Besides, who is Jesus to tell me how to live my life, who I should love or hate?

EXACTLY…..

I think your point concerning the authority of the Jewish family is key. Jesus really frightened the religious leaders by presenting an authority above tradition, temple, synagogue, and family hierarchy. They believed that plotting against Jesus in defense of their own authority protected the nation from falling into anarchy.

just me, or is getting really hot in the room that DumbOx has described ? I think you’ve hit the proverbial nail head on: we have an issue of authority here, and JESUS is not that shy about telling us where all authority rests, and what THAT might lead to.

GReat post….many great comments; thanks I-Monk and friends.

GReg R

Besides, who is Jesus to tell me how to live my life, who I should love or hate? Even if you accept that he is divine, that doesn’t give him the right to impose his views on us (any more than the devil would have such a moral right). I might hear him out if he were making any sense, but in this case, I think no.

Let’s face it, Christianity is not so different from your average cult–just older.

Aww, IMonk. Mary Obsession is how we Catholics flake out! You have Rapture-itis and Bibliolatry, we have Mary-itis and Mariolatry!

Makes you wish St Mary would actually appear to some of these wannabe Mary visionaries and slap some sense into them.

I hear quite a few Christians proclaiming that family (the biological sort, I gather from what they say) is THE foundation of society and of personal identity, and that therefore anything that threatens the primacy of the family threatens the very existence of a civilized and humane society. — Chrissl

Wouldn’t this be described as “Focusing on the Family (TM)”? (With anathemas for those of us who never were able to get hitched…)

I’ve also encountered in my own life plenty of Christians who will unblushingly assert that family must come first, even before church. This is not *quite* the same thing as advocating putting family before *Christ,* but at times I think it comes perilously close to it.

dac,
Regarding cult leaders, I would say that this verse also commands us to hate our church family.

Of course, in ancient Israel, your family was your church family.

Some of us have been subjected to the “wretched urgency” interpretation, which equates hating ones family with neglecting spouse, children, and household responsibilities for the sake of church activities or the cultural war. Jesus clearly meant something different – especially after he confronted the pharisees over their hypocritical neglect of their parents in the disguise of religious dedication.

I think your point concerning the authority of the Jewish family is key. Jesus really frightened the religious leaders by presenting an authority above tradition, temple, synagogue, and family hierarchy. They believed that plotting against Jesus in defense of their own authority protected the nation from falling into anarchy.

I think the challenge is how to obey Jesus above all authorities – including popular evangelical talking heads or authoritarian pastors, preachers and leaders when these individuals fall into error. It’s difficult. I know pastors who have seen half of their congregations walk out the door when the flagrant sin of one influential member was confronted. For the sake of church growth, should they have looked the other way? How does one speak out against the pro-life political party when it becomes the pro-torture party? Would this opposition indirectly threaten the pro-life cause? Sounds ironic, but I have really been torn over this. I think Jesus calls us to obey Him – even when it means opposing the repudiated good-guys.

Thank you for this post. I am the person who asked your agent (and mine) for you to comment on this passage. I appreciate you insights into a very difficult teaching to live out.

There are a couple things I see in this. First, it appears that the Kingdom of God is not just another part of this world, a way to enhance one’s life. Jesus draws a very thick line to separate the kingdom we are born into from the Kingdom we are born into anew. To try and live in both would be like having one foot on a moving sidewalk going one direction, and the other foot on another moving walkway going the other direction. Things will get very uncomfortable rather quickly.

The other thing is this. Luke 14 concludes with Jesus telling perhaps his most misunderstood story. He asks whether a man would start a construction project without first being assured he has the finances to complete the job, or if a king with 10,000 soldiers would go into battle against a king with 20,000 soldiers. For so long we have taken this to mean Jesus wants us to take personal inventory to be sure we have what it takes to truly be his disciple.

What foolishness! None of us has what it takes in our own strength or wisdom to follow Jesus. We must take inventory and realize we cannot do it on our own. We cannot faithfully follow, and cannot hate our families in our own abilities. This is where we are: We must rely on the Holy Spirit to follow. We need his help to obey. And we need his help to hate our families.

Or at least I know I do.