“If any man
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple” (Luke 14:26).
In
last Sundays’ sermon I offered three observations on Jesus’ words in Luke
15:26:
Notice first the stress upon one who comes
but who does not give full allegiance to Jesus.
Already Jesus is anticipating here a warning against false starters or
false professors.
Notice second the strong and even
harsh language. Jesus says his follower
must “hate [miseo: to despise, to
disregard, to be indifferent towards]” the members of his own family. Notice the order: father and mother (one’s first family), wife
(the one a man leaves his family of origin to cleave unto), children (the
precious fruit of the marriage union), brethren and sisters (one’s own flesh
and blood siblings), and, finally, he adds:
“yea, and his own life also.” If
one does not do this he cannot be Christ’s disciple.
Now,
what exactly is Jesus saying here? Is he
teaching that one must be estranged from his family to be a true
Christian? Some cults have taught such
things and even twisted passages like this to justify their behavior. That cannot be what Jesus is teaching,
because other passages of Scripture teach exactly the opposite and Scripture
cannot be broken (John 10:35):
The fifth commandment teaches
us to honor our father and mother (Exod 20:12).
Paul told Christian husbands
to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph 5:25). In Titus 2:4 Paul told Titus to teach the
older women in his congregation at Crete to teach the younger women to love
their husbands and their children.
Paul told fathers not to
exasperate their children (Eph 6:4) and Psalm 127 calls children “a heritage
from the LORD,” so they are not to be despised.
As for brothers and sisters,
Paul taught in 1 Timothy 5:8: “But if
any provide not for his own, and
specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse
than an infidel.”
Finally, the Great Commandment
teaches that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Implied in this is the fact that we ought to
love ourselves (cf. the sixth commandment on the preservation of our own lives).
So,
what does this teaching mean? How do we
reconcile these two streams (Jesus’ command to hate family; Jesus’ command to
love family)? The teaching in Luke 14:26
must be taken as hyperbolic to prove a point.
The point is that even the very relationships that are most precious to
us, even the dearest bonds within a family, are not to be placed above the bond
to Christ. We must not make an idol even
of family. If we ever have to choose
between family and Christ, we are to choose Christ.
Jesus
himself provided the example in his relationship to his human family (cf. Luke
18:19-21).
Notice third, what this teaching implies
about Jesus’ self-understanding. Who
could possibly demand such allegiance?
For any mere man to do so would be the height of arrogance and
blasphemy. Jesus takes upon himself the prerogatives of a jealous God who will
have no gods before him. As the first
commandment teaches that there must be no gods before God, Jesus teaches that
he must be above all.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
No comments:
Post a Comment