Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Gospel lesson (Luke 14: 25-33) read earlier.

These are hard words from Jesus. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple. Hate? Does Jesus really mean hate our family members to be his disciples? Hate? How can the Savior, the person who brought us God's love tell us here to hate our families? How can Jesus, who taught "Love your enemies" now say "hate your family members? This is hard to hear, and Jesus ends this section by saying "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Well, I gave too much of this away in the children's message. Jesus doesn't mean that we should passionately hate those He has also called us to love. But whenever we are faced with the choice of following Jesus or following someone else elsewhere, we should follow Jesus.

Motivational speakers have become quite popular in our society, and the good ones, the favorites of society, bring in large crowds and big paydays. Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus at this time. Many in these crowds were treating him like some sort of modern-day motivational speaker -- with free food on top of it. They were apparently intrigued by his stories, by the way he challenged the rich and powerful that so many of them despised. But Jesus wasn't interested in earthly popularity. He didn't want crowds of people half-way committed to following him. He didn't want listeners who were only planning on making minor adjustments in fine-tuning their lives. I've not heard many motivational speakers use words like these: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. To be honest, if most of us heard a motivational speaker of today say words like these, we wouldn't follow him. Why should we? We would think he was a nut.

But Jesus isn't a modern-day motivational speaker trying to help us learn to win friends and influence people. Jesus isn't a speaker trying primarily to help us cope better with earthly life or improve our jobs or have higher self-esteem. NO! Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem, and He is looking for followers. That is what the word disciple means: follower, learner, student, catechumen. Disciples were those who followed a teacher and his plans for their lives.

Jesus is calling the crowd to be followers. But where is He leading them? Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem, to the cross. He's going there to save his disciples, to die for the sins of the world. His disciples and the crowds do not yet understand his purpose at the time he said this, even though He had told them before, several times. In Luke 9: 22-24 Jesus had told them - The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor and leading Lutheran theologian in Germany during the 1930's and through WWII. He wrote a book that I highly recommend titled "The Cost of Discipleship." Despite being published in 1937, the book is still a major seller you can find in most bookstores and all libraries. You often see it in used bookstores, or might find copies at a garage sale. Bonhoeffer is Lutheran, so he emphasizes that only through free grace are we saved, the free gift of love found in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. But Bonhoeffer reminds us Lutherans that free grace is not cheap grace. Free does not equal cheap. Our grace was purchased at a price, and that price was greater than any stock market rise or fall. That grace was purchased through the blood of God's Son, the greatest price ever paid. Bonhoeffer reminds us Lutherans that following Christ does cost. Following Him does cost. If we are openly following Him it will sometimes cost us in human relationships, when people not connected to Him try to subtly or openly push us away from Him.

How might they do that? Many ways, I will label only a few. Perhaps you younger members have been openly belittled by friends at school. Peer pressure like "You're a Christian, a goody-two shoes?" "You go to church on Sundays? What a waste of time." In the face of such peer pressure you will be pressed to decide to follow Jesus or follow the crowd. For older members the pressure may be more subtle. Comments from friends like "I don't talk about politics or religion, especially religion" may pressure you to fear sharing how important Jesus is in your life. Friends and relatives who come to visit you on the weekends may subtly pressure you to choose not to attend worship and Bible Study on Sundays, to spend time with them rather than the Word of your Lord. If you resist their pressure and attend anyway, you communicate to them that when it comes to your relationship with God and them, God comes first, they, while important, come second. You don't have to get angry or defensive about it. In fact getting angry and defensive in such situations would be counter to the Good News about Jesus. You simply can be ready to say with gentleness and respect (2 Peter) that hearing from God's Word regularly is very important to you.

Jesus was saying to the crowd and to us, "I'm the Lord, I'm leading the way, just follow me." Trust me that I know where I am going. Trust me that I know where I am leading you. We are good at saying: "But what about this, Lord?" But what if Jesus takes me places that I don't want to go? What if he challenges me with experiences I don't want to experience? What if Jesus takes me into battles that I don't want to go to? The fact is Jesus will take us into challenges and battles that we would prefer not to go. But he doesn't send us into those places alone or unprepared.

The fact is Jesus Himself went into those places first for us. He went to Jerusalem, to the cross for us. He followed His father's leading, and it saved our lives.

My wife taught me the sign language for disciple yesterday. It's this (touch the inside of each hand, then two thumbs up, one following the other). It means Jesus follower. Jesus is represented by the touching of the inside of the hands, the signal for Jesus' crucifixion. Follower is represented by one thumb following after another. That is what you and I each are: Disciples, Jesus' crucifixion followers. Bonhoeffer wrote this book 1937. At the time he knew already that following Jesus to Jerusalem through Berlin was costing him. The Nazi regime was already in power and Bonhoeffer was already in danger. Because of this danger friends talked him into leaving Germany in 1939. But not for long. Bonhoeffer's heart was still with his Christian brothers and sisters in Germany, and he chose to return and follow Jesus there in Germany. He did continue leading the Confessing Church there in Germany for four years, until he and his family were arrested by the Gestapo in April 1943.

While in prison, he continued to follow Jesus, to minister to his fellow prisoners through Word and Sacrament. But then in April 1945, by special order of Gestapo leader Heinrich Himmler, Bonhoeffer paid the ultimate price for following Jesus. He was executed, just a few days prior to the time his prison camp would be freed by the Allies. I pray that none of us here today will ever be called upon to follow Jesus to imprisonment and death. But I also pray that He will grant us the strength, through His Word, to follow Him to whatever crosses He may lead. I pray that He will always strengthen us to love Him more than we love ourselves and others. I pray that we will always remember that we are (sign language) Jesus' followers.

May our Lord Jesus Christ grant us the grace and peace to always be His followers. Amen.