“If
anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My
disciple.” Luke 14:26
“Hate”
is a very strong word which expresses, at least in our common language, the precise
opposite of “love”. It is therefore difficult, if not impossible, to
understand what Jesus is talking about especially when He seems to encourage
rejection and violation of one of the fundamental commandments of the Lord:
“You shall honor your mother and your father”. The others of our
families, those for whose care we are accountable to the Lord, also have a
special place in our hearts. For this language, then, to seem to offer
the ultimatum of “Me or them” seems downright cruel and unreasonable.
Of
course the choice of the word “hate” is rhetorical. It cannot reasonably
be said that Jesus is requiring us to “hate” anyone, but He is calling to our
attention those in our lives who have the capacity to interfere with our
relationship with the Lord. It must also be considered that within the
context of the time and culture of Luke, following Jesus was quite
radical. Following Him would ultimately cause divisions within families;
in fact, it can be said there are such divisions even today.
Yet
we must be mindful of the priority Jesus is teaching. We do not love God
incidentally by loving those in our lives first. Rather we love those in
our lives purposefully by loving God first intentionally, just as Jesus affirms
the “greatest commandment” as taught by Moses. When we actively express
and engage love to our Holy Father first by trusting and obeying His Word, we
receive from our Lord the capacity and ability to love even those who can often
be quite unlovable, including members of our own families! We are given
the spiritual capacity to move beyond the biological and the emotional and into
the intentional and purposeful. This, as it is written, “is the beginning
of wisdom”; that is, “fear (intense respect) of the Lord”.
Blessings,
Michael
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