Luke 14 Study Notes

14:21-24 After being rejected by those who symbolized the religious leaders, the unfortunate ones to whom Jesus came to minister (Is 61:1) were invited. However, there was still room for others. So a wider group (those from the highways and hedges) was also invited. These stand for Gentiles. Non-Jewish participation in the gospel is a common theme in Luke’s Gospel.

14:25-26 Hate his own here hyperbolically expresses the same principle found in Mt 10:37, where Jesus says, “The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Both Luke and Matthew convey the same point. Disciples must love Jesus more than they love their own family members.

14:27 On bearing a cross, see note at 9:23.

14:28-32 It is necessary to calculate the cost to be a disciple of Christ. Like a person who does not foresee the full cost of building a tower and suffers ridicule for starting something he cannot finish, a disciple must understand what it will take to complete the Christian life before he makes the commitment. Similarly, a king must soberly consider the odds before deciding between war and peace.

The Greek verb miseo means to hate, the antonym of love (agapao). The essence of love is caring more about others than about self, even to the point of great sacrifice—including death (Jn 15:13). Hate, on the other hand, cares little or nothing about others and actually wishes them harm or even death (Mt 24:9). With only one exception (Lk 1:71), miseo in the Gospels is always used by Jesus. By far the most difficult occurrence of miseo is Lk 14:26—difficult both to understand and to practice. In this passage Jesus seems to demand hatred, even toward one’s parents, wife, children, and siblings—those whom we are specifically told elsewhere in Scripture to honor, protect, and love. Jesus’s statement is best understood as the willingness to love him above all else. The context is Jesus’s challenge to measure the cost of being his disciple (see 14:26-35).

14:33 The essence of being a disciple of Christ is unreserved commitment to him. This involves holding loosely the material things of this world.

14:34-35 Most salt of the ancient world was impure and lost its taste easily, making it unfit to use even as fertilizer or as a catalyst for burning manure. The danger for a person who lets his witness become “unsalty” is that he may be discarded from the Lord’s service. On ears to hear, see note at 8:4-8.