NOTES for Luk 14:15-35
God’s Kingdom comes into this world, but a person must take a step toward it, for it is like a wedding banquet to which everyone is invited, though not everyone wishes to come. A great deal depends on this step, which is why Christ speaks of it in such serious terms. It may demand everything of a person, even forgetting oneself for the sake of the Kingdom. To take this step, the Good News must become more important than the things a person regards as most important: home, livelihood, family, and confidence in the future. (Here the Aramaic pair “love-hate” simply means “prefer.”) But a serious step requires a serious decision—perhaps even more serious than the decision of the king or the tower builder in these parables. Christ desires trust but does not demand madness: a person must soberly “calculate” whether the Gospel is truly more precious to him than the whole rest of his life and, if it is, take a step toward it.