Forsaketh All

Luke recorded these words of the Savior to “great multitudes” that were with Him: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27). The word hate here really means to love less so that the Savior is telling us that we must love Him more than even our families and our own lives. The JST clarifies that the Savior’s message here was that one should not be “afraid to lay down his life for my sake.” We should give our very lives to Him. The Savior wants the first and great commandment to be our first and great priority: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). We are of course to love our children and parents and spouse, but that is part of the second great commandment—the order is key and our love for the Savior is to come first.

                After giving this instruction to love Him more than even our own families, the Savior gave two small stories to illustrate His point. The first was this: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” This is of course good wisdom in the various activities that we participate in during our lives—we should make plans and prepare so that the endeavors we undertake can be finished. But the primary purpose of this story wasn’t to give us advice in project management: He wants us to count the cost of discipleship. And what is that cost? It is everything we have, even our very lives if necessary. He wants those who come unto Him to be ready to give all they have to serve Him, to put His will first in all things. Interestingly, a parable He gave in our dispensation also included a tower that was to be built: “A certain nobleman had a spot of land, very choice; and he said unto his servants: Go ye unto my vineyard, even upon this very choice piece of land, and plant twelve olive trees; And set watchmen round about them, and build a tower, that one may overlook the land round about, to be a watchman upon the tower” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:44-45). In that story the people did not build the tower because of their slothfulness, and so the enemy came and destroyed their vineyard; they had not put the commandments of their lord first and suffered because of it. Putting the two stories together the message is this: we should be the tower, a symbolic tower in our lives of faith and obedience and sacrifice and devotion to Him that is erected one brick at a time as we give our all to Him.

            The second story in Luke 14 was this: “Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.” Again the secular message of this story is that we should prepare and analyze our undertakings before we commit to something that we cannot truly achieve. A king should rightly hesitate to take ten thousand men to battle against an army of twenty thousand, and if that is not likely to succeed he should sue for peace instead of war. In the gospel context, I think we are to be in the first camp: we should be ready to go to battle with our King against the adversary of sin and evil, even if the odds are against us, for with Him we will certainly succeed. The Savior summed up the message of this and the other parable in these words: “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:28-33).