Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:25-27

“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” Luke 14:33

There was a question that always bothered me when I was in seminary. It was quite a simple and almost basic question; “What is theology exactly?” I can’t think theologically if I don’t know what it means. I read theological works that were almost meaningless to me. I memorized them and accepted them as my own. I even understood them superficially. However, they never became my words because I did not really know what I was supposed to do with them. Eventually, I discovered the answer to my question. I did not find it among Christians nor the professors of my seminary. It was hiding among agnostics, former believers, and non-religious people. The discovery is still an ongoing process. It is becoming even more clear as we minister among the homeless children and teens. Now, I can’t imagine being a Christian without being a theologian.

Every time we read something from the gospel, it seems like Jesus is saying something uncomfortable and extremely difficult. Whenever He mentions about being His disciples, He throws some outrageous demands at us. It almost seems like He is making it impossible to be his followers. There are few options open to us whenever we hear His tough sayings. We can ignore these verses and go on with our lives. In this case, we will join the ranks of those who travel with Jesus in the gospel text above without any real commitment to Him. They just stood close to Jesus to reap some benefits from Him without making any firm commitment. We can just sweep everything under the rug and pretend that it is not there. In this case, we need to question ourselves whether we are really interested in Jesus at all. We can confront this text like his disciples and be completely disturbed and confused about it. When we do this, then we would truly become theologians. Theologians are not people with all the answers. In fact, the ones who claim to have all the answers are not usually theologians. They are something else. Theologians are common people who have their feet grounded in reality and cannot deny the paradoxes of life that confront them. They know that the Truth is in the words of Jesus and yet they find it hard to live according to His words. I believe that Jesus wants us all to become theologians, or in simple terms, He wants us to think about our faith, or rather, count the cost of becoming His disciples.

Jesus demands that we give up everything that we possess including our families. It sounds like Jesus is going against everything that the modern church has termed as “family values”. Jesus tells us that they are a hindrance to our salvation. No one in their right mind would think that these so-called “family values” are wrong, even the Pagans would agree with us. They are the fabric of every society. Nevertheless, Jesus always swam against the current of cultural norms. He challenged whatever our culture told us was right and good. Almost every saint in our church calendar took these words of Jesus literally and seriously. We can try to make it more amenable in order to deal with it. This attempt would only serve to dilute the intensity of the gospel. These words are what they are. Therefore, we have to do something about it. Most of us are just common people. We are not saints like those in the past. We sense a responsibility to our family. We need to have possessions in order to survive in this world. Yet, we want to follow Jesus and take His words seriously. There are no easy answers. This is why we need to be theologians. We need to think and struggle with these difficult issues. There are no easy answers. Perhaps, there are no answers at all.

I realized all homeless teens and children have done this. They have abandoned their families to be in the streets. Their families were stifling their lives, tormenting and smothering their spirit day by day. They had to abandon them to be free. There were countless times we heard from social workers who visited the homes of some of our children and reported that the streets with all its violence and dangers was better than the homes of these children. We don’t need to see it for ourselves to believe it. It is quite obvious. No child or teen from a moderately adequate home would prefer to stay in the streets. There is nothing attractive about sleeping in the streets. It has been extremely cold in the streets for the past few weeks. The children refused to go to a temporary shelter to keep warm at night. These shelters remind them too much of their homes. It is too traumatic for them to spend the night in a place looks like a home.

For these children, it was necessary for them to abandon their families to discover life. It is just lamentable that in this day and age that the streets are the only possible place of refuge for them. Our children and teens would appreciate Jesus’ words better than us. For them, his words here are the gospel. They are guaranteed that there is life and acceptance outside their oppressive family ties. However, Jesus, in the gospel, was not strictly talking to children, teens or women who come from abusive and dysfunctional homes. He was talking to regular people like us. We need to give up everything in order to be His disciples.

I think the children helped me understand what Jesus was trying to teach us here. The children had to abandon their families to discover something new. As long as they remained in their familiar environment, they would never discover any new possibility. It is necessary to leave the old and familiar to discover something greater and better. Our children had to leave their families. It wasn’t an easy decision for them. It took a lot of courage for them to abandon what they knew to be normal. As human beings, we always choose the familiar over the new. For our children, the living streets was a huge change. It is better than the old one they had. However, it is still not good enough. One day they will to abandon their life in the streets in order to embrace something better. Perhaps, it is going to be ongoing process for them and maybe even for us. This is perhaps the greatest challenge for them. They are comfortable where they are. They don’t want to move forward. They like to remain where everything is familiar. They are just like us.

Life is a question of abandoning the old to embrace the new. This pattern starts with our birth up to the time of our death. Those who hold on to to their past look quite sad and pathetic when it is no longer appropriate for their age. We don’t have to forget what we leave behind but we cannot hold onto it and expect to appreciate the new. Jesus’s words are tough because they are brutally honest and realistic. Jesus, through his wisdom, reveals to us the true nature of the family. It exists to prepare us to become His disciples in the world. It doesn’t exist to shelter us from the world. Unfortunately, families are made up of people of this world. They manipulate and control and exploit feelings and sentiments like any citizen of this age. Sometimes, we need to cast them away in order to discover the abundant life that the gospel ushers into our lives. Nevertheless, we have to count the cost. We have to ponder upon it carefully before we act.

These verses taught us a valuable lesson this week. Our task in the streets is to be theologians. We take the words of the gospel to the streets and struggle with the reality that confronts us there. We know that there is truth in the words of Jesus and we need to discover the Truth in the context of our reality. On the other hand, we are also confronted with the task to teach our homeless youth to become theologians, in other words, they need to learn how to count the cost. After all, it is impossible for us to be Christians without being theologians.