Our text this morning is another difficult one. Last week we
studied Luke
12:49-53 . In that text Jesus' said: I didn't come to bring
peace but fire and division...my ‘good news' will cut a chasm
between parents and children, wives and husbands. Some will
surrender to me and find peace with God and others will reject
me and continue to make war against him. And this war, this
division, will last until my coming.”
This morning's passage is similarly difficult. Jesus is speaking
to large crowds, we see in verse 25, but he's certainly not
telling them what they want to hear.
“If
anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother,
his wife and children, his own brothers and sisters—yes even
his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”
Again, in this text, we face what seems to be a contradiction
in the scriptures. In our former study we asked: how can the
Prince of Peace say: “I've come to bring fire and division.”
This morning we ask: how can the one who says in John
13:34 : “A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all
men will know you are my disciples.” Also say: “if you
do not hate the members of your family you cannot be my disciple?”
A note about interpretation: when you run into two passages
in tension with each other, you're going to be tempted to ignore
one passage, the one you don't like, in favor of the other,
the one you like. Don't do that. Work out the problem. Those
who are interested in tearing down God's Word rather than obeying
the God who inspired it, use these apparent contradictions to
cast doubt on the authority of scripture. The bible, they'll
say, cannot be trusted. It cannot be inspired, infallible, and
inerrant because it contradicts itself and both sides of a real
contradiction cannot be true. They're right about that last
part. If there are real contradictions in the bible, then we're
left with an interesting book that may be inspired in places
but not the infallible Word of God. The truth, however, is that
every single “apparent” contradiction, and I've been confronted
by almost all of them, turns out, upon close study, not to be
a contradiction at all but only seems so as the result of sloppy
or lazy scholarship.
But often because critics and skeptics sound so educated and
erudite when they bring charges of contradiction against God's
Word, Christians, believers, fall prey to them. We roll over.
Our own attention to the text is so fleeting and our study is
so shallow and our time in God's Word is so brief, that we have
nothing to say in response. We hvae nothing to say. Don't let
that happen. The next time you see what seems to be a contradiction
in the text; that's God's call to labor in his Word, to work
out the problem. If you do this consistently then when someone
tells you that the bible is 'full of contradictions,' and they
will, you can say: show me one. And when they do, because they
may have a few supposed contradictions in mind, you'll be able
to answer them.
In the case of the text set before us this morning, the resolution
is actually quite simple. When you and I use the word “hate”
we're referring to a deep feeling of revulsion, an utter disdain
for someone. When you hate someone, you despise them and wish
the very worst for them. But the way we mean “hate” and the
way Jesus uses the word are not the same. The Greek word translated
as “hate” in verse 26 is “miseo”. It can and often does mean
hate in the way that we understand it, but not necessarily.
It can also be used to refer to the action of forsaking one
thing for another. If, for example, you decide that you're going
to watch TV preachers on Sunday morning so that you do not have
to get out of bed, you could be described as “hating” the Church
even though you may like the church very much. You just like
your bed more. Choosing one thing over another, in other words,
is to “hate” or “forsake” the thing you do not choose.
So when Jesus says that if you come to him you must hate your
family or you cannot be his disciple, he's saying, very clearly,
that if you are to be his follower, his disciple, you must be
willing to put your relationship with him above every other
relationship in your life. “I will not" in other words, "be
the 'parsley' of your life,” says Jesus. You know that green
stuff, that garnish on the side of your plate that makes the
food, good or not, appear palatable. We sometime make Jesus
our garnish, our parsely, our side dish. “I won't be your side
dish," says Jesus. "I'm not ‘a part of your life.' And if you
come expecting me to just ‘fit in' somewhere between parties
on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon football, you really
aren't coming to me. I must be your life. I come before your
job. I come before your kids. I come before your parents. I
come before your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your husband
or your wife. Forsaking all others…”
Now, some of us can easily contemplate doing that because we
already put someone ahead of everybody else. I put myself first
all the time. But Jesus doesn't let me get away with that, not
if I want to be his disciple because he goes on to say that
I must not only “hate” the other people in my life, but in verse
26, he says, I must hate my own life as well. I've got to put
Jesus' above Matt. His desires must be my desires. His will
my will. To be his disciple I've got to learn to test what I
want to do, what I think is right, what I think might be fun
for the evening in light of his word and his commands and if,
in fact, he says something different, I must surrender and submit.
Being a disciple is a daily process of “hating” your own life
and grasping his.
If you want to follow Christ, you must be willing not only to
set Christ above others, but to set him above yourself.
What does that mean? How do you do that?
Turn quickly to Matthew
4:18-20 ,
“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw
two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They
were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come,
follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
At once they left their nets and followed him.”
Do you know what it meant for the disciples to foresake their
nets and follow Jesus? It meant foresaking the only job they
knew how to do. It meant foresaking family, home, past, friends,
forsaking self. Look back down at verses 21-22:
“Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son
of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their
father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and
immediately they left the boat and their father and followed
him.”
“Immediately” Jesus called and without hesitation they left
all that they and all that they had ever known and followed.
The same is true for Levi or Matthew in chapter 9 verse 9:
“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and
Matthew got up and followed him.”
Jesus said “follow me” Matthew left his job and followed.
Don't let the bareness of the text fool you. These were not
super-men. They were not men of extraordinary faith and spirituality.
They were average Joe's; regular guys with honesty problems
and ego problems and a whole barrel full of issues. Jesus knew
that when he called them. But one thing they did, by the grace
of God, they loved Jesus and they “hated” everything else.
Do you see how the apparent contradiction works out? Jesus,
in Luke
15 , is simply restating the Great Commandment. “Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and all
your strength and all your mind" and he is putting himself in
the palce of "the Lord your God." To love the Lord your God
with all your heart means setting Jesus above everyone else,
forsaking all others, including yourself. And when Jesus is
in the primary place, then and only then, is it possible to
truly follow the second commandment, “to love your neighbor
as yourself” or as Jesus has amended it, “love others as I have
loved you.” How, after all, can you love others as Christ loves
you until you know the love of Christ? And you can't know the
love of Christ until you forsake all things for him.
Do you love Jesus that way? Do you know Jesus that way? Or is
he just a religious image, an icon, someone who teaches life
lessons, someone about whom you've grown up hearing moralistic
stories. If that's your Jesus, I can't imagine that you'll ever
be able to give what Jesus demands. There was a young man, a
man who thought he was on the right track. He was wealthy, successful,
a good guy, people liked him. He was kind and honest and, at
least surface, did everything right. In Mark
10:17-31 he comes to Jesus and asks him, “What must I do
to be saved?” He may have expected Jesus to say, "oh you're
doing so well and have so much to offer, you're on your way
already. In fact, I'd be honored if you'd be my disciple." That's
not what Jesus said. He said, “one thing you lack. Go home.
Take all of your money out of the bank, give it to the poor,
and come follow me.” The man couldn't do it. He loved his life
too much to forsake it.
Look down at verse 27: “And anyone who does not carry his
cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
On the cross, Jesus gave everything he had. He did it because
he loved his Father, whose will it was to put him there, and
he did it because he loved you because your sins and mine made
his sacrifice necessary. Jesus gave himself up to death on the
cross.
And this is the death you and I must be willing to die to be
his. What does that mean? Is he going to ask me to empty my
bank account? Is he going to ask me to go overseas? Is he going
to tell me that I need to be willing to let go of my kids and
the people closest to me? Maybe. I don't know what he'll call
you to do. What I do know is that if you're to be his disciple
you must come willing to do it, willing to give up all those
things. Faith is not simply the affirmation of a number of biblical
truths. Satan has that sort of 'faith'. Biblical faith is an
unconditional surrender to the Person of Christ, your giving
of your whole self to the Son of God.
And don't be fooled. This surrender is a crucifixion from first
to last because it means the death of your desires, the death
of your personal plans and dreams and a giving over and a giving
way to the desires and plans of God every moment every day.
And, unfortunately, this death, this dying, is the only way
to find real life. I say "unfortunately" because it's hard.
It's tough. It's not easy. But it is the only way. The young
man in Mark
10 thought he'd saved his 'life.' But he simply gained
another 40 or so years of wealth. Then it was gone. It was over.
Eternity exchanged for the pittance of 40 years in earthly excess.
Don't do that my friends. Take up your cross. Follow the Master.
Die, every day, to yourself, foresake all others so that you
can live with Christ and be his disciple.
Amen
