Parables Of Jesus Christ

The parable of the the kings war

The parable of the the kings war plan. Follow on of last parable
Luke 14 :31 -35 "Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
So in this parable as in the tower we don't have the resources to fight our ten thousand men against twenty thousand men. None of us can defeat the opposing army, because the opposing army is Jesus and his heavenly army. We must humble ourselves. We must ask him for terms of peace. How do we do this? We call out in prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me for i am a sinner." He takes us into his fold and grants us peace, through his grace and mercy. Did jesus not say" So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" the terms of peace is that we must stop sinning, stop our aggression toward his kingdom. To do this we must let go of everything that fights the lord. Even if it is ,all of our possessions, father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sister and our own life. These are the terms of peace. How many of us can really do that? We don't have the resources to be able to fulfill those terms. So again we pray, "Forgive us our sins, Lord." The parable concludes with the odd statement. "Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." By being salt of the earth we can fulfill the terms of peace. If we have salt in us, this allows us to be actively repentant and allowing God to cleanse us. This means letting go of those things that get in our way. We see exactually this in Mark's gospel in relation to being salt of the earth, Jesus says, "And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." Mark 9:43 We can't be a part of his kingdom if we're still warring against him in our sin. We must have active repenting.
For most if not all of us, our possessions get in our way. Western Christians have a big problem here. We justify having possessions for many reasons, but never look at the fact that for most of us, they are idols. The terms of peace that we have with the king is that we must "give up everything we have" to be in his kingdom. Our material wealth must not compete with our love of God, yet so often it does.Also, our relationships with family members get in the way with our relationship with God. How often do we let anger get in the way of our discipleship? How often do we allow our desire to be accepted by others get in the way of our discipleship? How often to we let family dynamics get in the way of our relationship with God?
We must follow through with the terms of peace. He calls us to send a delegation while the other is "a long way off." How far off is the heavenly army and her king today? We don't have the wits or resources, what we have is prayer. Praying for for help fulfilling the terms of peace, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner." He WILL cleanse us. Though we have to be actively participate in our cleansing We must choose to say "No!" to those things that prevent us from following through with our love of God. We must remove or run away from all those competing interests, and let nothing get in his way. It may sound hard, it may sound harsh. But as new born and actively repent we know the blessings, hope, love and life we receive from the lord we know it is worth constant cleansing. I leave you with the below scripture. This was said to me by a brother in church. As long as we are ready to let go and actively repent this is gods promise to us.
" I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you". Joel 2:25