Swimming Upstream

14 – 16 December. Day 14-16.

Luke 14: 12 – 14^“12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.””

Luke 14:33³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

SHO! I don’t know about you, but at times, it feels like this whole being a disciple thing can be quite hard and quite scary and quite demanding. I mean, in verses 12 – 14, Jesus asks us to invite the poor, crippled, lame and blind – not just our friends or relatives or neighbours (Because neighbours are always nice right?) We have an amazing friend who is blind, so I can honestly say we have invited the blind! But if I consider the demand and expectation of inviting those who I don’t usually associate with or of those who I wouldn’t choose to hang out with or of those who I would need to go out of my way to ensure that they were comfortable and could enjoy themselves, its not something I would necessarily jump at or be super eager to sign up for.

Then in verse 33, Jesus says that if we do not give up everything, we can’t be his disciples. Just giving up an evening with those whom I would not necessarily choose to associate with is one thing- but giving up everything? Perhaps we can consider it this way: Is Jesus, who gave himself up for me, worth giving up everything for?

Luke 15:1-2“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.””

He doesn’t just expect us to dine with the un-invited, he models and leads by example of doing what He would like us to do. He doesn’t stick to the norm or go with the trends, He loves and does out of that conviction. Not legalistically required to do so, but lovingly longing to.

Luke 16:25²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.

Lazarus and a rich man die. Lazarus is said to have been carried by angels to Abraham’s side, and the rich man was buried in hell. Verse 25 tells us that Lazarus received bad things during his lifetime, whilst the rich man received all the good things. Again, choosing to be a disciple and follower of Jesus is going to cost us everything, it’s going to involve swimming upstream and not following the crowd whilst we are here on earth, so that we can one day be with him for eternity.

Swimming upstream. The hard way. The frowned upon way. The challenging way. Choosing the un-invited. Choosing to give up everything. Choosing to receive the bad things whilst here on earth. Choosing to follow Christ’s example and way of life. He said it, He lived it, He expects it. Let’s choose to swim upstream!