Daily Bible Reading 27th October 2026 // Luke 14:28-33
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 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? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Another interpretation of these parables maintains that they refer to Christ Himself. According to this viewpoint, what is being said is that Christ has laid down extreme conditions for discipleship in 26, and His hearers are saying, so to speak, 'Why is discipleship so severe? Can it not be made easier than that?' And the parables are told in answer, so to speak, to that silent query: 'I am building,' says Jesus, 'and I need to count the cost of building, lest I find before I am finished that I am short of materials, and the work goes by default. I am battling with a powerful enemy, and I need to be sure that My soldiers are of such a sort as will stand in the day of battle, and having done all, still stand.' It is pointed out, in support of this interpretation, that Christ had previously used these very metaphors in another connection. At Caesarea Phillipi He had said, 'On this rock will I build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it'. Building and battling once again! And at that time also He uttered the challenge, 'If any man will come after Me...'. Christ, then, is declaring that in order to complete the building and win the battle, He must have resources and men on whom He could absolutely and utterly depend. To follow Him is to commit oneself to His enterprises, to stand by Him in the battle, to stand with Him in the battle, till the building is done and the battle won. It is therefore the quality of the disciples rather than their quantity, that is important. This is why He did not hesitate to thin out their ranks with His heart-bruising ministry.