Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 18C)
September 7, 2025
Text:
Luke 14:25-35
The question is, what is more
important to you than Jesus? What do you
fear, love, and trust more than Him? Ah,
this is a First Commandment issue. “You
shall have no other gods. What
does this mean? We should fear,
love, and trust in God”… that is, the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit… The Father, who sent His Son, Jesus, to whom the Spirit testifies… We
should fear, love, and trust in that God “above all things.”[1]
What is more important to you than
Jesus? You know the right answer, of
course. Nothing. But don’t let that complicate matters. Our Lord says some pretty serious things in
our Holy Gospel that should lead us to self-examination and repentance. He identifies some things, and some people, concerning
whom it sounds respectable to hold them in the highest place. So, again, what is more important to you than
Jesus?
Family? Jesus says, “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” (Luke 14:26;
ESV). Now, that can be confusing. I thought we weren’t supposed to hate
anyone, let alone our own family members.
That’s true. Fourth Commandment,
right? Honor your father and your
mother. Love your neighbor as yourself. And, I thought we weren’t supposed to hate
life, our own, or anyone else’s. Again,
that’s true. Fifth Commandment and all
that. You shall not murder, including
yourself.
But Jesus is using the word “hate”
in a different way, here, than we tend to use it. This is a Hebraism, this expression… a
Hebrew idiom, a Hebrew way of speaking.
It means that we should not love our family members… or anyone, or
anything else… or even our own life, more than we love Jesus. So, it’s a matter of priorities. Think how this applies to us. When family members… or friends, or
co-workers, or bosses, or the government… don’t like what Jesus says
about a thing, and don’t like you if you believe and confess what Jesus
says about that thing, and reject you, or disown you, or persecute you over
that thing, over your faith… Jesus is saying to you, here, “Love Me more
that you love them. Be true to Me,
even if they insist otherwise. No matter
the consequences. Because I am
God, and they are not. I
am your Savior, and they are not.
So, keep believing in Me.
Keep confessing Me. With
gentleness and respect, of course (1 Peter 3:15), but keep speaking My Word. Suffer for Me. Give everything for Me. Give even yourself for Me. Because I have given everything, including Myself,
My very life, for you. And I will make
all things right in the End. Trust Me on
that. I gave My life for that.”
What else? What else is more important to you than
Jesus? Your own comfort and safety? Security?
Freedom? Health? Honor?
Prosperity? Property? Now, be honest about these things. Do the hard works of self-examination, here. Jesus says, “Whoever does not bear his own
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). That is, the Christian should not expect an
easy time of it if he is to follow Jesus.
Jesus goes the way of the cross.
Following Him necessarily entails going the way He goes. That is, suffering and the cross. A disciple, after all, is one who
follows. You can’t be a disciple of Jesus
if you don’t follow Jesus. That means a
readiness to give up everything, including your life, for Jesus’ sake, as He
gave up everything, including His life, for your sake. When our Lord says to the rich young man, “One
thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (18:22), we’re
always relieved to find out He’s giving that command specifically to that man, and
not to us. But here He is speaking
to us. And what does He say? “(A)ny one of you who does not renounce
all that he has cannot be my disciple” (14:33).
What would be hard to give up for Jesus’
sake? That is the thing your Lord is
warning you against this day. Because
that is how the Christian loses his Christianity. Loyalty to some person or thing above faithfulness
to Christ. That is how the salt loses
its saltiness. (That can happen,
by the way. When the salt is dried from
seawater, it can leech out the sodium chloride from its other compounds, and
become worthless.) What is salt
for? Seasoning. Purifying.
Preserving. You see how
Christians are like salt in the world?
Christians give flavor to the world by their Christian confession. Christian witness purifies the world by
leading sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus. God preserves the world for the sake of His
Christians, because of their prayers, and for the sake of those who will become
Christians as they hear the witness of His Christians, and take that witness to
heart. But what happens when a Christian
loves something, or someone, more than Jesus… when a Christian,
therefore, hates Jesus, in the sense of this Hebrew idiom (and that
shocking manner of speaking is worth thinking about)… when a Christian holds
something or someone as more important to them than Jesus… is that they
lose their Christianity. The salt loses
its saltiness. They lose Jesus.
You can lose your faith. Be warned about that. We do not believe in once saved, always
saved… or once baptized, always saved, which is a false doctrine
apparently espoused by some Lutherans these days. That is not taught in the Scriptures, and it
is dangerous, because it leads to carnal security. What is taught in the Scriptures, is
that you can apostatize. That is,
you can walk away from Jesus, away from your Baptism, away from
salvation. As Jesus teaches in the
Parable of the Sower. The Sower sows His
Seed liberally and recklessly. That is,
God sows His Word through the preaching of His Christians. And some believe only for a time. For example, those represented by the rocky soil,
who receive the Word with joy, but never develop any root. So, in time of testing… when their family, or
friends, or the powers that be, reject them, or threaten persecution… when there
is a cost to following Jesus… What happens? They fall away.
Beloved, don’t let that be you. It happens.
I’ve seen it. It breaks my
heart. It breaks yours, too. And we all walk in danger of this. So, the question is imperative: What is more
important to you than Jesus? What keeps
you from His House, and His gifts? What
makes you blush to be associated with Him, and with His Church? What silences your confession of Him, and of
His Word?
Whatever that thing is… or that
person, or that place, or that idea, or that state of being… Repent of it. You must hate it, in the sense Jesus uses the
word “hate” in our Gospel today. Because
you’ve put that thing, or that person, place, idea, or state of being, in the
place of God. And that’s not where they
belong. You’re not loving them if you
put them there. Imagine putting a
person, like your spouse, or parent, or child, or friend, in the place of God,
and by definition therefore, expecting and demanding that person to be
the source of all good in your life, and give you all things needful! Well, they’d fail miserably. And then you’d hate them for it, in the full
sense of the way we use that word. That’s
not fair to them. That’s not loving
them.
See, only when you put Jesus
in His proper place… and that is the number one spot, the spot for God… only
then does everything else fall into its proper place. And so, you love it properly. Then, your love is rightly ordered. And only rightly ordered love is, in fact,
love.
That’s hard. This is what it means that being a Christian
comes with a cost. Count the cost, Jesus
says (vv. 28-32). Now, wait a
second. I thought salvation was God’s
free gift to me! That is true. You don’t pay for it. Jesus does.
And you receive it freely, by faith alone. But then, in terms of the world’s goods, and
this earthly life, it will cost you everything.
The world will make sure of that.
And, actually, God will make sure of that, because whatever the
thing you count as too precious to lose for Jesus’ sake is an idol, and God
doesn’t want you to have idols, because they’re bad for you. They will kill you. He wants you to have Jesus only, so He often
strips you of the things that are not Jesus.
It hurts at the time, but He does it out of love for you, because that
is what is good for you.
And anyway, while salvation may be
free to you, it is not cheap. You know
who counted the cost of your salvation, and paid it in full, to the very last
drop of blood? Yes, you do know. Jesus.
And now, think of this question: What is more important to Jesus
than you? Nothing. Not His equality with God the Father, which
He did not consider a thing to be grasped (Phil. 2:6). Not His honor or glory or safety or
security. Not His health. Not His freedom. Not His property or prosperity. Not even His own family (they rejected Him as
insane!). Not His own life. He gave it all into death on the cross for
you, to make you His own. To bring
you into His Family. To make you a child
of God. To give you His Kingdom, and
with that Kingdom… all things. All things! Think of that! Whatever you lose in this life, you have more
abundantly in Jesus.
So, back to the question, and this
time, go ahead, give the right answer.
What is more important to you than Jesus? Nothing. You know that, now. Repent of ever thinking it could be
anything. Or anyone. Jesus Christ is your life and salvation. Jesus Christ, and Him alone. And when He is in His proper place in your
life, everyone and everything else is right where they belong. Your love is rightly ordered. And you are ready to take up your cross, and
follow the Savior. In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
