Anyone who comes to me without calculating the cost will have great difficulty in being my disciple. As Jesus continued to minister to the people, the size of the crowd following him also increased. They were amazed at this person Jesus, and perhaps many in the crowd expressed their desire of wanting to hang around him more often in order to listen to his insightful teachings and also to see him do more amazing things. 
The stuff that Jesus was doing was “cool,” as an early remark from the crowds had clearly shown (cf. Luke 4:36-37), and naturally many in the crowd must have wanted to be part of or to be associated with what Jesus was doing. Perhaps having heard or seen people enthusiastically gather around someone like him but then lose interest after only a short time, Jesus knew only too well not to get carried away by the increasing number of people who wanted to join him. “ Joining me in order to be part of all the good stuff I do is costly,” Jesus told them, “ for you will need to make some tough choices - choices that will take you away from your families, choices that will impoverish you and turn you into beggars, choices that will make it seem as if you hate your life. The choices which you will make might turn against you and become an embarrassment and humiliation unless you commit to them.”
Did Jesus intend his statement(s) to discourage those who wanted to join him? Did Jesus intend his words to naturally reduce the size of the crowd? Absolutely not. Jesus wanted (and still wants) disciples. At the beginning of his public ministry, he had extended an invitation to his hearers to be part of the kingdom he was inaugurating. And whenever an opportunity presented itself, he never failed to invite his hearers to become part of the kingdom. Jesus had a good reason for pronouncing the above words. Perhaps he had experienced too often the cloying praise of the faint-hearted; perhaps, as with the rich young man whom Jesus loved but who nonetheless went off after hearing what following Jesus would cost him (cf. Mark 10:17-22), Jesus had observed potential followers drift away because of unpreparedness. Instead of being seen as discouragement, Jesus wanted the would-be disciples to understand in his words the consuming dedication required of those who undertake to follow him.
Jesus likens the commitment to his way of life to hating one’s family. However, it is safe to say that Jesus did not suggest an actual hating of one’s family (for that would be going against God’s commandment of respecting and showing honor to one’s parents and of loving one’s neighbor). In the culture in which Jesus lived and grew, commitment to one’s family was considered a great virtue. Nothing was to come between an individual and his/her loyalty to the family. As such, the statement about hating one’s parents and siblings must have come as a shock to the crowd. But the statement must also have invited them to access the seriousness of Jesus’ proposal. To be a follower of Jesus, one had to be ready to make a tough choice akin to breaking ties with one’s family. 
Being a disciple of Jesus demands total dedication and extreme detachment. A disciple detaches from his/her family, not in the sense of turning his/her back on them, but by doing away with any barrier that might have existed between this family and other families. A disciple of Jesus “detaches” the self from his/her family, not because the family is an obstacle to discipleship, but in order to expand the idea of a family. A disciple of Jesus begets a new family: a family made up of all the sons and daughters of God. A disciple must be ready and willing to transfer the loyalty he/she has towards his/her nuclear family to this new family. This was the proposal Jesus was laying bare before the crowds. It was a proposal that was meant to prevent them from getting hurt in their process of discernment.