Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Luke

[Jurist]

What does Luke 14:26 mean to you?

[jimwalton]

Jesus uses hyperbole to confront them with the options. He pierces and stings with his words. He is calling into being a radical community of voluntary commitment, willing for the sake of its calling to go any distance and pay any price. People are fickle; people are lazy; people are set in their ways. Jesus won't have it. "You follow me, you weigh the cost and you pay it."

It's not that he was a trouble-maker, but more a Defining King. He knew exactly what his kingdom was like and what it took to be part of it. He knew the weaknesses of humanity and their justifications and compromises to get their own way while seeming to play along. So he speaks in bold hyperbole, smacking people off balance over and over. He speaks in parables to separate the truth seekers from the thrill seekers. He speaks in deep words to separate the serious followers from the tag-alongs. He's not so much making trouble as that he knows the truth: the way is hard and the road is narrow, and unless you know what you're signing up for, you'll fall by the wayside.

Think of it this way: In John 6, Jesus didn’t expect them to eat him. He didn’t expect them to pluck out their eye, or to give away all that they had to the poor. The Bible commands us to honor our parents and love our wives. So we have to take this in a spiritualized sense, just as those other texts. But then why use the word “hate”? Because it brings an unparalleled emotional punch and intellectual shock to make you hear it and think about what he is saying. It’s a strong word, bound to cause misunderstandings, but you have to know Jesus. His point is clear: If you are going to follow me, then follow me. It’s a relational commitment that trumps all other relational commitments.

In Luke 14.26 Jesus said you have to “hate [your] father and mother” to be his disciple. It is the paradox of distance and love. Every day I have to die to my life. At every turn we deny ourselves and follow him. We’re made to cling to things, but God is what we’re supposed to cling to. So every day I don’t have to just remind myself of this truth, but to die to it. Every day I need to distance myself from everything of this world. How? In prayer, and in my soul. God is SO important to me, and the things of this world just aren’t. It’s loss, and the experience of loss, that teaches us how to do this, that teaches us what doesn’t matter. Jesus affirmed in John 11.35 that bonding with people is a good thing, and we are supposed to love one another. But we also understand there’s a distancing. It’s not that when people who are close to us die, that we don’t care. It’s the paradox, though. When we lose a loved one, we cling to God, because God is ultimately the ring around us, not the people. It’s easy to understand but hard to live. These are deep truths.