'It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.' Mark Twain
Jesus was talking to the large crowds of people who were travelling with him and he said some extremely disturbing things: Who ever does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even life itself, cannot be my disciple... Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple... none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
I'm not sure whether I understand this or not but it certainly bothers me. I don't think telling people who come to church on Father's Day in Australia this Sunday that if one doesn't hate one's father one cannot be Jesus' disciple.
I guess Jesus was emphasising the real cost of his own life as he goes on 'the way' and that anyone who chooses to follow him ought to consider the possibility that it might cost of one's own life.
It sounds like the warning the leader of a terrorist organisation might give to her or his followers. Perhaps Jesus was exaggerating to make a point or perhaps Jesus was highlighting the fact that grace does not come cheap, or perhaps we'll never really be able to understand it. It's pretty heavy stuff and it bothers me.
3 comments:
I also find this a very disturbing part of the bible. It seems incongruent to love which I always think is the essence of Christianity (probably of all religions). The word 'hate' is used! I certainly can't in all honesty at this moment in time subscribe to that way of thinking. I actually don't think God would want me to. The problem with bible passages like this is the way they may pervade the fabric of our society for the worse. I have met very saddened parents or relatives who have 'lost' loved one to the Jehovah Witness faith. Is this because of that passage? I don't know. May be this is extremist thinking - but sometimes for a cause people will do radical and violent acts - passages like the ones referred to gives them permission to leave the 'teaching' of ones family to follow the cause in the name of Jesus or other leaders. I imagine Islam has a similar passage ... I'm not sure.
I share your difficulty with this passage, Trevor. I have heard an explanation that suggests that the English word 'hate' does not convey the meaning of the original, which carries the sense more of 'turn away from'. That makes the passage a little easier to deal with - but not much, I have to say (especially in the light of the following verses).
The passage is followed by three parables in Ch 14: the shepherd who leaves his flock to seek one lost; the woman who searches desperately for one lost coin; and the prodigal son. Each of them carries a strange contradiction (pointed out in a marvellous sermon I heard last Sunday). No sensible shepherd would abandon a flock to seek one lost sheep. No widow would celebrate finding a lost coin by spending it with her neighbours. And the Prodigal Son story is a tale of transgression by everybody: the son and and the father, who would have scandalised the village and Jesus' listeners by letting the boy have his way and running to greet him on return. Only the sulky brother would have been seen as recognisably civilised (and don't we see him that way still?)
Hard chewing on this bit of gospel.
David Brennan
Thanks everyone for your comments. I have often read in commentaries that the word translated as hate actually means to love less, so that would mean unless one loves one's father and mother less than Jesus one cannot be his disciple.
When I preached a few weeks ago on this passage I didn't go down that road instead I was taken by something written on the Preaching Peace Website that raised the thought of cheap grace. For example we accept God's forgiveness but are more hesitant to forgive.
The crowd will only follow so far. It is depicted as shallow and fickle. They follow as long as there is something in it for them, while things are going well, while Jesus is popular. But with the slightest sign that they are on the wrong side they will swap sides. They are still tied to their life and not to the life of Jesus and not to the way of Jesus which says I am going up to Jerusalem to die.
Preaching Peace wrote that the passage is 'a call to join Jesus on the way of the cross, it’s a direction rather than a destination, an orientation rather than a location.'
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