So much of the Bible is so inspiring for so many people. Many people have favorite verses, and sometimes those verses are framed or tatted or printed on greeting cards. Verses like Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ.”
Or, Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord; plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
Or, Isaiah 40:31: “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles…”
Or, Matthew 19:26: “With God all things are possible.”
And yeah, sometimes these verses don’t mean what we think they mean, once you put them in their context, but they’re still good.
Some verses, however, are not as universally admired as these…
When I was in seminary, I was particularly fond of Ecclesiastes 12:12, which says: “Too much study will wear you out.” I thought that would be a good verse to frame and hang up in the classroom, but I doubt my professors would have appreciated it the same way I did.
These days, I’ve taken a liking to Leviticus 13:40: “A man who has lost his hair and is bald is clean.” And clean, in this context, means approved, worthy…
Then there’s Luke 14: 28, which says: “...first sit down and estimate the cost, and see whether or not you have enough.” I think every Chipotle should frame that verse and post it next to their guacamole.. Because it’s like, what? Four bucks for guac?
But this verse isn’t talking about guac. In context, it’s about something even more challenging; it’s about the cost of following Jesus. Consider what that’s going to cost you.
“Wait, there’s a cost to following Jesus? There’s a price to pay?”
Yes, there is.
And our passage mentions what some of those costs are, or can be.
And I gotta tell you, this is difficult, and I don’t really like this scripture…
It’s OK to say that, by the way; it’s OK to say you don’t like a particular scripture. There are a number of scriptures that I really don’t like, and this is one of them; and I was tempted to look for something else to preach on today.
But then I decided that, while it’s OK to not like certain scriptures, it’s NOT OK to just ignore them. So instead of ignoring this scripture, I decided to instead wrestle with this scripture, and share with you my journey.
The costs mentioned in this scripture are that you:
Be willing to hate your family
Carry the cross
Give up all your possessions.
Since I’m not ignoring these teachings, my next temptation is to say that Jesus didn’t really mean for us to take these things literally.
But I know I gotta be careful, because too many have given in to the temptation of saying, “Well, Jesus didn’t really mean that literally” anytime a teaching appears that they just don’t like.
“Treat immigrants the same as citizens.” Don’t take that literally.
“Preach good news to the poor, and free the oppressed…” Don’t take that literally.
“Forgive debts…” Don’t take that literally.
People take literally what they want to take literally, and dilute or explain away or ignore the teachings they don’t want to take literally.
But a lot of these commands, Jesus really did want us to take literally.
However, Jesus also frequently used metaphors to get his meaning across, and told parables that use exaggerated, hyperbolic language. We’re not supposed to take everything Jesus said literally.
So how do we know what Jesus’ actual intentions were in today’s scripture?
One thing we can do is compare this teaching to other teachings Jesus gave. The command to hate one’s own family, if taken literally, does seem to contradict nearly everything else Jesus said, so that is an indication that, perhaps, he was speaking in hyperbole.
After all, it was Jesus who commanded his followers to love their enemies. It doesn’t make sense that he would command his followers to love their enemies, but hate their own family.
We can also compare what Jesus says here in Luke to what he says in Matthew. Many of the stories and teachings in Luke are repeated in Matthew, because Luke and Matthew both used some of the same sources when writing their gospels. So if the same story is presented, but something in that story is different, that’s something to pay attention to.
In Matthew, Jesus gives the same teaching, except that he doesn’t use the word hate. In Matthew 10: 37-39, Jesus says: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
And scholars generally agree that how it appears in Matthew is more likely to represent what Jesus meant.
So now I’m feeling a little more confident that Jesus didn’t really mean we should hate.
Nevertheless, this is still a difficult teaching.
Yes, we should love our family… but Jesus is saying that our love for God and our commitment to the way Jesus taught should be our number one priority. Like it says in Matthew’s gospel, we are called to love Jesus most of all. And loving Jesus doesn’t just mean speaking his name with your lips. Loving Jesus is not a one-time recitation of a one-sentence prayer. Loving Jesus means committing your whole self and your whole life to the way he taught.
When Jesus talks about loving him more than our own family, or when he says we cannot follow him unless we hate our own family, I think he’s saying that our love for others should not be limited to just those who are part of our own family. Your love must extend beyond your own family. It must include the neighbor.
Because God’s family of which you are a part includes all of humanity. So it’s not that you are called to literally hate your own family; it’s that you are to recognize that God’s love isn’t limited to just them. Family, tribe, nation are all important. But ultimately, our love and our commitment is to extend to every person.
Lisa Sharon Harper talks about how, in Genesis, God created the world, and pronounced it good; and God created humans, who were created in the image of God; and then God pronounced it all very good.
And the very goodness of creation exists in how all the elements of creation relate to one another. The very goodness of creation exists in the connections that bind us together as one.
And “sin,” she says, is not “missing the mark,” as some of us have been taught. That idea of missing the mark, and falling short of perfection, is a Greek idea that came into Christianity after Jesus. What sin actually is, is failing to honor the goodness of those relationships; sin is failing to honor the connections we have with one another and with all of creation.
Which means that anytime we place ourselves or our family or our tribe in a higher position than others, or a higher position than creation itself, we sin, because we have distorted the inherently good relationships that exist between all parts of creation.
What Jesus demands is that our love be whole, complete, for all people, and for creation itself. Love for family is good, but it should not in any way prevent you from acting in love toward everyone else.
And the way of love often requires sacrifice.
A parent makes a lot of sacrifices for their child. MLK made great sacrifices for his country. Jesus made great sacrifice for humanity.
Love requires sacrifice.
That’s what it means to carry one’s cross. And this is not the first time in Luke’s gospel that Jesus says this. Earlier, in chapter nine, Jesus also says that his followers need to carry the cross. But there, in chapter nine, Jesus says that followers must carry their cross “daily.”
A literal crucifixion, or a literal sacrifice, can only happen once, because a person only has one life to give. But to carry one’s cross daily means to live a life of sacrificial love day after day after day.
I don’t know about you, but some days, I’m just living for myself; like I said, this is a difficult teaching.
And because it is difficult, we are commanded to take a sabbath rest.
Sabbath rest is not selfish. It is necessary. It’s a day to just be. It’s a day to recognize that your worth isn’t based on what you accomplish in life; rather, your worth is based solely on the fact that you are, that you exist, that God created you and formed you and gave you the breath of life.
A sabbath rest also reminds you that when you put in a good effort, and still fall short, God’s grace is there to hold you.
And about that last command, to give up all your possessions: I find nothing in scripture that lets me think Jesus didn’t mean exactly what he says here. Everything I’ve read makes me think Jesus really did mean just what he said when he said give up your possessions.
Jesus knows that we often give higher priority to our possessions and our wealth than we do to the people around us. We become more attached to our wealth and our possessions. We love our possessions and our wealth more than we love our neighbor, and more than we love God.
Our wealth and our possessions become our idols, the false gods we serve and worship. Which is why we are called to give them up.
Now I know we’re not going to actually do that in a physical sense - we’re not going to give away our homes, all our clothes, and everything else…
But what we can do is change our way of thinking, so that we understand that everything we have and everything we use is a gift to us, and that ultimately, it all belongs to God. We do not own the land; it belongs to God. We do not own all the things we bought; they belong to God. We do not even own our own lives; our lives belong to God.
That is a radically different way of thinking than we’re used to. And we may still have our possessions, but in our minds, we have started letting go of them. We have begun to detach ourselves from the idea that these things are ours to own, to possess, to cling to.
It all belongs to God.
To really understand that idea, and incorporate it into our living… well, on the one hand, it’s all very good news. You belong to God! God cherishes you! And nothing about you, and nothing you can do, can change that. That. Is. Good. News.
But this is also a great challenge. It’s a whole different way of living and thinking, and that makes it scary. Everything belongs to God.
Taken seriously, it completely changes everything about how we live. Everything. It calls on us to live a new life, to follow a new path. The path of Jesus. The path of sacrifice. The path of love.
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