This is a sonnet based on Luke 14:26-30, 33 which reads,

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 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.’
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

“The cost you say? I thought it was free…
To take and make use of, to follow as I please.
But this word makes it sound as if the price were me
All my security, comfort, and ease.”
“Wait, you want me to hate my father and mother…
Forsake the privileged power of their name?
I thought the command was for their name to honor.
Hate them? To hate myself would be just the same.”
“But I’ll try you out. Let’s see where you go.
I’ll be by your side when you get what you’re due
I’ll look up in pride when your glory you show
And be envied as one of the great, lucky few.

And this rabbi, hating his own life, for love scorned the loss
Renounced what he was owed, and took up his cross.

© Randy Edwards 2016
artwork: John Luyken, The Call of Fisherman, apud: Phillip Medhurst; excudit: Harry Kossuth