We live in a society that loves bargains. Everybody loves a bargain. It is a great feeling when you pay very little but you get a lot. Bargain hunters are everywhere. They go to garage sales. They search the classified, they wait for the sales in big stores, they use e-bay. And the basic mantra of the bargain hunter is, “What is the least amount I have to pay in order to get as many benefits as possible. How do I sacrifice a little and still get all the good stuff?” Everybody loves a bargain.
Now sometimes the bargain we are looking for isn’t always a material thing. Sometimes we search for bargains in or spiritual life. What I mean is this. There are times in our spiritual lives when we want all the blessings of heaven, but with the least amount of sacrifice possible. There are times when we lives our Christian lives are lived in such a way that we seem to be saying, “What is the least amount that I have to do and still receive all the good stuff of heaven?”
Now this kind of attitude is nothing new to our generation. This kind of attitude has been around for thousands of years, including the time when Jesus walked on this earth. Luke tells us in chapter 9:51, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51) Now Jerusalem was the place where Jesus would ultimately die on the cross. So when the Bible tells us that Jesus was going to Jerusalem it is saying that Jesus was choosing to go to the place where eventually he would give his life for those he loved.
Now most people had no clue that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to give up his life on a cross. To them Jesus was a
-Miracle worker
-A healer
-A powerful Teacher and preacher
-Someone who would lead them out of the oppression from the Romans and into freedom. And so thousands of people followed Jesus.
Now you would think that Jesus would have been thrilled with the number of people following him.
As the Bible says, “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus.” (Luke 14:25) But numbers didn’t matter so much to Jesus. What mattered to him was commitment. And so Jesus stops in order to thin out the crowd. And his method of doing this was to use several images and parables to drive home the point that in order to be a follower of Jesus we need to be one hundred percent commitment to him. It’s all or nothing. There is no bargain hunting here.
Now the first thing that Jesus says to the crowd in his attempt to thin them out is this, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life –he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26) Now it would seem strange that Jesus would say that we have to hate those we love. Especially since everywhere else he tells us that we have to love everyone. .Love God. Love others. This is what we are commanded to do.
So what does he mean in this passage when he says that we have to hate those we are supposed to love the most? Somehow this command seems a little out of place. It seems a bit weird. One of the reasons why this is a weird saying to us is that it is a literal translation of a figure of speech or a “saying” from a different language. And what sometimes happens when you translate figures of speech from one language to another is that something gets lost or confused in the translation.
For example, we have interesting figures of speech or sayings in English that would probably sound odd in a different language if it was translated word for word. Sayings such as, “You are driving me up the wall,” or, “It’s raining cats and dogs.” In a different language these sayings make no sense. This is what has happened with this particular phrase. So how are we supposed to understand this?
Well when we look at the history of this particular saying in the original language, to hate something is ”to give less priority too.” Actually Matthew captures the heart of this saying when he says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37) So when Jesus says that we aught to hate those who are closest in relationship to us he is saying that we are to love him more than our most important relationships. That means we need to desire him more than we desire our spouses and our children.
But what does this mean? Well what it means is that more than anything else we need to pursue the character of Christ (his love, his forgiveness, his grace, his understanding, his joy, his gratitude, his servant attitude). It means that when we wake up in the morning, we need to make the pursuit of Christ and his character the number one item on our to do list. And to display that character in everything that I do: In my marriage, in my job, at my school, by business practices, my entertainment. Everything. Jesus says, if we do not love him more than life itself, we cannot be his disciple.
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