Counting the Cost of Discipleship

• Nhân vật thật: Đoàn dân, Chúa Jesus
• Parabolic Characters: The Tower Builder, The King

• The House of the Pharisee

• Ngày Sa-bát – trên đường Chúa Jesus lên thành Giê-ru-sa-lem
• The Beginning of the Third Year of His Ministry

• Chúa Jesus nói với đoàn dân đông theo Ngài những điều kiện để trở thành môn đồ Ngài.
• He then told two parables: one about counting the cost before building a tower and another about a king evaluating his ability to wage war.
• Then, He declared that the condition to follow Him was to forsake all one possesses.

• Chúa Jesus là Đấng dạy dỗ (25-33). Ngài không im lặng kể cả với những điều tưởng chừng như vô hại.
• Jesus is both Lord and Teacher because He calls those who follow Him His disciples (Luke 14:26, 27, 33).
• The Lord is above all (Luke 14:26, 33).
• Chúa Jesus muốn Ngài là toàn bộ những gì mà một môn đồ Ngài trông đợi.
• Chúa có tiêu chuẩn cho môn đồ Ngài, Ngài không cấm ai theo Ngài, nhưng để là một môn đồ Ngài thì người đó phải đáp ứng những tiêu chuẩn của một môn đồ mà Chúa Jesus đã đề ra.
• The Lord wants the crowd to be fully aware and make a decisive commitment to becoming His disciple.

• One must count the cost before becoming a DISCIPLE OF CHRIST.
• The Lord expects that anyone who follows Him must become His disciple. When we believe in Him (34-35), we enter the process of becoming His disciple (26-27). The evaluation of whether we are truly His disciples is also the Lord’s decision (33 – He determines who His disciples are).
• There will always be a crowd following Jesus. This illustrates that we have the choice to follow Him and become His disciples, but there will also be those who choose not to be His disciples; they only want to know about Him (25).
• Believing in Jesus is good, but if one does not become His disciple, He cannot use them. Like the crowd that followed Jesus but did not become His disciples, He could not use them—just as salt that has lost its flavor is useless (34-35).

* The Order and Placement of the Parables and Commandments:

This passage is divided into three main sections:

 Commandments: Đây là 2 mệnh đề đầu tiên mà Chúa Jesus đưa ra, sử dụng thì “Nếu… thì…” chỉ cho một điều kiện cần làm theo. Tuy nhiên, nếu hiểu cả 2 điều kiện này mà tách khỏi bối cảnh phân đoạn thì ý nghĩa thật sự của cả 2 điều kiện này sẽ bị sai lệch đi. Thế nên Chúa Jesus mới kể thêm ẩn dụ để giải thích, và đưa ra câu kết luận để tổng kết lại toàn bộ ý nghĩa thật sự của điều mà Ngài đang dạy dỗ. Vậy, để hiểu 2 điều kiện này, chúng ta cần phải dựa vào kết luận và ví dụ để hiểu chính xác 2 điều kiện này đang nói gì.

• If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. (26)
  • The original meaning of “hate” here is intense detachment. However, Jesus is not telling us to hate our parents.
  • Trong Cựu Ước, Đức Chúa Trời đã ban 10 điều răn cho dân sự Ngài, thì điều đầu tiên cho con người (sau 4 điều đầu tiên dành cho Ngài) chính là phải hiếu kính cha mẹ (Xuất 20:12). Trong Tân Ước, ngay cả khi Chúa Jesus bước lên cây thập tự để chết thì Ngài đã giao Ma-ri (Mẹ Chúa) cho Giăng môn đồ để ông chăm sóc cho bà thay Chúa (Giăng 19:26-27). => Vậy thì Đức Chúa Trời không hề thay đổi, Ngài vẫn giữ trọn luật pháp của Ngài.
  • So why does Jesus mention "hating" one’s parents? The full statement does not only refer to parents but also includes family and even one’s own life. If taken literally, it would seem as if Jesus were commanding self-destruction, but that is not the case. Instead, we must understand this figuratively, in light of the conclusion of His teaching. This means we must be willing to renounce, resist, and stand against anything that hinders our discipleship journey.
• "Whoever does not carry their own cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:27) If we interpret this literally, it would imply that we must physically carve out a cross and carry it, which is impractical today. However, in that historical context, carrying a cross symbolized a journey toward death. Furthermore, along the way, the individual would endure humiliation, mockery, and beatings. Therefore, the figurative meaning of carrying one’s cross and following Jesus signifies enduring persecution, shame, and criticism from others in our discipleship journey.

Parables: Jesus provided two parables—one about a person who wants to build a tower and must calculate the cost to complete it, lest they fail; and another about a king preparing for battle, who must assess his army’s strength before engaging in war, or else he will have to seek peace before fighting. When examining these parables, we should compare them to our current context, analyzing the people and actions involved to derive the lesson that Jesus intends to teach us.

 Conclusion: Verse 33 is not an additional condition or command but a summarizing statement of what we must do—“In the same way,…”