Sermon text: Luke 14:25-35
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. He turned and said to them, 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, if he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, everyone who sees it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build, but was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, as he goes out to confront another king in war, will not first sit down and consider if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if he is not able, he sends out a delegation and asks for terms of peace while his opponent is still far away. 33 So then, any one of you who does not say farewell to all his own possessions cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? 35 It is not fit for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Sermon
Love the Lord your God, walk in his ways, and keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. (Deuteronomy 30:16) Amen.
Perhaps you know someone who suffers from PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD can often affect soldiers and front-line workers like police, firefighters, doctors, and nurses. Symptoms of PTSD can include physical pain, nightmares or flashbacks, depression or anxiety, withdrawal, avoidance, repression, guilt, and shame.
Maybe you didn’t realize that “ordinary” people can also suffer PTSD after “extraordinary” trauma. People can suffer PTSD after the loss of a spouse, child, or parent to death, after surviving a heart attack or a heart transplant or breast cancer, after experiencing a natural disaster, a physical assault or refugee displacement.
I was reading a book this week that noted that these same traumatic events that may cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can also have the opposite effect on people. These traumatic events can also spur profound growth in many individuals. Psychologists have termed this experience Adversarial Growth or Post Traumatic Growth.
Surely you’ve heard the maxim, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Psychologist Richard Tedeschi explains, “It has only been in the last 25 years or so that this phenomenon, the possibility of something emerging from the struggle with something very difficult, has been the focus of systemic theorizing and empirical investigation.”
I’m glad psychologists are just figuring this out. But Christians have known for a very long time that God always has a plan to work something positive out of something that can be extremely negative. St. Paul assures us, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28).
Jesus talks about traumatic events when it comes to following him. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Being separated from your friends, having your family members hate you for your Christianity, suffering degradation, humiliation, persecution, imprisonment, and even death can all happen as you carry your cross for Christ. These are all traumatic.
Jesus isn’t talking about inconveniences here. It’s not a random insult, having Twitter or Facebook accounts canceled, having your family upset at you, or having your civil rights taken away.
This is your son no longer speaking to you because you called him to repentance for moving in with his girlfriend. This is you getting fired from work for not using a coworker’s preferred pronouns. This is your college student having to decide if she is going to keep her head down and mouth shut in her Woke classes or speak the truth in love and be targeted for it.
This is you having your parental rights removed when you refuse to allow your child to “transition.” This is you being swatted for speaking out against the abuse of the transgender movement. (Swatting is when someone makes a fake 9-1-1 call sending the police to your house.) This is your church where you worship or the pregnancy counseling center where you volunteer being defaced or broken into for protecting the life of the unborn.
These are traumatic events. These are difficult times. These are just a few examples of carrying a cross for Christ.
Jesus warns us of these traumatic events because he knows the way we are. We are often mushy in the middle Christians, bored Christians, neutered Christians, quiet Christians, timid Christians, unsalty Christians. We are Christians who take weeks or even a summer off from worshiping our Savior. We are Christians who are too lazy to get up to change the channel on the TV if the batteries on the remote stop working. How can we lazy Christians be expected to continually stand up to the daily onslaught of Christ’s enemies? We prefer lukewarm, shallow, and hollow Christianity – a religion that is easy, that doesn’t take a lot of work, that doesn’t expect too much or cost too much or hurt too much.
We like a Christianity that is no more than one hour a week. A Christianity that allows us to keep quiet in our culture, keep our heads down at work and school, keep looking the other way as our society promotes the doctrines of demons with so-called “gender-affirming” surgeries, critical race theory, and abortion-on-demand.
That’s not true Christianity.
Our world sees through our shallowness and hollowness. It sees our faith is lacking any substance. They know that easy doesn’t mean better. It just means easy – something that caters to our laziness. Perhaps that’s why people aren’t flocking to become Christians. They are having difficulty finding authentic, devout Christians.
Jesus also sees through our lazy and lukewarm faith. Jesus demands just the opposite. With Jesus there is no middle ground. If you’re looking for easy, Jesus says not to bother following him. Either give it all up or you give up being his disciple. You’re either in or you’re out. You’re either a salty, cross-carrying disciple following Jesus or you’re an unsalty, couch potato headed for the manure pile. “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how will it become salty again? It is not fit for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away.”
To drive the point home, Jesus fires off a couple of rhetorical parables about counting the cost of following him. Who builds a tower without making sure he has enough money to finish the project? Or what king goes to war without calculating if he has enough troops to defeat the opposing king? Jesus summarizes his point in these parables saying, “So then, any one of you who does not say farewell to all his own possessions cannot be my disciple.” Either you give it all up for Jesus – family, friends, possessions, freedom, even life – or you cannot be his disciple.
St. Augustine put it succinctly, “Christ is not valued at all unless he is valued above all.”
Jesus is warning us that traumatic events are our present and our future. Can any of us live up to Jesus’ demands? Are any of you eager to be a disciple knowing these traumas are ahead of you?
We are afraid. We are quiet. We want easy. Let’s just admit it … we cannot be the kind of disciples Jesus desires.
Except what Jesus desires he also does. Jesus desires us to be his cross-carrying disciples so he makes us his cross-carrying disciples. Not by us volunteering for a cross. But by Jesus placing a cross on our backs. Jesus creates faithful disciples. He changes us into committed Christians.
Jesus is speaking to the crowds he is headed to Jerusalem, to his cross, to his atoning death as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Already from eternity, the Son of God counted the cost. He ran the numbers in collaboration with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is willing to have his own Father forsake him on the cross. He lays the foundation for the Christian Church upon his death and resurrection. He is the King of kings who goes into battle against the Prince of this world. It is a battle of the Lion of Judah against the seven-headed red dragon. The angelic army is on one side and the demonic horde on the other.
While the crowds were coming to Jesus to bug him for miracles and divine favors, Jesus wins God’s divine favor with the miracle of the Lord of life dying a very human death. While Jesus knows you and I will bug him to make our earthly lives a little more convenient and a lot less stressful, Jesus gives up his life to grant us heavenly lives that will be eternally easy and without stress. Jesus knows how hard it is to renounce our family, friends, or freedom. Yet Jesus renounced it all – family, friends, freedom, glory, power, and his own life. He did this to save us. To save you.
Jesus counted the cost of your salvation and considered you worth the price of his divine blood.
Knowing this, now we pray that the Holy Spirit uses the trauma Jesus describes for Post Traumatic Growth. Like the former alcoholic who lost his family because of booze, but now he counsels at AA meetings to prevent that from happening to other husbands. Like the wounded veteran who leads other wounded veterans to remain active and positive. Like the woman who aborted her child when she was younger but is now the biggest pro-life advocate around, counseling other troubled pregnant women.
The Lord uses their trauma for growth to be better and stronger advocates and encouragers.
As a Post Traumatic Growth Christian, you are now able to give up your possessions because you’ve been given a Kingdom. The children of the King don’t horde things for themselves – for everything divine and everlasting is already theirs.
As a Post Traumatic Growth Christian, you can put your family after God because in Christ you have been brought into a new family. A new family that includes the martyrs and the saints who have gone before us. A new family bound not by human blood or DNA but bound by the waters of Baptism and the blood of Christ.
As a Post Traumatic Growth Christian, you can give up your freedom and your very life because Christ has set you free from sin and death. He has given you a new life – a new life as a faithful follower, a dedicated disciple, and a committed Christian.
Jesus does not demand that you be his disciple. And there’s no bait-and-switch, no fine print, no sticky stipulations. Jesus is very honest and upfront with what he expects from you. In this era of reality TV shows, Jesus gives you the reality. … And that reality is hard!
Admit it, we want to live in our fantasy worlds, but Jesus calls you to live in the real world. A real world that hates Christ and hates Christ’s Christians. But Jesus calls you to give up the old and make-believe life for a real life in Christ that will be hard, but it will be a new life, a better life, a worthwhile life.
A life filled with trauma. But we pray that the Holy Spirit uses this trauma for growth – growth in you, growth in your faith, growth in your family’s faith, and growth in Christ’s Kingdom. Amen.
Choose life so that you and your descendants may live by loving the Lord your God, by listening to his voice, and by clinging to him. (Deuteronomy 30:19, 20) Amen