When the long-awaited Messiah finally came, the majority of the political and religious leaders of the Chosen People did not respond to the Seed of the Woman with recognition and acceptance and love and loyalty. The majority of the leaders rejected Him, and ultimately killed Him.

But, the Stone which the builders rejected was willing to suffer their rejection, because He knew that God would overrule those foolish builders, and make Him the chief corner stone of the Temple of God, the foundation of a whole new and magnificent and lasting and completely righteous universe!

Christianity and Messianic Judaism is not for wimps! Messiah does not request – He demands – that we be like Him in this regard, and be willing to go against the majority, and suffer if necessary.

Let’s learn more from the Holy Spirit, communicating to us through His servant Luke.

Now large crowds were going along with Him.

Not everyone in Israel rejected Yeshua. The young miracle working Rabbi from Nazareth was very popular among many of the ordinary Israelis of His day. Large crowds were going along with Him.

Most people like to go along with the large crowds. It seems safe to go with the majority. In this way, we are like sheep. Sheep are not known for being solitary creatures, like tigers and leopards. Sheep generally stay close to the rest of the flock, and move with the rest of the flock.

But, Messiah doesn’t not want sheep-people – sheeple! He wants strong, independent-minded followers who will go against the crowds, and even go against their own families! He wants men and women who are so committed to Him and to the truth that they are willing and able to endure rejection and persecution. Messiah wants men and women, Jews and Gentiles who desire God’s approval, not the approval of man, not the approval of the crowds and not even the approval of their families.

God has designed us in such a way that most people love their family. Our families are very important to us.  Love of family is very strong. We love our families more than almost anything. But, Messiah demands that we must love Him more than we love our families! Our allegiance to Him must come before our loyalty to each and every member of our families!

And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

This is directed to anyone – to each and everyone who wants to come to Messiah and be saved. It is not directed to leaders, to pastors and rabbis and evangelists and teachers, but to everyone.

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters … he cannot be My disciple.

Some family members are easy to dislike, even intensely dislike – but that is not what Messiah is talking about. The Rabbi from Nazareth does not want us to literally hate our families, or to treat them badly, or want to see them harmed. He wants us to love our families; but compared to our love for God the Father and for Himself, our love for our families seems like hate in comparison! We are to be more devoted to Messiah than to our fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and children. Our love and loyalty and affection and dedication to Messiah must come before our closest earthly relationships.

What does this greater devotion to the Son of God look like? If Messiah teaches us one thing, and our families teach us another, we take the side of the Son of God.

If our families tell us to do one thing, and Messiah tells us to do something else, we do what Yeshua tells us to do.

Messiah takes it even further. Many of us love our family, and the Son of God demands that our love for Him come before our families. But, there is someone most of us love even more than the other members of our family, and that is ourselves! Messiah demands that if we will truly come to Him in the right way, and be saved, our love for Him must come before our love for ourselves!

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and does not hate even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

What Messiah taught others, He Himself lived.

Messiah was rejected by the majority of the leaders, yet He endured.

Messiah was rejected by the majority of His people, yet He succeeded.

Messiah was rejected by the majority of the people from His home town of Nazareth, yet He fulfilled the will of God.

Messiah was rejected by many of the members of His family, yet He overcame.

Messiah hated His own life. He resisted all temptations to advance Himself in this world. Instead, God the Father asked Him to give up His life, and Messiah was willing to do so to fulfill the will of God.

Messiah’s love for God took precedence above His love for His own life.

Like Messiah, we are to love the Three-In-One God with the totality of our being.

Our loyalty to the Creator and Redeemer is to come before our loyalty to the creature, even if that creature is ourselves.

Our devotion to and submission to God the Father and Messiah the Son comes before our devotion to ourselves.

That means we do not consider ourselves to belong to ourselves, but because of creation and redemption, we understand that we belong to God.

That means that the will of God comes before our own will.

That means that we see ourselves as servants of God and Messiah, and not as free individuals who can do anything we want. We no longer have the right to do whatever we want, go whatever we want. Our priority is to do what Messiah wants, and go where Messiah wants.

That means we submit our lives, our desires, our wants, our goals, our plans, to God, and seek Him and His will and His kingdom and His plan and His agenda for our lives.

Love of self is an very strong idol that must be torn down. It is not easy, but Messiah says it is necessary and it is possible!

To be a genuine follower of Messiah, we must be willing to give up not only the approval of the majority of the community in which we live, and the approval of our families, but we must give up our very own lives.

In a Satanically dominated world that is at war with God, the man or woman who comes to Messiah and lives for Messiah will be opposed. Living for Messiah will mean persecution. It may mean serious suffering. It may even mean death. Messiah wants us to realize that and be willing to endure what a God-rejecting world will try to do to us – like Messiah Himself did.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Carrying your own cross and coming after Yeshua means having this attitude:

I am willing to give my all to Messiah – my possessions, my agenda for my life, and even my life.

In order to be faithful to Messiah, I am willing to experience rejection, suffer humiliation, and even die a painful death.

I am willing to die for Messiah – today, if need be.

Today may be my last day – but that is OK, if it is God’s will for me, and His plan for my life.

Messiah knows that He is asking a high price to for us to pay to be one of His genuine disciples. He also knows that it is a fair price for the benefits that will be received.

Messiah also recommends that before we make the decision to commit ourselves to Him, and identify with Him, and suffer with Him, we do a thorough cost analysis of becoming one of His disciples. We should carefully think through all of the benefits and all of the costs. We do cost analysis with other important decisions that affect other areas of our life. Why not with the most important decision that affects our life in this world, and our eternal life?

For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’. Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Here is what Messiah is saying: If, before we start major projects, we calculate the costs and decide if we still have the desire and resources to complete the project, we should do the same with this most important decision – gaining eternal life by committing our lives to follow the Messiah.

So, let’s do our cost analysis. First, the costs:

We must become one of Messiah’s committed followers. We must publically identify with Him with our words and by baptism.

We give up the right to live for ourselves. We must give up the right to do whatever we want. We must start doing the things that the Lord has told us to do.

We must turn over to Messiah all of our possessions, and seek Him regarding what He wants us to do with them.

Our life may be difficult, hard, filled with trials and persecutions.

We must be ready to experience rejection by the majority of the world, and even by friends and family.

These are the costs. They are very real and they must be paid.

Just as the costs are real, so the benefits are also very real. So, let’s consider the benefits:

We will have a genuine relationship with the Creator.

We will be close to the eternal God.

We will be loved, accepted and honored by our Creator.

We will have a genuinely successful, meaningful life.

We will live forever.

We will receive amazing rewards and a great and eternal inheritance.

Have you counted the costs and considered the benefits? If you have, have you decided what you will do? Will you become the kind of true disciple Messiah wants, and endure all the costs that are part of being a disciple?

If you make that commitment, keep going with that commitment! Renew that commitment every day! Don’t lose that passion to follow the Lord with everything you are and have.

Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

Even though the world will hate us, the reality is that genuine disciples of the Lord are like salt. Just like salt makes dull food taste better; just like salt acts as a preservative; just as salt can helping with healing; just as we need salt to live – so Messiah’s real followers, by their lives and words and prayers that are based on Messiah’s teachings, make the world a better, healthier and tastier place.

Once you become a Messianic Jew or a born-again Christian, stay salty! Don’t get distracted by other things! Don’t lose your zeal. Don’t lose your focus! Don’t lose your passion for God, for Messiah, for the Bible, for the community, for evangelism, for righteous and holy living! Don’t fall back into your old bad habits and worldly ways and desires. If you do, you won’t be fulfilling your purpose, and your life won’t be the success that God wants it to be, and you will suffer loss.

If you have lost your first love, and your desire to give all, and sacrifice all, and be all for Messiah, won’t you admit it and turn back to Him? He will graciously accept you and restore you and once again use you.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.

Are you hearing? Are you really?