Jesus Was Never Guilty of False Advertising

By Pastor John Erickson

Jesus would have made a terrible addition to some church-growth meetings.

He has a crowd. People are following him. The momentum is there. Surely this is the moment to emphasize how wonderful everything is going to be.

Instead, in Luke 14, he turns around and talks about carrying a cross, surrendering possessions, and placing loyalty to him above every other attachment.

You cannot accuse him of false advertising.

I have spent time learning about leadership, healthy church systems, and helping people feel welcome. Those things matter. But Jesus reminds me that gathering a crowd and forming disciples are not automatically the same work.

He wants us to know what we are accepting

Jesus tells two short stories. Someone building a tower should consider whether there are enough resources to finish. A king preparing for battle should consider what he is facing.

We sometimes borrow those pictures as advice for construction budgets or strategic planning. Planning is useful, but that is not the central point here. Jesus is asking people to consider the cost of following him.

Admiration can remain at a comfortable distance. Discipleship brings our actual lives under his leadership.

There will be moments when what he asks conflicts with what I want. I may need to apologize when I would rather defend myself. I may need to tell the truth when a convenient version would protect my reputation. I may need to become generous with something I have been guarding.

I cannot follow him while reserving an unconditional veto.

Does Jesus really tell us to hate our families?

The hardest language in this passage concerns family and even our own lives. Read in isolation, it can sound like Jesus is commanding contempt.

But the wider witness of Scripture commands love for parents, spouses, children, neighbors, and enemies. Matthew's related teaching helps make the issue clear: loving father or mother more than Jesus.

Luke's stark language confronts competing allegiances. Jesus claims the first place, even above the relationships most precious to us.

That does not give a pastor permission to demand that people neglect their families for church activities. It does not mean missing your child's birthday proves devotion. And it is certainly not a license for leaders to use God's name to gain control over people.

I love Gina and our children. Following Jesus should make me a more faithful husband and father. But neither family approval nor my own preference can become the final authority over obedience to him.

He is not asking me to love them less responsibly. He is asking me to stop making anything else Lord.

A free gift can change everything

How do we hold that cost alongside Jesus' invitation to the weary, his promise of rest, and the free gift of salvation?

Imagine someone offers to pay every expense for a mountain-climbing expedition you have always wanted to take. The travel, equipment, training, and guides are covered.

The gift is free. Receiving it will still change your life.

You will have to prepare. Your schedule will change. You cannot accept the expedition while insisting that you continue doing everything exactly as before.

That illustration has limits, of course. We do not train our way into earning salvation. But it helps me distinguish buying a gift from living in response to it.

Grace is not a bill God hands me after promising something free. It is the gift of a new life with him. A new life will not leave every old allegiance untouched.

Joy and difficulty can exist together

Gina and I have four children. They have brought enormous joy into our lives. They have also changed what happens to our time, money, plans, and sleep.

My kids may think I am the boss, but parenting has given me plenty of opportunities to discover how little life revolves around what I want.

If someone told me they wanted children but did not want anything about their life to change, I would suggest giving that some more thought.

The joy does not make the responsibility unreal. The responsibility does not cancel the joy.

Following Jesus is not identical to parenting, but I recognize that same refusal to divide goodness from costly commitment. I would not trade what he has given me just because the journey challenges me.

Nor do I need to seek out pain to prove my sincerity. The cross is not a command to remain in abuse or refuse help. It is a call to faithful allegiance when obedience costs something.

Steward or owner?

Jesus closes this teaching by speaking about giving up everything we have.

That reaches beyond the amount in a bank account. It asks what kind of claim I believe I hold over my life.

An owner says, "This is mine. I decide what happens to it." A steward asks, "This has been entrusted to me. How do I care for it faithfully?"

My time, abilities, resources, relationships, and ambitions all belong in that conversation. Some decisions will be ordinary. Others may demand a major change. I need to be available for both.

The question is not whether I can make an impressive sacrifice for other people to admire. It is whether Jesus is free to lead me.

He has told us honestly what following him involves. He has also shown us, through his own self-giving love, why he is worth following.

I want more than a place in the crowd. I want to become his disciple.