Jesus has made life very complicated for us in some of his expressions and choices of words. He tells us to love our enemies in Matthew 5:44-45: ”But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Then Jesus changes gears in Luke 14:26 and says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
As with hating broccoli, hate as used in scripture many times does not necessarily mean to love something less, be aggressively against it, or otherwise want to destroy it. 1st John 3:15 further complicates this “hate” thing by saying: “All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”
Through the Word of the Lord it seems that we are being told both to hate and not to hate. What do you suppose Jesus was up to in this apparent contradiction? Each time Jesus uses the “hate” word, we have to ponder on just how to interpret His usage according to the subject at hand. In this way of looking at the use of the word hate, we see that it is being used to inform us that God must have the number one position in our lives. We don’t really have to hate others.
Now if we think the “hate” word is confusing when we read the Word of the Lord, let’s take a look at “Jesus the Recruiter”. Luke 9:57-58 informs us: “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’”
There’s an old saying: ‘How do you boil a frog in a tub of water without it knowing it’s being boiled?’ The answer is ‘turn the heat up very slowly’. Jesus is certainly turning up the heat quickly on those who say they want to follow Him, so they’ll know what’s expected of them.
In Luke 9:59-60 He said to another: “‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’” Wow! This is getting worse than the “hate” word confusion. I believe it was a Jewish tradition for a man to live with his father until his father died. Is Jesus being too insensitive with his comment to this man? Is He turning up the heat too fast?
In Luke 9:61-62 we learn: “Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Jesus would have made a good Army Drill Sergeant with commands like these.
Jesus is like God himself, as we see in Deut. 13:6: “If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’……….,’ you must not yield to or heed any such persons.’” As a good Son, Jesus thus requires that obedience to God must take precedence over all human obligations. Jesus, of course, is “God with us”, Emmanuel.
And finally here comes the “hate” word again in Luke 6:22-23: “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven…” Thanks be to God!
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