“Two Stories About Salvation”
Luke 14:25-33

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost—September 8, 2019

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

Our text is today’s Gospel Reading, in which Jesus tells two parables, “Two Stories About Salvation.”

Today’s Gospel Reading is one of those cases where understanding the geographic location of Bible events, in this case the likely location where Jesus told these parables, really helps you understand their meaning and significance.  A good teacher or preacher uses illustrations that his hearers can really relate to, something from the hearers’ own, everyday lives.

Jesus is, of course, the best teacher and preacher of all time, and so in these parables he uses for his illustrations objects and incidents which are right at hand, objects and incidents that the first hearers of these parables were very familiar with.  In fact, I think in this case Jesus probably used objects and incidents which were spread out right before their eyes as he was telling these stories.

You see, it seems Jesus told these parables in his own backyard, along the southern border of Galilee, in territory he himself was very familiar with.  For, the spot where he told these parables was probably about as far from his hometown of Nazareth as it is from Block to Olathe.  And in between lay the most prominent geographic and historic feature in that whole area, perhaps the most prominent geographic and historic feature in all of the Holy Land.  It started on the outskirts of Nazareth, and ended right about where it seems Jesus was telling these parables.  It was the internationally-famous, world-renown Valley of Megiddo—known in Hebrew as “Armageddon.”

This Valley of Megiddo was a large, flat plain surrounded by hills, like a huge bowl, where several major roads leading to all the great empires of the ancient world came together, the main junction for all the Interstate highways of the ancient world.  That is why this place so often became the battlefield where these empires would meet for decisive battles, just as Belgium, because of its location, became a battlefield where the great world powers fought each other in both World Wars I and II.

Historians actually believe more battles have been fought in the Valley of Megiddo, at least 34 known major battles, than anywhere else on earth.  It is as if D-Day took place on the beaches of Normandy, not just once, but 34 times, again and again over the centuries, each time the control of world power hanging in the balance.

Like the phrase “met his Waterloo” after the place where Napoleon was defeated, because of all these famous battles which took placed there the very word “Armageddon” became a shorthand expression for any massive battle.  That is why it is used symbolically in the book of Revelation to represent the ultimate battle, the spiritual battle between God and Satan.

Because the Valley of Megiddo was such a strategic location, whoever controlled the battlefield there had a lot of influence over world events.  So, over the centuries the Hebrew kings and many others built and maintained a massive, walled fortress city, covering ten acres on the top of Mount of Megiddo, overlooking this strategic valley.  It has been extensively excavated, revealing one of the grandest, mightiest fortresses of anywhere in the ancient world.

Understanding this setting gives greater meaning and significance to these parables.  “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. . .”  The “tower” Jesus speaks of in the first parable can mean a “fortress” or “castle”—and the mightiest fortress, the biggest castle, the most massive towers in all the Holy Land were right there, at Megiddo.  Maybe as Jesus began the parable, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. . .” he was actually pointing over to the massive towers and fortifications of Megiddo.  He was using something close to home, something his hearers could actually see right before their eyes, to illustrate his parable.

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. . .”  For the Valley of Megiddo, there could be no more appropriate illustration than this one, about two kings going to war.  Maybe as Jesus begins this second parable he is actually standing on one of the hillsides surrounding the Valley of Megiddo, with his hearers looking out behind him at the famous battlefield below, stretching out before their eyes.  And the story Jesus tells in this parable is actually an historically accurate account of a real battle, the most celebrated battle Megiddo had ever seen, the D-Day or Waterloo of the ancient world, the battle that really made Megiddo famous.

In 1468 BC Pharaoh Tuthmosis III defeated a coalition of 100 kings in the Valley of Megiddo.  The Egyptians left us a detailed account of their victory, and this famous battle is still studied at West Point and other military academies.  What makes this battle so famous is that the Pharaoh and his Egyptian armies were outnumbered more than 2-to-1, and yet he won the battle.  Sound familiar?

I imagine Jesus pointing out over the Valley of Megiddo as he says, “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king.  Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”  Jesus is using a real incident from history they all knew about, that occurred right there on the famous battlefield of Megiddo.

Jesus is saying, “You’ve heard many times the story of how right here long ago Pharaoh Tuthmosis beat the odds and won battle, but do you really think that you can beat the odds too?  Do you really think that with your own pitifully weak and outnumbered spiritual forces you can win the battle against sin and Satan?  Or, do you really think that you can build a tower, like that one over there, a spiritual tower of your own making, that will take you right up to heaven?”

That is the point of both these parables.  They are “Two Stories About Salvation.”  As far as earning salvation is concerned, your own works are like the failed tower; you could never pile up enough good works to climb your way into heaven.  Your own works are like the overpowered army; you just don’t have what it takes to defeat sin and Satan, and win the battle for eternal life.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?  For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’” If you count up the cost of working your own way into heaven, it is impossible, you can never do enough, you can never pile up enough of your own good works to climb your way into heaven. 

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”  If you count up your own weapons in the spiritual battle against sin and Satan, you are completely overwhelmed, you have no hope of winning the battle for eternal life. 

Jesus is saying, “Everyone knows Pharaoh Tuthmosis SHOULDN’T have been able to win his battle against such overwhelming odds here in this valley.  Don’t endanger your eternal soul by gambling that somehow you will win against sin and Satan.”

Jesus is telling you in these parables that the cost is too great for you to build a tower that will get you into heaven, the forces of evil are too strong for you to ever win the battle against them for eternal life.  You have only one hope: to give up.  To give up trying to build the tower or win the battle yourself, to give it all up, and give it over to him: “If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.  In the same way, therefore, none of you can be my disciple if you do not give up everything that your yourself possess.”

Jesus means giving up reliance upon anything else besides him for salvation, whatever it is that you think could and should earn you favor in God’s eyes.  For, everything you could ever do will never get you beyond the measly foundation; you’ll never build a tower of good works to make it up there; instead you’ll be stuck forever down there.  And everything you yourself could ever throw into the spiritual battle against sin and Satan will never win you eternal life, you’ll be totally overwhelmed, and defeated, and taken off into eternal captivity. 

“In the same way, therefore, none of you can be my disciple if you do not give up everything that your yourself possess.”  Jesus is telling us, “The only way you can win salvation is to give up.  Give up trying to build the tower or win the battle yourself.  Like the king facing overwhelming forces, give it all up, and give it over to me.  I have already laid the foundation of salvation and built the tower to heaven, for you.  I have already won the battle against sin and Satan, won the battle of eternal life, for you.”

In Philippians, the Apostle Paul recounts all the things he used to rely on for salvation: “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”  Before he came to know Christ, Paul was trying with these building blocks to build a spiritual tower that would take him right up into heaven.  But, they could never get him beyond the measly foundation.  He was trying with the soldiers of these good works to overcome sin and Satan, but he was spiritually defeated and held captive.

Paul goes on, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

That’s what Jesus means when he says, “None of you can be my disciple if you do not give up everything that your yourself possess.”  That’s the point Jesus is driving home with these “Two Stories About Salvation”: You must rely on him alone for salvation.

Jesus introduces these two parables by saying, “Anyone who does not bear his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”  When we hear those familiar words of Jesus, we usually think of “bearing” or “taking up” the cross to mean enduring suffering for his sake, and it does mean that.  But, first and foremost, it also means taking up and bearing in your heart faith in the cross of Christ, faith in Christ alone for salvation.

That’s what Jesus is illustrating with these “Two Stories About Salvation.”  You cannot at the same time carry in your heart both faith in his cross and the delusion of earning your own way to heaven.  Jesus is saying in these parables, “Don’t foolishly try to build the tower of salvation or win the battle of eternal life yourself. It can’t be done.  Like the king facing overwhelming forces, give it all up, and give it over to me.  I have already laid the foundation of salvation and built the tower to heaven, for you.  I have already won the battle against sin and Satan, won the battle of eternal life, for you.”