+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
With a Gospel like the one we have this morning, it’s wise to address the elephant in the living room first. I hope you’ll take the following in the context of having heard me preach for nearly a decade here and knowing reasonably well that I’m not in the habit of smoothing out scripture to make it more palatable and will trust that I’m doing that this time …
When Jesus says that we cannot be his disciples without hating family and even our own lives, he uses the Greek word μισεῖ which is the closest equivalent to the Aramaic word he almost certainly used, identical to its biblical Hebrew equivalent, and which Luke translated: שנא. Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic lack alternatives for this word to indicate degree, and so what is translated here as “hate” could mean anything from “utterly detest” to “prioritize slightly less.” Matthew opts to translate this saying of Jesus differently—we mustn’t love God less than these others. Translation is always interpretation, but I suspect Matthew gets technically closer to the meaning, considering everything else Jesus said about loving others. That said, this teaching, however it was taken would have been uncomfortable, perhaps even shocking, to the crowd, so we shouldn’t spend inordinate time this morning interrogating precisely how strong Jesus’ tone might have been in the moment. It was strong enough.
It must be noted that how we love our friends and relations is a reflection of God’s love. If we love God less, we’ll be less capable of being loving to wife, husband, sister, brother, &c. And the less we love God, the harder we’ll find it to love this life, which is a gift he has given us. The great irony is that in loving God more than these, we come to love them better, to enjoy them more. The kind of love which is God, finds its visible expression in self-sacrifice–the other great irony of the Christian faith being that it is only in giving it all away that we truly receive grace upon grace.
The question Jesus asks us today is whether or not we’re willing to prioritize God and thus be enabled to have well-ordered affections.
Whatever else you might say about Jesus, you cannot accuse him of burying the lede. Signing up to be a disciple is not a bait-and-switch affair. You don’t have to give away all your money and your freedom first and then discover years down the line that it’s really about how you’ve got alien ghosties attached to your soul because Lord Xenu blew up the earth with hydrogen bombs (that’s what Scientologist believe, but they won’t tell you until after they’ve trapped you, like any good cult).
Not being a cult leader, Jesus tells us right up front what we need to know, namely that this isn’t an easy road to hoe. I wonder how many parents in pre-Baptismal preparation are warned that what they’re signing junior up for is a life which demands dying every day to self. I know there are other concerns (how quickly can the seamstress get the gown ready, what kind of petits fours to have at the reception), but perhaps a brief disclaimer woulnd’t go amiss.
I think that the two metaphors in this morning’s Gospel, those of the landowner and the king, are simply an honest disclosure about the life of the Christian demanding more of us than we might be willing to give. Before you choose this life, the life of a disciple, be fully informed. Know what you’ve got to lose. You may lose much, because the demands of the Gospel are great. Depending on the particular call God has placed on your life you may lose relationships. You may lose reputation. You may lose your life, at least your life as you know it.
And there are some things I believe that you are sure to lose. You’ll lose your self-obsession. You’ll lose your need to always be right. You’ll lose your need for radical self-reliance. You’ll lose your grasping desire for wealth and honor. You’ll lose the gnawing worm of conscience. You’ll lose your fear of losing all those things and you’ll lose your fear of death itself.
Now, I think that’s a pretty good deal.
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.