Another View....

Last week the men's bible study group that I lead in the community came to a passage in Luke 14 which I would call one of the hard sayings of Jesus.

This was the part that we struggled with...“If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple."  Luke 14:26.   In our conversation about it, one of the guys admitted that he didn't understand it and because he didn't understand it, he discounted it and acted like it wasn't there.

That is not a great way to deal with the teachings of Jesus, so we pushed a bit.  The difficult saying is in the midst of a larger teaching on the importance of discipleship... following Jesus.  I think that perhaps Jesus was employing some hyperbole to make the point that following him comes at a cost and is more important than anything else in our lives!   I am sure he wasn't teaching us to hate our parents... when one of the big 10 is to "honor your father and mother."

Later that day, I wittnessed a powerful scene at the bedside of one who was dying.   The patient looked at his daughter and told her he loved her, then looked at his son and told him that he loved him, then he looked at his wife and said you know I love you.   And she said,  "yes, I know you have loved me for over 49 years!"  And then he looked at all of us and said, "now I have to love my Lord more."

That, I think is more in keeping with what Jesus meant.   It's okay to love our family!  And as much as we love them... he is asking us to love him even more!