Luke 14:25 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Luke 14:25-33)The Lord Jesus Christ here is receiving a great multitude. He is on the move, but in spite of the fact that he is on the move, an enormous crowd is following him. This is not just a multitude, or even a great multitude, but it is great multitudes in the plural. Those words indicate just how enormous the crowds were, running into thousands. The vast majority of them thought they were supporting him, that they were for him. They wanted to witness the things he did, they wanted to hear the authority of his teaching, and they would have rallied behind him. He was so different from the powerless chief priests, scribes and Pharisees. What was he? Who was he? He was God's Messiah it was said. Yes, but what was he going to do? Set free the nation, throw off the Roman occupying forces, lead a great revival of old Jewish nationalism? People were following him for different reasons: some because they thought perhaps this would mark the turning of the tide politically, others because they wanted certain amount of religious content in their lives, others because they were curious to see the miracles. But then they were caught up in a sort of hero worship, as people often are. There was tremendous hysteria, but the Lord Jesus Christ was never interested in a mere physical following.This isn't the only occasion in the Gospels when the words which he spoke to a great multitude were almost calculated to drive them away, because they were so blunt. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't flattered by crowds. On one occasion he dealt with the crowd so plainly – telling them in no uncertain terms what he had come for, and what he required of them – that many walked no more with him. He addressed them in very tough and very blunt language. The Lord Jesus Christ was never interested in the popular sentiments of the crowd. People are like sheep. They follow this idea, then that idea; this fad, and that fad. But he never received people mindlessly, en masse. When on occasion he has a vast crowd of thousands of people, what does he do with them? Does he flatter them? Does he encourage them to follow him regardless of why they are there? Does he take advantage? No, the Lord Jesus Christ has just one mission and it is to make it abundantly plain to them why he has come, what he stands for, what they are to do. He speaks so as to awaken them to the reality of the situation, their sinfulness and condemnation, their need of total transformation of life. So here, he makes very plain to them the terms of discipleship. Some are drawn by the dynamism of his preaching and so on, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't want a crowd for the sake of it.