Another Hard Saying of Jesus

Luke 14:25-26 

This week, as we continue to look at some passages that are generally considered to be difficult or hard to understand, we will again focus on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In the selected passage we find a saying that is easy enough to comprehend while at the same time one that has the characteristic of being hard to accept.

This is often the case with difficult passages.  The meaning is clear but what the saying means does not fit too well with what we know of the one speaking.  It does seem very strange to find these words coming from the One who spoke so often of love.  Indeed, Christ has taught us what it is to truly love; He was the personification of love.  Why then does He say here that we must hate those who are dearest to us?

The answer to this question is not the difficult part of this passage.  I suspect that most of us understand that what Jesus meant was that we are to love Him more than any other, including our selves.  This is easy to understand if we remember that no passage of Scripture is to be interpreted as to contradict another and the best interpreter of the Bible is the Bible itself.

The same language found here is used to describe the relationship between Jacob and Leah in Genesis 29.  Verse thirty tells us that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.  From that statement we must infer that Jacob loved Leah in spite of the fact that the very next verse says, “Leah was hated…”  So we understand that Jacob loved both of his wives, but he loved Rachel more.  This is exactly how we are to take the words of Christ in the passage under consideration.

But, as I said earlier, that we must love our closest kin less than Christ is not the difficult part of this passage.  The hard part is actually doing what Jesus has asked us to do.  When our Lord said “love them less” the meaning is crystal clear: we must be willing to sacrifice those relationships, if need be, in order to continue as His disciple.

While this does not occur with great frequency in America today it was not uncommon for first century Jews to be shunned by their families because they turned to Christ.  The same would have been true for Gentiles who abandoned their polytheistic upbringing to serve the one true God.

How would we respond if we were forced to make this choice?  Would we continue to follow Christ if it meant giving up life-long relationships? That is a question I pray none of us ever have to answer.  And, that is the question that makes this passage one of the most difficult in the New Testament.  Jesus asks us to consider the cost of discipleship in Luke 14 because, though He wants us to follow Him, He does not want us to do so being ignorant of the price.

In Him and in love, 

Thomas Sneed 

Pond Church of Christ