Day 293/365- Luke 14:25-27

25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, ²⁶ “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

Jesus demands things from those that follow him that are extreme.  He also requires things that don’t always make sense to us at first glance.  In the gospel of John he tells the people that they cannot be his disciple if they don’t eat his flesh & drink his blood. Many stop following him at this point.  Here in Luke he says that in order to follow him it means self-execution.  We have to “carry our cross” to follow him. That is the Roman method of executing criminals.  Is Jesus saying we have to be criminals to follow him?  Does he require us dying for him?  With him?  In an even more puzzling manner, we see Jesus tell his disciples that they must hate their family in order to follow him.  Surely he’s lost it now!  Who can follow such a man?

What is Jesus saying here?  We know that Paul says in Ephesians 5 that husbands are to love their lives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.  So who should we believe about how we should treat our wives?  Love them like Paul says or hate them like Jesus says?

The NLT gives us good insight into what Jesus means here.  The phrase “by comparison” is of utmost importance.  Jesus does not require that we hate our families, in fact, he commands that we love them.  But he does require the deepest affections of our hearts.  He demands that he be the number one relationship in our lives.  He must take priority, even over our families.  This is not as a strong conception in our individualistic culture but it was huge in his day.  Family is everything in this culture.  That’s why we see whole households believing in Jesus.  They were much more communal than we are.

Jesus wants to be first before every relationship we have.  Jesus has to be the priority before our jobs, ambitions, possessions, & opinions. And this is basic followship.  This is not an example pastors or “devoted Christians” must follow but every follower of Jesus.  There is no room for casual followers.

What do we value above following Jesus?  What hinders us giving everything to him?  What is the one thing that we can’t turn loose of, that we can’t lose control of?  That is what we are really following.  That is our real master.  But Jesus is calling us to forsake it all to follow him.  Are we willing?