Luke 14.25-33 2025 Commentary

We’re continuing on the road with Jesus this summer and a large crowd has joined us. As though to weed out a few folks, Jesus decides to remind them what following along with him truly means.

What seems like disparate instructions and examples are actually tied together by one central purpose: look out for the needs and good of others.

The first two direct comments that Jesus makes to the people in the crowd have to do with what ties up our sense of obligation and devotion. If we are so beholden to our families of origin, then we will remain closed off from building deep, meaningful relationships with others. We will think that the most basic Christian acts of sharing and caring, belong to a small group. But if we have rightly-ordered loves, then our sense of family will expand and we will be able to be more and more like Jesus.

In fact, Jesus directly connects our love and devotion for family with our love for life itself. I tend to think that Jesus is recalling his previous encounters on the road, when he has invited would-be followers to join him and was then met with excuses about family obligations and cultural roles and expectations. Those roles and expectations—any role or societal expectation—can become the source and sense of life for us. And if it does, then we have to be able to let it go in order to take on a new one as a disciple of Jesus.

So, Jesus says, consider carefully what you are doing by joining me on this road. It will require you to break rules and be punished by some—this is a way for us to think about what he means here as he references carrying a cross. To help them understand, he gives them two story-scenes, inviting those listening to imagine themselves in them.

Pretend you are building a tower, Jesus says. Do you want to be the laughingstock of the community when you run out of money and only the foundation stands there? Towers were used for a number of purposes, from defensive to religious, but I think it’s worth noting that most of those uses were for not only the tower-builder, but for others as well. Your tower would keep others safe, your tower would become part of the religious practices of the community. Your tower would store food for people if the going got tough. So your inability to finish the job because of a lack of planning has a negative impact on many, not just your ego.

Then, raising the stakes with a counter-example, Jesus describes a wise king, who, when he realizes he cannot win against a superior force, sues for peace. Here, the communal benefit of being wise like the king who considered the potential cost, is even more clear, since most of the people on the road with Jesus that day would be more like the foot-soldier sent out by that king. Instead of sending them to a sure death, he preserves their lives through his weighty planning.

After sharing these two examples to spark their understanding, Jesus returns to the most practical way for them to take their own first steps of thoughtful consideration by telling them that they need to give up their possessions. Verse 33 feels out of nowhere, doesn’t it? How does Jesus make the leap from a king making terms for peace to telling folks they have to sell their possessions? The Greek word oun (“therefore”) indicates that Jesus views this act as the moral of the story he’s just told.

So perhaps it’s best to understand how possessions are a base way that we can serve one another as well as the thing that keeps us tied down, unable to pursue God’s callings. Like the call to hate one’s father and mother at the beginning of his speech, the call to say goodbye to a particular kind of lifestyle that is ruled by possessions is key to being able to be with Jesus wherever he will go.

Textual Point

I love the word Jesus uses for giving up possessions, apotassō: “to express a formal farewell or to “renounce interest in something.” Say, “Goodbye TV! Goodbye curling iron! Goodbye designer clothes!” Saying goodbye is a vocal act of separating yourself from the thing you say it to—it is part of letting go and being free.

Illustration Ideas

We are currently in a housing shortage here in Canada; there is not enough housing for all the people who need it, no matter their economic circumstances. As part of addressing the issue, the government has lowered its immigration target numbers (with negative ripple effects for colleges and universities who have relied on international student fees). But here’s the real kicker about this situation. As we speak, there are a lot of empty condos in Canada’s major cities like Toronto and Vancouver. These condos were built with investors in mind—not actual people looking to live in them—as many of them are small (500-650 sq ft) one bedroom or bachelor suites. As the economic situation has changed and using housing as an investment is no longer lucrative, so many people are paying the cost of poor planning and care about the common good rather than just short-term capitalistic profiteering.

Do you remember when timeshares were all the rage? They promised to make people’s lives better by taking the planning and cost fluctuations out of vacation planning. For overworked, stressed out people, what could be better than the location and time set for your annual trip of relaxation? Well, the idyllic became a nuisance for so many, and for a while it was big business helping people break their contracts. When people realize that they have lost their freedom and now have to stress about not wasting the money that they pay year after year, they feel even more trapped than they did before. God knows this and tries to warn us throughout Scriptures, but we keep looking for those quick fixes that only make things worse.