Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people and began to tell them what they must do if they want to be his disciple. They must “hate” their own family and even their own life:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26

They must be willing to “carry their cross” and follow Jesus:

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:27

They must estimate the cost and be able to complete the work despite the cost:

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?

Luke 14:28

They must be willing to give up everything to follow him, surrendering to God’s will and his plan for us:

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Luke 14:33

We need to ask ourselves… How is all of that going? How are we doing in being qualified as one of his disciples? Jesus doesn’t say that we need to know more. He doesn’t say that we need to do the right religious activities. He says we need to give up everything if we want to be his disciple. Then he finishes talking about what it costs to be his disciple by saying this:

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

Luke 14:34

It appears to me that Jesus is saying that we can lose our saltiness by not being willing to bear the cost of being a disciple. We might believe, possibly in the same way that we might say that someone believes in Jesus today that the crowds who were following Jesus believed in him. They may have believed that he was the Messiah, that he would save them, but they were not his disciples. They may have believed that Jesus’s way was the best way, but they were not necessarily willing to hate their families or their own lives. They were not willing to pick up their cross. They were not willing to complete the process of becoming a disciple despite the cost. They were not willing to surrender completely to God’s plan.

If we are not willing to bear the cost of being a disciple, we have lost the saltiness to which Jesus was referring. And if we have lost the saltiness, Jesus says that we are fit only to be thrown out.

Let us instead be a people who are truly “salty”, truly those who have become disciples of Christ. May we be a people who are willing to bear the cost of being a disciple. We aren’t earning our salvation in bearing this cost. Jesus has paid all of the cost to save us. No, instead, as a result of him giving our lives for us, Jesus calls us to give ourselves completely to him in return. We do all that he calls us to do as his disciples. We live completely for him. Are we truly salty? Are we truly disciples of Christ, or are we one of the crowd?