my terms.” As a result, Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin, death, and the devil, and now He welcomes us into a relationship with Him so that through us He can restore the world. I pray as you look at your life and your faith life on a daily basis that you will be willing to say, “God, I’m available, I’m ready to be with You, to serve you, to put your words into practice, and to pay the price to follow you.”
