In Jesus’ ministry he confronted the religious leaders many times, calling out their hypocrisy or how they twisted the Scriptures.
You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Matthew 22:29 ESV
For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
Matthew 15:4-6 ESV
So it was to be expected that the devil would seek to do the same to the words of Jesus.
Luke 14 contains Jesus’ famous teaching about “counting the cost” which has suffered this fate.
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,
“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.For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or 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? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-33 ESV
When we keep track of the comparisons that Jesus makes in these verses we can see that he is warning us about the consequences of not being a disciple. But almost every Bible labels this passage as “Count the Cost” or The Cost of Discipleship.” This implies that you should make sure you count the cost before you become a disciple so you won’t falter in your faith. This has led to pride in some who know that they have the “right stuff” to go the distance. But for others the meaning becomes clear…Maybe you can follow Jesus, but…well… probably not.
This inversion of Jesus’ point is a fascinating and dark example of the devil’s work. It encourages Christians to continue the efforts of the blind guides who “shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. (Matt. 23:13 ESV)” And, more interestingly, it obscures the reality of the devil’s abject failure to overthrow heaven by down-playing the power-play in this passage.
The Part You Already Agree With
The New Testament is full of the truth that God is progressively establishing his character in his disciples.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-8 ESV
Increasing in Godly qualities ensures that someone will not fail as a disciple. After we commit to becoming a disciple, we become more fully equipped to succeed at being a disciple.
Would you advise a baby to decide whether or not to try to crawl based on if she thinks she can run a marathon? Does Jesus ask baby believers to evaluate their ability to ultimately succeed based on their initial assessment of their abilities?
No.
The Slap in the Face of Tradition
The true interpretation, however, is much more aggressive. We won’t see Jesus plaintively hoping that we will answer his call to surrender everything we have. Jesus, the one who will rule with a rod of iron, is throwing down: “Count the cost of opposing me.” The devil, whom even other angels don’t confront, was demolished by Jesus. And Jesus is stoking an eternal prison for him that the Geneva Convention would condemn. And anyone who imitates the devil will be there along with him.
Though Jesus taught that following him will incur a high cost in the form of opposition, he did not teach that you should decide beforehand if you have enough of… whatever… to pay that cost. You are not buying groceries, a car, or a fitness center subscription. You are, in truth, bargaining for your very life.
Why Lazy Reading Gets the Passage Wrong
Leading to the contested passage, Luke shows Jesus discussing “anyone who does not hate mother or father,” and “anyone who does not bear his own cross.” Then he gives the analogy of building a tower. Unfortunately our compulsion to turn all Scripture into commands that apply to ourselves blunts Jesus’ point.
We alter the passage using a kind of verbal Algebra:
Actual text:
Jesus said “anyone who does not hate mother or father cannot be my disciple” and “anyone who does not bear his own cross cannot be my disciple.”
But to make this verse apply to ourselves as disciples, we alter something like this,
Altered text
“I who does [is willing to?] not hate mother or father cannot be [his] disciple” and “I who does not bear his own cross cannot be [his] disciple.
But since we reframe verses 26 and 27 to say that “you must be willing to hate mother and father” and “you must bear your cross.” we also invert verse 28 “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost…?” We lazily assume that this same “you” is the one building a tower.
The Truth
The “which of you” not counting the cost of building the tower is also the “anyone” who does not hate father or mother. And this same “anyone” who does not take up his own cross is the king who doesn’t sit down and evaluate military might.
The one building the tower is the one not becoming a disciple. The king stupidly going out against another king is also the one not becoming a disciple. And in this mini-parable that king has an alternate course of action open to him that anyone opposing Christ should heed: While the other king is still a long way off, he can come to the realization that he cannot defeat the more powerful king. Then he can send and ask for terms of peace so that he can avoid being destroyed in the conflict.
And this is the conclusion that Jesus reaches in the very next verse, “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”
The Conclusion
Hopefully Jesus wasn’t talking about you in this passage.
It is not wise to try and rival God’s power no matter how extensive your kingdom is. And it doesn’t matter how much you have gathered so far in your life. The terms of surrender for you to preserve your life is to give it all up.
And no matter how extensive your resources are, you cannot build a tower secure enough to withstand the final judgment. And building your own tower is neither good nor necessary, especially if you remember God’s destruction of the Tower of Babel.
But The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. (Prov. 18:10 ESV) And “you, [God] have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.” (Ps. 61:3 ESV).
People do not need to count some cost to see if we have what it takes to be a Christian.
Those who want to reject Christ need to count the cost to see if they can successfully resist him.