To What End?
RCL Year C • Sermon • Submitted
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Don’t get any weird or crazy ideas, but I’m going to let you into the secret life of Bekkah and Pastor Brian for a moment. One of the things that we like to do on a regular basis is share with each other a weekly article entitled, “The funniest tweets from parents this week”. One of the ones that made me chuckle from the last one we read said this, “Let’s get married and have kids so instead of enjoying coffee in the morning you can braid hair while I pack lunches and we can all be late”. There are always a few really good ones that make Bekkah and I really laugh while there are others that are just ok. What I really appreciate about them is that they help us to realize that we are not the only ones dealing with some of the things we deal with as parents. It also lets us laugh at the absurdity of the things that we all go through as parents and families.
I do remember those days too. The days that we would be able to wake up and take our time, or just sleep in until we had to get up. I also remember when we lived in California we used to go wine tasting on our day off because we lived in wine country. I also experience the daily panic and stress of getting the family out the door each morning and to all the activities we have on top of work and worship each week. While I do think about the days when we could just decide to go wine tasting and doing other random trips and events like that, I also would not trade them for what my life and family are like now. The joy of family and what that brings is better than temporary frustrations. And like I said, it’s nice to have tweets from other parents sharing similar and sometimes more ridiculous moments than our own.
I share that for two reasons. The first reason is that even though not all families are great and wonderful and some of us have hard times with our families, I believe that in general we would all have a hard time hating our father or mother, spouse or children or siblings. Like I said, perhaps some of us don’t speak with certain parts of our family, but to actively hate seems to be something that would be difficult to do. So I can’t imagine hating my wife or my girls the way that it is literally laid out for us as we look at our passage today. What then is Jesus advocating for or what is he proposing by making this statement?
If we take a look at the word hate in Greek we see that it is often not meant in the way that we understand it. It is more often understood as “to turn away from” or “detach oneself from” or finally “to view less than”. Which is why I think it is helpful to look at Matthew and see how he words the passage. He places the emphasis on loving family more than him as the stumbling block to discipleship. So the idea here is all about how we prioritize our lives. Do we place our family and other things in this life above our love for and relationship with God?
There are two things to remember here: 1. Jesus is speaking to the large crowds that are following him. He is helping them understand that discipleship is more than cheering on this miracle worker who has healed all kinds of ailments and who has put the established leadership in their places. 2. Even though we now have our families placed in the crosshairs and the word hate is used, this request by Jesus is really no different than what we have been talking about for about a month now. Is our status more important than other people and God? Are our possessions more important than our relationship with God? Which Jesus reiterates at the end of the story today. Even if they don’t fully understand it yet, Jesus is literally travelling closer and closer to the cross and he needs them to know that they are currently traveling that path with him and are they prepared for it? There is a potential cost to following Jesus and these are the possible negatives that go with it. If we want to be a true disciple then we need to prioritize our lives by placing Jesus first.
If you remember I said that I shared my story about the tweets and my girls for two reasons. The second reason I alluded to already. As much as those times we spent by ourselves at that point in our life was nice, I enjoy them as memories and not as something I want to go back to again. I say that because nothing compares to the joy of having a family and caring for and being with them and seeing them learn and grow and become the people that God created them to be. Nothing compares to the feeling of watching them succeed and the ways they make me laugh and see life and God in a new and different way. What that tells me is that even though there may be a cost of discipleship there is also a benefit. On the one hand God calls us to place God first, to carry our cross and to give us our possessions in order to be Jesus’ disciple, on the other hand we gain the blessings and gifts of God’s love, grace, and forgiveness. And even though life may have been good and enjoyable before my life with Jesus, the sacrifices and prioritizing of my life with Jesus is worth every effort.
Because I personally would not give up the blessings I receive from God, on a daily basis, for anything else in this life. Meaning that life before may have been fine and there may be things that I had to give up in order to follow Jesus, but that is a cost and a price I am willing to pay. And remember that even at the times when the cost and the sacrifice seem hard and difficult, then we we can give it to God. Which then continues to place God in the front of everything. So not only do we receive help from God but we are also letting God know that God still is the priority in our life. For we know that we all fail and fall at times in our lives and that Christ literally took the cross and bore it for our sake so that could walk this path and know God’s love and grace and forgiveness for us. Because what may be impossible for us is possible for God. Amen.