You Cannot Be A Disciple of Jesus

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus talks about who cannot be His disciple. There are certain things in life which disqualify you from being a disciple of Jesus. And He lays those out today.

But first, let us take note of what does not disqualify a person from being a disciple of Jesus. It is not who you are that disqualifies you. It is not what you have done in the past that makes you ineligible. It is not what you look like, or the condition of your body, or the thoughts that run through your mind that keeps you out. It is not where you come from or your religious pedigree or your ethnic heritage that prevent you.

Same-sex attraction does not prevent you from being a disciple of Jesus. Having had, or having been party to, an abortion does not prevent you from being a disciple of Jesus. Having killed someone, for any reason, does not prevent you from being a disciple of Jesus. Having voted for Barack Obama, or for Ronald Reagan, does not prevent you from being a disciple of Jesus. Being blind, deaf, dismembered, disfigured, disabled, dysfunctional, or disturbed does not prevent you from being a disciple of Jesus.

Three things disqualify you. “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. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple … any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

You cannot be a disciple of Jesus if you do not hate your family. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus if you do not hate even your own life. This sounds harsh, and rightly so. But hate does not mean what popular culture takes it to mean nowadays. Hate does not mean simply a strong feeling against, a revulsion. Hate here is the opposite of love. Both love and hate are matters of action and choice, rather than emotion. When you love someone or something, you will always act in a positive manner with regard to that person or thing. Conversely, when you hate something, you will act contrary to it, or at least without regard for it.

So when Jesus says to hate your family and even your own life, He is not calling for you to abandon them, or for you to do something despicable to yourself or anyone else. He is calling for you to put aside the thought that your family and your life are the highest good in life, the thing most to be cherished and protected. Family is good, but not when it pulls you against the calling of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.

Likewise, Jesus says that if you will not bear your own cross and follow Him, you cannot be His disciple. What is your cross? You each have a cross to bear, both individually and corporately. Together, you bear the yoke of Christ. You bear the confession of His Name and His Gospel like a yoke which you carry about everywhere you go, whatever you do. You carry about the death of Jesus in your body so that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in you. You bear with one another, encouraging, correcting, supporting, forgiving.

But you also each bear your own crosses. You each have your own struggles with sin, death, and the devil. You fight illness and disease, the ravages of time and death upon your body. You war against the sins which beset you again and again. The old Adam, though he be drowned, is a very good swimmer. This is the cross you must bear. You live in this body of sin, continually struggling against the flesh to do what the Spirit and the Law require.

This is where we come back to my earlier point. Your sins, simply taken, do not disqualify you from following Jesus. It is not like in the days of the Temple, when being castrated barred a man from worshipping in the holy places. There is no knife-stroke, no wicked deed, no horrible thought or action that cuts you off from Jesus. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

What disqualifies you is when you will not take up your cross and follow Him. That is, when you will not confess your sins, push the old Adam back down under the blessed flood, and yoke yourself to Christ, rather than to your own intentions and desires. To take up your cross is to put down your own baggage, your sin and evil desires, your wants and sins and lusts, and to pick up the things of Christ – redemption, salvation, and eternal life.

You must carry the cross through life, because it is your life. The burden of the Christian life is that you are not now perfect, nor shall you ever be this side of eternity. Neither is your neighbor. There are some among you who struggle with attraction for those who are not their spouses. There are some who struggle with ungodly desire for alcohol, or food, or money. There are some who struggle with sins of the tongue, or unruly temper. There are some who struggle with evil decisions they have made in the past. And you will, you must keep struggling against these persistent sins.

But you are yoked to Christ. Picking up the cross, it is now His burden that you carry, not your own. Therefore, no matter what your sin is, you lay it aside, confessing it and your inability to free yourself from it, and then take up the cross of Christ and carry it through your life, bearing it about as the life that lives within you. All sins, no matter how great or small, how despicable or respectable, are cast aside when you bear your cross and follow Christ. If you will not do this, you cannot be a disciple of Christ.

Finally, Jesus says, you cannot be His disciple if you will not renounce all that you have. You might almost consider this a restatement of the previous two conditions. You must hate all worldly things, and you must set them all aside, so that you can take up the cross of Christ and follow Him through death into life. If you will not do this, but prefer to cling to the things of this world, then you will share the fate of the things of this world, which is to pass away under God's wrath and condemnation.

Today's Old Testament lesson sets before you what appears to be a choice between two paths: life and good, or death and evil. Sit in the seat of scoffers, or walk in the way of the righteous. But there is a problem here. Dead people do not make choices. You sit in the seat of scoffers, because you are already dead, just like all the other inhabitants of that seat. Dead in your sins and trespasses. Dead to God and dead to deciding anything for yourself.

But this is the miracle of the matter – God has already chosen for you! He has chosen you from before the foundation of the world and appointed you unto salvation. He has loved and desired you, such that He has called you to be His own, and to live under Him in His kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Christ Jesus our Lord has chosen you to be His own. He has called you by name; you are His. He has created you in His image, and recreated you in the glory and splendor of His majesty. He has shed His blood for you, that He might wash you clean of all sin, of all blemish and stain and wrinkle. He has forgiven you all your sins, and made you pure and clean and holy. He has presented, and is still daily presenting you to Himself as His pure and holy Bride, His beloved among all creation.

He has chosen to give you the land you are entering, where you now are. That is, He has chosen to give you the kingdom of heaven. He is giving you all of His inheritance forever.

So count the cost. What are you getting into? You have to hate your family. You have to carry the burden of Christ's cross, you have to renounce your worldly desires.

But you have the joy of the forgiveness of sins. You have the promise of life everlasting. You have the inheritance of heaven. You have the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding.

You have life. So choose life. Choose to keep what God has given you. Choose to live in Christ, rooted like a tree planted by streams of living water, whose leaves do not wither and fall. Choose to be established in the land of the living, that you may bear good fruit, being rooted in Him who is the Vine, who is your life. Choose life, that it may go well with you and that you may inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving to you. Choose the life that is already filling you, that you may life and multiply and receive the blessings which are already yours through Jesus Christ our Lord, for He is your life and your length of days.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

"There are Two Ways"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways.” The early Christian writing called the Didache begins with this statement. In this way, the whole human life is summarized. Will you take the way of life, or will you take the way of death? The Lord gives us the same choice in today's lessons: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” So, then, which will you choose?

The way of life is clear, but not simple. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” This is the way of life; do this, and you will live.

There are some who would make the way of life seem as simple as any other choice in life. Will you choose black or brown pants today? Toast or cereal? Coffee or tea? Brown-bag or lunch out? Crest or Colgate? Charmin or Northern? Marry Leah or Rachel? The way of life or the way of death? Just pick one.

Or not.

Your way has been chosen for you, without any input from you whatsoever. By nature, because of the sin of Adam and Eve that infects each and every one of us, you were born into the way of death. Your selfish ambition, your covetousness and jealousy, your unwillingness to suffer for the sake of another – all these are the result of the sin born in you from your forefathers. And because of this sin, you were cast upon the way of death. You were blinded from ever even knowing about the way of life, much less following it. You were compelled to make your way through this earthly existence in darkness and death, trudging along by yourself. You were made to drag your burden of sin and guilt and shame everywhere you went. That load would keep building and building, until finally it broke upon you and crushed you beneath its awful weight. Then it would sink you into the depths of hell, into the abyss and outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is the choice inflicted upon you.

But you were not abandoned to that misery of an existence. Upon that dark and dismal way broke forth the light of heaven. Upon that road, in the midst of your trudge through death toward death, the Light of the World shone. In the dark night, the Lord of Life was born into this realm of death. He entered our forsaken path, and walked upon it with us. He, who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might receive life. He trudged through this dark and dangerous wilderness. He carried our sorrows and bore our griefs. Jesus Christ, the Lord of Hosts, took up our cross and carried it to the bitter end. Upon our cross He was nailed. Upon our cross He shed His blood, that we might have the forgiveness of sins. Upon our cross He died, that we might receive His eternal life. And that one glorious death has destroyed death forevermore!

Furthermore, that event is not limited to the past happenings on that day in Israel long ago. The Holy Spirit comes to each of us in our own darkness and calls from death to life. He breaks into our dead hearts of stone and gives us beating hearts of flesh, full of the life of Christ. He calls us forth out of the shadows and shines the radiant light of life upon the path. He lifts up our heads, that we may see the road ahead. He lifts up our hearts, that we may rejoice in Christ's gifts. He lifts up our eyes, that we may see whence comes our help and strength and life. He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies us in the one true faith, together with all the Church on earth and all the saints in heaven.

So you have been set upon the way of life. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, you have been equipped for the journey ahead. In the light of Christ, you see the light on the path. You know what awaits you at the end of your path.

Come now, you wounded and weary. Come and receive food for the journey. Come and eat at the feast of salvation. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Receive in your mouth the food that will cleanse your sin and guilt away and strengthen and sustain you along the way of life. Then go forth with joy and break forth into singing! Your Light has shined, your Day has dawned!

Therefore, leave your father and mother, your family and friends, your toys and goodies. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. Follow where our captain leads. Follow through the fight that lies ahead. Follow through the dark nights that will come upon you. Because you know that your path is sure, and your destination is paradise. Let the light of Christ so shine on and in you, that you may never stray from the way of life.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.