Luke 14:25-33 is at first glance a shocking passage due to the radical requirements of following Jesus. Jesus seems to say that his disciples must hate their families and give up all they own in order to follow him. Hating one’s family would seem to contradict Jesus’s own teaching about the evil of hatred (Mt 5:21-22; 43-48). And does Jesus really want all of his disciples to abandon their possessions? This would mean that the vast majority of Christians throughout history have not been real disciples, and it would imply that Jesus’s followers should be destitute vagabonds. How are we to take Jesus’s teaching seriously without being left with other significant interpretive issues such as these?
First, we must recognize the context of this teaching in Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem. Although our tendency may be to universalize Jesus’s teaching or immediately apply it to our own context, we must first understand it as it is placed in Luke’s narrative of Jesus’s ministry. In 9:51, Luke says that Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” because he knew the time of his ascension was approaching. So Jesus is leading his disciples on a path that leads to his fate in Jerusalem, and his urgent and radical call to his disciples fits this context. It is absolutely necessary for them to leave everything behind and be prepared for their own death if they are to accompany him to Jerusalem. Luke says in v.25 that he speaks to the large crowds that were accompanying him as he moved towards Jerusalem. So this might also give us a picture of Jesus wanting to test the loyalty of this large crowd and let them know exactly how much following him to Jerusalem would cost. This context of Jesus’s teaching might limit its applicability to every disciple of Jesus—or it might not.
Now we can address the actual content of Jesus’s teaching in this passage. Jesus begins by saying “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” (v.26). This seems like an extreme requirement of discipleship. The harshness of the language of hate is what really gives people pause when reading this passage. Some have suggested that hate does not actually mean to experience the emotion of hate but that instead it simply means to love one thing less than another (the parallel in Mt 10:37 is phrased this way). It certainly means at least this. But Jesus is probably going a step further in his requirements for discipleship. Just a couple of chapters (16:13) later he will say if someone had two masters, he would love one and hate the other. The idea here is full devotion to one thing (God) and rejection of allegiance to another (money). The language of hatred also could be an appropriate cultural description of what it might mean to abandon one’s family to follow Jesus because to do such a thing is the practical equivalent of hating one’s family in most people’s eyes. It is worth noting that Jesus himself was so fully devoted to his mission that it meant abandoning his family—and being rejected by them.
Jesus’s second statement is, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (v.27). Here we see a clear indication that the road the disciples are following Jesus on is expected to end in death, and they must be prepared for this entirely. So the theme of full devotion is continued and described, now not by what is left behind but by what is committed to in the future. Jesus then gives two examples of the importance of counting the cost of following him on the road to Jerusalem. This was not a decision to be made lightly. Like any landowner who does not want to end in financial ruin or a king who does not want to lose his entire army, each person in the crowd following Jesus needed to consider whether they could follow him to the very end and leave everything else behind.
Jesus’s third statement of requirement for disciples is, “None of you can be My disciple who does not give all of his own possessions” (v.33). This once again seems to be such a radical requirement that Jesus cannot really be serious. However, Jesus seems to be entirely serious in saying that the people following him to Jerusalem must not be encumbered in any way. Peter’s response in the episode of the rich ruler in ch.18 demonstrates this. Jesus had told the rich man that he had to sell his possessions and give them away to the poor, and Peter’s response states very clearly that he and the other disciples had done exactly that already.
Now we come to the question of application to other contexts than Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem during his earthly ministry. Does Jesus require every disciple, everywhere, and in every time to abandon family and possessions and to head toward death for Jesus? The answer here must be a clear no when stated in this way. The rest of the New Testament portrays faithful disciples maintaining family relationships and retaining possessions. Think for instance of Peter and other apostles who traveled with their wives as they went on mission (1 Cor 9:5) or of Paul’s parishioners who maintained homes and possessions with which they supported the church and Paul’s work. We must recognize, however, that these converts hold their possessions loosely and are willing to give them up for the good of others and to support the gospel mission (Acts 4:34-37; 2 Corinthians 8-9; Phil 4:14-18).
Paul’s language in 1 Corinthians 7 can be a helpful way of thinking about the family and possessions. Paul says that the time has been shortened (i.e., Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection have inaugurated the final period of history) and this fact changes the believer’s interactions with temporal realities of possessions and family relationship: “from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away (1 Cor 7:29-31).
Jesus’s requirements of the disciples on the road to Jerusalem may still be a live possibility should the circumstances dictate. All followers of Jesus must continually remind themselves that following him faithfully may require the full sacrifice of family, possessions, yes, even life itself. And those Christians who do not encounter such extreme circumstances must guard against family and possessions becoming so dear to us that they draw us away from full devotion.
