If anyone else said these things to
us, we would wisely dismiss that person. We’ve seen too many hucksters running
around mesmerizing those who desperately long for something to cling to. They
lure people who need a healing faith and turn them into sheep who derive their
self-worth from identifying with the groupies of a dynamic leader. Instead of
leading them closer to God, they lead them into spiritual dependency. If one of
those charlatans said these things to us, we would wave that person off and
move on. We know better than to give our money or our allegiance to a scam
artist with delusions of grandeur.
Jesus, however, has earned the right
to make these demands. Jesus lived the sacrificial life he calls us to follow.
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay his head,” he said elsewhere in Luke.1 Jesus went to
the cross for us. The phony religious leaders don’t measure up to that or even
come close. They gain followers to feed their ego and need for power. Jesus
calls us to take the mission of the church and the demands of the kingdom of
God seriously, but he doesn’t insist that we choose him over our families to test
our loyalty. Jesus doesn’t state these expectations for his own sake, but for
God’s sake.
Hating
our family?
Even though we recognize Jesus’
authority to call us to this life of discipleship, the words still cause us to
rub our eyes. Did Jesus really say that? Did Jesus really say that we should ...approximately 1,167 words remaining. You are not logged in. Please see options at the top of this page to view complete sermon.
