Luke 14 vs 25 – 27 & 33 (NKJV)

²⁵ Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  ³³ So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

We are continuing to look at Jesus’s words in Luke 14. From verses 25, He says some really tough things and you can wonder, what does this mean? What is Jesus saying here? He is saying that even though our parents, spouses, children, siblings, and even our own lives are very important to us, He must be more important to us than any of these.

Luke 14 vs 16 - 21 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, ¹⁷ and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ ²⁰ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’

The man in this story told in the book of Luke by the Lord Jesus, represents God. God sent out an invitation to many people to come dine with Him, but each one responded with an excuse why they could not come. They basically said No to God On the face of it, all the reasons given were bonafide and legitimate reasons, but to God they were EXCUSES.

Luke 14 vs 1 - 6 (NKJV)

Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. ² And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. ³ And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”  ⁴ But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. ⁵ Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” ⁶ And they could not answer Him regarding these things.

Through this story in the New Testament, we learn that we should esteem people better than things, systems, traditions. We must be motivated by love and care for people first.