The people listening to Jesus would have remembered all the trouble that came when King Herod Antipas divorced his first wife and got into a catastrophic war with her father - a powerful Arabian king.  Everybody knew he shouldn't have tried to fight his way out of the problem, and ought to have found some way to make peace.  But Herod was stubborn, manipulated by his lover, who was married to Herod’s brother Philip, and Herod desperately wanted to retain his privilege of power without upsetting the Roman Emperor.  However, a realistic assessment of the military options should have made him give up his personal ambitions for the good of his kingdom.

Jesus’ parable about such a king would have brought the crowd to silence.  He presented the military and diplomatic options available to the king in the face of overwhelming opposition.  Either option risked losing everything, but a thought-through approach would have saved many lives and much embarrassment.  It is better to give away the pride of conquest if you can win the peace by agreement.  Jesus is not advising appeasement of an evil aggressor, but the humility to know when you are wrong (1 Peter 5:6).    

Jesus said that people who persisted in retaining their personal ambitions could never be His disciples (Luke 14:26-27).  Those who could not see that Jesus was superior to them, in every way, would be unable to learn from Him or follow Him, because they would always be agitating to get their own way.  So, it is logical that the 'bottom line' of discipleship must be a willingness to give up everything to follow Jesus and be on His side (Philippians 3:8).  Failure to do so will inevitably bring points of conflict which are unwinnable against Jesus.

Except in times of persecution, it can be all too easy to call yourself a Christian.  But believers who have not committed themselves wholly, will assume the right to hold on to their own priorities – even though they claim to be disciples of Jesus.  That results in a sort of spiritual schizophrenia, or a dual objective in life, which Jesus says is incompatible with following Him.  This can be a particular problem in the world of business and personal finances: Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (Matthew 6:24).