While on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus already spelled out to His followers traveling with Him what the cross means to anyone wanting to become His disciple (Luke 14:25-33). Not a demagogue seducing the crowds with promises and inciting them to blind obedience, Jesus confronts people plainly with the cost of following Him.
More than anything else
TO follow Jesus is not easy, as the gate into the kingdom of God is narrow. “Many will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” (Luke 13:24), we saw a couple of weeks back. Everyone is invited because God’s love is inclusive and has no favorites; Jesus summons the multitudes and not only the apostles. To follow Him as His disciples is the vocation of all who believe in Him as the one sent. But no one is promised a rose garden, as the shocking opening words of Jesus about discipleship make clear: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother…and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
“Hate” here does not mean animosity or virulent dislike for anyone, but detachment in the sense of readiness to separate oneself from whatever without further ado if needed. This severe-for-emphasis terminology stands for the willingness to forego the joys and security of family relationships in order to be totally bound to Jesus. It does not mean renouncing family responsibilities, but preferring Jesus as our source of security and love; it means to be attached to Jesus absolutely, deliberately and completely. In the Philippine context where the only institution found personally reliable in all situations by many people is the family, this cost of Christian discipleship understandably seems harsh and extreme. There is no going around it; Jesus is challenging us that the kingdom of God must be our first priority and that we are to prefer nothing to Jesus, not our loved ones, nor our own selves.
Going about it intelligently
The two short parables that follow the saying of Jesus underline the necessity of going about the whole process of discipleship with a clear head. A disciple is not just a volunteer who is in it at one’s convenience or only for a period of time or in one’s own terms. As a disciple one is totally, unconditionally, and for life committed to Jesus. So, one must realistically calculate the cost to be able to make the right moves. Like a man about to construct a tower, the disciple should determine what would be needed of him to pursue his project to the end. Calculating the outlay for the task, it becomes clear that needed on the part of the believer is his/her entire gift of self, and on the part of the Lord who calls the graces and charisms given by the Holy Spirit to anyone following Jesus. Following Jesus would cost no less than everything. That is why He said, “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be My disciple.”
Similarly for a king about to go to battle against a more powerful opponent, a true assessment of the risks involved would be critical. Underestimating the enemy could mean the destruction of his whole army and even the loss of his own life. The prudent evaluation of the real situation can mean a lot for the success of an undertaking. The honesty and wisdom of the disciple could spell the difference between true discipleship and a following of Jesus that sputters out.
Alálaong bagá, loving Jesus first and foremost, above one’s self and one’s family and one’s material possessions, means taking up one’s cross and coming after Him. The cross is the ultimate symbol of Christian discipleship: carrying one’s cross daily (Luke 9:23) and following after Jesus (Luke 23:26) stresses the centrality to a disciple of the figure of Jesus on the way to Calvary. Devotion to His Father empowered Him already at the age of 12 to separate Himself from His parents (Luke 2:41-51). And because of His fidelity to His salvific mission, Jesus stripped Himself of everything including His grandeur as God’s Son, to be with us and to offer Himself on the cross for us and thus to share with us His inheritance and glory (Philippians 2:6-11). Jesus is our way, The way for His disciples.
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