Luke 14

My sister is a nurse and therefore knows a lot of big terms that I do not. When I ask her about her day she will tell me in medical terms all the body parts, injuries, complications, and medical devices she worked with during the day. I have to stop her and say, “can you just speak in simple terms?”

Sometimes it can be like that when we read through Jesus’s words. Oftentimes Jesus speaks in parables rather than speaking plainly like He did in this chapter. Jesus often spoke in parables because He knew that those who would want to listen and receive would allow for their hearts to understand and those who had hard closed hearts would simply reject Him and think His words to be foolishness. Without someone explaining it to us or reading a commentary it can be difficult to understand what Jesus is trying to tell His disciples and us. 

This is where the Spirit plays a part. If you have been adopted by the Father into the kingdom of God then the Spirit now dwells in you. In John 14:26 Jesus says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” So we know that we can trust the Spirit to guide us to understanding.

Now the Spirit isn’t a genie that will tell us what we want, but He is God speaking and working in our lives. We do not receive the Spirit because things will be great or easy for us, but because by God’s grace he has given us a helper to dwell in us.

Although He is a King, we see Jesus live the hardest life of all when He walked on earth. In this chapter alone, He was challenged for doing what He did and speaks on the normalcy of that. He knows that if we choose to follow Him we will look strikingly different from the world. We won’t live as the world does and will often be seen as an outcast. This is the cost of discipleship. The cost is not only that we will look different, but to look different we have to give up our own selfish desires and submit to God’s will. In Matthew 10:22 Jesus says, “you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

How sacrificially beautiful is that promise. Jesus displayed this in the most beautiful way: He was hated and mocked by the world ultimately leading to His unjust, cruel death. And He did this all so that we could be offered life in abundance (John 10:10). 

I urge you to look at your life. Where do you look more like the world and less like Jesus? 

Great things come with a big cost. Are you feeling the cost of discipleship or does it feel cheap like you’ve given so little? 

Ask the Holy Spirit to speak into your life and guide you to look more like Jesus. And remember “He who has ears to hear, let Him hear” (Luke 14:35b).