IF GRACE IS THE BASE…..AND IT IS!

Question: Does Jesus really mean "hate"?

Luke 14:25-33

25 Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” 31Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

I remember listening to someone who had gone to seminary say, “I went to seminary and found out that Jesus didn’t really mean what he said.” Well, that is not the seminary that I went to. I was taught that Jesus meant everything that he said. So deeply was that conviction that we examined each of Jesus’ words in the Greek (the original language of the NT), sought to understand exactly what the implication of Jesus’ words were to the people who first heard them, and then sought to understand how that implication translated into our lives.

In this passage, does Jesus really mean “hate”? According to Brian P. Stoffregen when Jesus used the word “hate”, it carried the meaning "to turn away from, to detach oneself from.” It did not necessarily carry a sense of animosity. So, the implication that Jesus was making was that if someone would come up to Jesus and say, “What do I have to do to be your disciple?”, Jesus would answer, “Well, if you detach yourself from the things to which you are deepest connected (your family, your life), then you have done what you need to do to be my disciple.”

Who can do that? That is what Jesus bids us consider as he speaks about building a house or waging a war. I know that I cannot do that. And just to make sure that I realize there is no way that I can do enough to be Jesus’ disciple, Jesus says in words that should be all caps, bold faced, and underlined, “That’s right, if you want to make yourself able to be my disciple, you’ll have to give up all of your possessions.” To be able to be Jesus’ disciple means that a person would have nothing else that they cling to. Period. That is what Jesus means.

But who can do that? No one. No one is able, by their own doing, to be a disciple of Jesus. That is Jesus’ point. Notice, not one of Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked to be a disciple. Every one of them was approached by Jesus, and Jesus said to them, “Follow me.” The point being that it is by the power of Jesus that one is a disciple, not the power of the person.

That is good news, the gospel (that is what gospel means in Greek, “good message”). It is the best of news to hear Jesus tell us that when we look in the mirror and see who we really are, people who are bound in our human skin and all that comes with that (the hold of family, the hold of life)…..powerless to become his disciple, Jesus empowers us to be exactly that. Jesus makes us his disciples. As it is said in Isaiah 64.8 “:Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Likewise, Martin Luther wrote in the Small Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

So, do you and I have any hope of being a disciple of Jesus, of having our lives transformed by his word? Our hope lies not in us, but totally in Jesus….Jesus who died and rose for all. Consider those who Jesus called as his first disciples, not just the twelve, but all who he touched with his love. Lepers, demoniacs, outcasts, forgotten. If such were they who Jesus empowered to be his disciples, you and I, with certainty can count ourselves among those who are named by Jesus as his disciples. And as so named, we can also count ourselves among those upon whose Jesus’ hand is at work, shaping and molding us to be people who find life, both now and forever, in him.

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