Please read the passage before the commentary here.Luke 14:25-33
Have you ever told your parents or have your children tell you, “I hate you!!!” In the midst of a meltdown, the word hate describes the depth of emotion being experienced. Does it mean that the person really hates? Might it be that it means such an intense dislike of the present situation that it shunts out all memory of love at that moment?
The Hebrew people lived in a binary world where not to love equally was to hate. It was a world of yes or no, of black or white, of good or evil, of first or last. It seemed not to allow for grey areas, for maybe of if, for gradation, or more or less.
Jesus said that if we want to be his disciple, we must make that our top priority in life. We are a disciple, or we are not a disciple. In our language we can say that we could be better disciples or that we could love better or love more. This is okay because our world in which we live is a world of graduals, of more and less.
We struggle in this world to keep our focus on the world of the second coming. We struggle to make our yesses and no’s stronger and our commitment stabler.
What about the absolute of going to heaven or not making it to heaven? It is like building a tower or going to battle. It takes energy and it takes will. If we come to Jesus, putting him first before all else, we shall make it. God has given us our families to help us serve the Lord first and foremost. Without the family, we cannot do it. Indeed, it is through our families that we follow the Lord. Through the love of spouse for spouse, of parent for child, of members for each other, that we follow Jesus.
We cannot do it alone, by ourselves. We have to help one another to do it. We are coming after Jesus, supported by the love of family and community. We are loved by family and community so that we can all come to Jesus with the love for Jesus that enables each of us to love God first and foremost and our family and community second and second-most. This is the cost calculated for us so that we can successfully oppose all that is unloving in ourselves.