ANYONE
WHO DOES NOT RENOUNCE ALL THAT HE HAS CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.
25Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned
and said to them,
26“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.
27Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after
me cannot be my disciple.
28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does
not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who
see it begin to mock him, 30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able
to finish.’
31Or what king, going out to encounter another king
in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten
thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32And if not,
while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for
terms of peace.
33So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce
all that he has cannot be my disciple.
LUKE 14:25-33
COMMENTARY
Speaking about the personal responsibility that each
human being has in honouring the commitment that he makes with God at the
moment of conversion and in his baptism; our Lord Jesus illustrates his
listeners with these two examples. The one about the builder of the tower, and
the one about the King on his way to battle.
In both stories there is a constant, the need in
each of them to first consider the task in front of them, and prepare
themselves mentally and materially to complete it and not abandon it halfway
through.
With this story, our Lord JESUS makes
it clear that salvation does not consist only in 'believing and professing' our
faith in Christ, but that this faith is only valid if it is followed by a total
and not a partial, or non-existent, submission to Christ.
Faith alone, or mental Faith, does not save, but a
total conversion and total submission to GOD, in the person of Jesus of
Nazareth, but a submission that must last a lifetime.
The emphasis in these two narratives is on the
consideration that both people, the builder and the King give to the budget for
the work, and the cost of its execution. It goes without saying that if you
really want to complete your plans, you must take into account both its
advantages and disadvantages, and start preparing before you start the work, so
that you can complete it.
In the same way, the Lord JESUS warns
us that He is not only looking for believers, but DISCIPLES. Practicing and
professing followers, and this implies that they put JESUS at
the centre of their lives, far above any other personal or family relationship
or interest they have in this world.
Only with Jesus as the centre of our lives, the rest
make sense, wife, family, children, work, business, etc. Without Christ, none
of this has any value, because it will only serve as a seed of sin and eternal
perdition, if the Son of God does not enter our lives as KING.
By giving the example of the builder and the King,
JESUS tells
us that it is important that we first consider what this means, and the potential
sacrifice that to follow Him may attract.
It is necessary that we complete the race of Faith.
That we reach the end of our lives in Faith and fidelity of heart and action.
Because it is worth nothing if we later end up apostatizing, be it in Faith or
in works.
We must end our lives, through many difficulties and
problems, with a living Faith in Jesus, as the Son of God, and our Lord.
We must end our lives in obedience to Him, and not
lead a pagan life, denying with our actions what we profess. Because he who
calls himself a 'Christian' cannot profess a true Faith in Christ, if with his
actions he serves Satan and increases the kingdom of the devil on earth. If we
truly 'follow' Jesus, we must contribute to the growth of the Kingdom of God,
preaching the Gospel, winning souls for Jesus, and fulfilling his holy will on
earth.
Not completing the work means not finishing on good
terms with God, bringing eternal damnation at the end; because the work to
finish is the mission that God has for each one of us, and the salvation that
this entails.
Omar Flores.
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