Musings 9/6/25

“So therefore, none of you can become my disciples if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Every time I read these words of Jesus, I am caught off guard. I’m used to the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life: the man who leaves crestfallen after Jesus tells him to “sell all you have and give it to the poor; and then come, follow me.” But at the end of the fourteenth chapter of Luke, as Jesus speaks about the cost of discipleship— “whoever does not carry the cross cannot be my disciple”—I am never prepared for that cost to include giving up all possessions.

I wonder now whether any of us can call ourselves disciples of Jesus—we who hold on to possessions—when Jesus cannot speak any more clearly. And if we are not disciples, what are we then?

In a similar fashion, Moses instructs the wandering Hebrews as they prepare to enter the promised land, giving them a choice between life and prosperity or death and adversity. As we know from the scriptures, the choice they made was too often the latter, forsaking God and God’s instruction for the false hope in other gods.

How often do we make commitments to follow Jesus and to follow God’s commandments and, like the Israelites, turn away to other gods, even to creating idols out of our possessions (Exodus 32)? Yet we come back again, making the same empty promises that we know we cannot fulfill.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells parables of a lost sheep and a lost coin to illustrate the value God places on sinners who repent: “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” We might focus on repentance in these parables, but I think then we would miss the point.

The parables address those who accuse Jesus of welcoming sinners and eating with them, as if this practice is somehow against God’s will. It is obvious, certainly, that fellowship with sinners is against the will of those who want to define God’s will. Jesus offers to these accusers a corrective to their understanding, reminding them that God does not desire that any be lost. Rather than focusing on repentance, Jesus reveals a God who seeks out sinners to bring them back into right relationship.

And the sinners God seeks are all people, beginning with Israel and going out into the world. Jesus did not endure the cross and grave so that we should have a new law, one perhaps more difficult to follow than the first. The crucifixion is rather God’s reaching out to the world in love to embrace sinners and work repentance in their hearts.

It is God who purges us from our sin and makes us pure by the blood of Jesus. In baptism, we put on Christ’s righteousness and become pleasing to the Father. This does not mean that we no longer strive for obedience to God’s commandments; for the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts works repentance in us. The same Spirit drives us to seek out the lost, sinners in need of God’s forgiveness, to welcome them and eat with them at the Lord’s table.