Preached in Markham Baptist Church, July 2, 2006

There is an old legend that speaks of a man who was lost in the desert.  He is dying for a drink of water and wouldn’t you know it? He comes across an old, weather-beaten shack.  It didn’t look like much - there were holes in the walls as boards were missing, and the door was just hanging by one of its hinges and when he pulled it open it came right off in his hand in a billow of dust and rot.  It wasn’t much bigger than a tool shed really, but it provided some relieve from the heat of the sun so he flopped in and leaned against one of the walls, tired, spent, and parched.  As his eyes adjusted to the light in the shed, he noticed to his amazement there in the centre of the shed was a pump. 

He scrambled over to it and began to lift the rusty handle up and down, up and down, desperate for water to come out, but nothing came. 

Disappointed he fell back and lay staring at the wall, and on the wall there was a shelf, and on the shelf there was an old jug and on the jug was tied a note and in the jug was water.  Clean water.  He scrambled to the jug and blew off the dust.  He read the note, it said, “You have to prime the pump with all the water in this jug, my friend.  P.S. Be sure you fill the jug again before you leave.”

He popped the cork and sure enough it was filled with water.  Suddenly, he was faced with a decision.  If he drank the water he could live.  Ah, but if he poured all the water in the old rusty pump, maybe it would yield fresh cool water from down deep in the well, all the water he wanted.   What should he do?  Should he take a chance that the note was true and get cool fresh water, or should he drink what was in the old jug and not have any more water for the rest of the journey? What should he do?¹ What would you do? 

Well, interestingly enough this is the exact situation that everyone of us faces when we meet Jesus Christ.  Jesus says, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33).

The cost of following Jesus, the cost of being called a Christian, is that complete and that demanding.  The challenge for us when we hear Jesus utter such words is to understand and more importantly to obey the breadth of those words – to give up everything, what does that mean for us?  We have responsibilities and they are God given responsibilities for our spouse (we have made vows before God to care and provide for them.) Toward our children (again to provide for them and love them,) toward our employers (to work for them diligently as if we were doing our work for God) Colossians 3:23.  Surely God wants us to carry through with those responsibilities. 

And at the same time we don’t want to rationalize Jesus’ words and so diminish them that following Christ means nothing whatsoever.  You’ve all heard sermons where the preacher stands up and says, “I’ve studied this in the original Greek and Jesus doesn’t really mean that we are to give up everything.”  And so we go out of the service with a sigh of relief, but deep down we still wonder if being a follower of Christ really does indeed demand that we give up everything and follow Him.  We have this nasty ache in our souls that suggests that maybe we have made following Jesus much less demanding for ourselves than it really should be.  So when Jesus says that we need to give up everything in order to be His disciple, we have to wrestle with that word “everything” - what does it mean for us?

I think that non-Christians sometimes understand this better than we Christians do.  I’ve met with people who have told me, “Pastor I am this close to giving my life to Christ, but I just can’t because I’m afraid that He will ask me to do what I don’t want to do and go where I don’t want to go.”

And in the past I have tried to be very pastoral and said, “No, no God is gracious and God is kind and He won’t do that to you.”  But as I think of it, I have had no right to say that.  God could very well call you to a place where you don’t want to go. He did that to Moses – he didn’t want to go to Egypt.  Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh.   He may very well call you to do what you don’t want to do – the prophet Jeremiah didn’t want to declare God’s word, saying he was only a child and didn’t know how to speak, but God stretched out His hand, touched his mouth and said, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.”  So later Jeremiah would say, “If I try not to mention God, or speak any more in his name his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed I cannot.”  (Jeremiah 20:9) He had to speak!  He didn’t want to but he couldn’t do anything but speak God’s word. 

The Lord may very well ask you to do what you don’t want to do.  Jesus says, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

I don’t think we can skip over, or diminish, or explain it away -  Jesus’ call to follow Him is that radical and that demanding. And each of us must answer that word for ourselves.  Don’t judge anyone else – the question is for you – have you given up everything you have to follow Jesus? 

Let’s think of the context of this passage for a moment.  Open your Bibles to Luke 14.

At the beginning of the chapter we see Jesus going out of dinner.  You would think this would be a real treat but verse 1 tells us that it’s not going to be that much fun. He is going to the house of a Pharisee and it says Jesus is being carefully watched.  He is being spied on.  He is being judged. Every move He makes is being evaluated.  Think of the first time, you men, when you were dating your wife. Think of the first time you went to your girlfriend’s home for dinner – think of the tension that was present because you knew you were being watched ever so closely.  The way you ate your dinner, the way you looked at the girl, the way you talked, the way you looked, everything about you was being judged – were you a gentleman or a rodent that should be chased away with a double-barrel shotgun?

So with this situation - Jesus is being judged. Tension is in the air.  But this doesn’t seem to phase Jesus.  I think He knows He is being watched and as a result He uses this opportunity to teach what it means to truly be one of His followers.  

First He establishes His authority (verses 3-6) and He heals a man who is suffering with a handicap.  He shows in that action to have authority not only over sickness, but He has authority to heal on the Sabbath. 

Then at verse 7 He observes how the Pharisees choose the prime seats, the places of honour, the seats right next to the buffet.  And Jesus says, “You know - In the Kingdom of God this is all going to be reversed. When someone holds a big dinner party he will not invite his friends or his relatives, or his rich neighbor.  Why?  Because if he does,” Jesus says in verse 12, “they may invite him back.”

But we say, “That’s exactly why we do have a dinner party.  That’s the way we think.  We have to have so and so because they had us last month.” 

So Jesus begins to show the stark contrast between the self-governed kingdom of the world – the idea that you scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back - and the selfless kingdom of God. 

In the world, I invite someone to dinner so that I may be invited back – not so in the kingdom of God. I invite someone over for dinner, or do any kind act without looking for the reward or the applause or the adulation.

Then as someone at the dinner listens to Jesus speak, he shouts out in verse 15 – “blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”  

I believe that what he is saying is, “What a beautiful picture you have painted of the kingdom of God. That a person would be so selfless as to not invite her friends to a dinner but invite and entertain and show hospitality to people who cannot possibly return the favour.  Wow.  What a wonderful world order that would be.  It would be so selfless - Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast of the Kingdom of God.  What a wonderful Kingdom, blessed is the one who does this and lives there,” says the man.

Then Jesus seizes upon the image of one eating in the kingdom of God and says at verse 16 – “A certain man made a great banquet and invited many guests.”  And he goes on to describe how all that are invited to attend the banquet make excuses and say they can’t come.  The first one says, at verse 18, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it.”  It’s an excuse, have you ever bought a house without seeing it first?

The second one said at verse 19, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out.”  Again, another poor excuse, have you ever bought a car without first taking it for a test drive? This guy has bought five yoke of oxen without trying them out.  How does he know they don’t pull to the left?  The third man said, I just married a wife and cannot come. 

Everyone of these invited people made an excuse for not coming to the feast.  And so they are passed over and the head of the house now invites the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.  And because these do not completely fill his table, he sends his servants out again to invite all to come in. 

 “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God,” says the man.  And Jesus responds by saying, “Do you really think so? Because I don’t see that sentiment being acted upon.  The supper is made, the invitations have been sent out, but the people invited do not come into the kingdom, they all make excuses. And they are pretty poor ones to boot.”

And maybe that’s our problem – our hesitation to follow Jesus.  We see it as a nice sentiment – this whole kingdom of God thing. It’s a powerful kingdom where the sick are healed, and it is a wonderful selfless kingdom where the first are last and the last first.  We see it as a really wonderful kingdom and we wish it all the success, but when we are called actually participate in it, well, we have these excuses.   You really don’t want us to leave everything to follow you – what about my house?  Where will I live?  What about my job? I’ve got to be a good steward.  What about my wife?  I have responsibilities to her, you know.

We don’t trust that the one who provides the banquet will be able to provide if we come to the banquet. 

Or there are many who give their intellectual assent to the kingdom of God.  They admire the ideals of Jesus. The golden rule is terrific they say. His teaching concerning the brotherhood of man is right on, and they say, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 

But when it comes to actually participating in the kingdom, well… we have movies to go to, new computers to attend to, new cars, new homes, new wife, new girlfriend, new money.  

Now do you get the flow of this text? Having seen His authority, and the nature of His kingdom, and the great invitation that is given to everyone to come and enjoy the kingdom – now – Jesus turns to the crowds and says the words from verses 26-33.

And you can imagine the crowd there, saying, “Did he say I have to hate my father and mother?” 

Yes, that’s what He said. What He is saying is that our love for Jesus must be so strong that it makes all other relationships look like hate.  Our love for our parents must not be stronger than our love for Jesus.  Our love for our spouse cannot be stronger than our love for Jesus.  Of course we know from the rest of Scripture that we demonstrate our love for Jesus when we love our spouse, when we give ourselves up for others, but we are able to do that and willing to do that only because Jesus has first place in our lives.

And this applies to anything in our lives – our love for anything else must be less than our love for Jesus.  He demands first place in our lives.  Whatever we use as security in our lives, whatever we depend on in our lives we are called to give it up and trust in God fully.

Here is Moses standing before God. “What is that in your hand Moses?”  “O, it’s a staff, Lord.  I lean on it as I walk these rocky hills.  I use it to shepherd and guide the sheep, I depend on it to chase away all that would seek to harm the sheep.  It’s a staff, Lord.”

“Lay it down Moses, lay it down.”

“But Lord, I need the staff, it’s the tool that I need, I depend on it.”

“Lay it down Moses, Lay it down.  For from now on you will depend on me to lead you through lives rocky hills.  You will depend on me to guide you, you will look to me to chase away all that would seek to harm the sheep.  I will be your staff.”

And instead of clutching on to his staff Moses lays it down and learn what it means to depend on God fully.  

This is what Jesus is saying here.  Is there something that you are clutching on to that is replacing a faith in Christ?  A relationship?  A habit? An attitude?  A grudge?  Anger?  The need to be right?  The desire for recognition? A job? A place?

And Jesus says, “Anyone who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

It’s scary, isn’t it?  It’s scary to have to give up something which has been our security for so long.  It’s difficult to give up something that we believe is our right and step out in faith that God will indeed lead and guide and replace that security with security in Him and His peace. 

But we remember who is speaking, we remember He has established his authority.  He has proven Himself to be so faithful. 

A legend is told of a man who dying for a drink of water in the middle of a desert.  He finds a pump with a jug of water and a note that says he has to prime the pump with the water in the jug.  The legend goes that the man poured all the water into the pump.  He grabs the handle and begins to pump.  Squeak, squeak, squeak … a little bit begins to dribble out then a small stream, and finally a gush of water.  To his relief fresh cool water pours out of the rusty pump.  He fills the jug and drinks, then he fills it again and drinks.

Then he fills the jug for the next traveler. He fills to the top, pops the cork back on and adds this little note attached to the jug, “Believe me, it really works.  You have to give it all away before you can get anything back.” 

The question for you to consider on a long summers night is – What does Jesus want from me? And the answer is “Everything.”

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - July 2006

ENDNOTES:

1. Charles R. Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, (Waco, Texas: Word Books Publisher, 1987), 47

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