Luke 14: The cost of discipleship

Jesus gives one of his hardest sayings as he talks about the cost of following him: "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" (14:26-27).

Now, it is unlikely that Jesus is speaking entirely literally when he tells us to hate our families, considering he elsewhere tells us to love our neighbors and even our enemies -- and certain of our family members may fall into both those categories.

But he is nevertheless saying something extremely challenging about the Christian life -- that we must put following him above all else, that we must love him more than our families and even ourselves. And it's not going to be easy. Even if we're not called to physical martyrdom, being a faithful disciple means dying to self and taking up our cross daily.

Being a Christian cannot be a once-a-week-for-an-hour-on-Sunday kind of thing. It means living every day, every breath, consciously in the presence of God, and working in all things to love and serve him and others.

(Image: El Greco, "Christ Carrying the Cross," 1580)