CHRISTIAN HATE

If anyone comes to me
and does not hate
father and mother,
wife and children,
brothers and sisters
yes, even his or her own life
such a person cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26 (read 14:25-33) - NIV

These sound like awfully harsh words to be attributed to Jesus! This would put Him against strong family ties, and following Him would involve repudiating family. But before we try to understand these sayings we must first define what "following Jesus" means in the context of Jesus’ time which is quite different from our understanding today.

Today to follow Jesus in the popular concept of Christians (Catholics and Protestants) is to accept the dogmas of the church, be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and be faithful to the teachings approved by it. To follow Jesus is to be faithful to the Church with all that it requires.

Historically the Church has applied the concept of “following Jesus” to “following the Church”. To be faithful to Jesus we must be faithful to the Church. Being faithful to the Church has led to aggressiveness in the form of persecutions, torture, wars, discrimination, slavery, genocides, executions, deportations and other violence as a part of following Jesus. Practitioners of these acts were judged to be pious people. Even today in the United States the leadership of conservative Christians promotes armed conflict, torture, discrimination and other forms of violence under the guise of combatting the evils of terrorism. Islam and Christianity have become mirror images of each other.

When Jesus supposedly spoke these words the Church as we know it today did not exist. To follow Jesus today should be something much deeper than the unconditional acceptance of a system of beliefs about the person of Jesus and norms of behavior determined by Christianity. Following Jesus should be independent of formal or informal ties with what we call "Church." To be a follower of Jesus should mean the adoption of a lifestyle compatible with his spirit, grounded in a love which produces the fruit of compassion and mercy. By harmonizing these words with the totality of the teachings of Jesus, to love Jesus more than father, mother, spouse, children, siblings or self means not to idolize them or be limited by them. It means having the autonomy of unconditional love, not ruling over them or being ruled by them. They are not our property to be controlled by us, but are free to be themselves. It is to love as Jesus loved. To love as Jesus loved means giving up our privileges and recognize that everything around us is a gift and does not belong to us. That would be the Christ like form of “hate”.

Jesus said we must calculate how much such a love will cost. Practicing the love of Jesus could lead us to confrontation of the social, institutional and economic evils of our age. This could make us the object of discrimination and persecution, even costing us our own physical life. This happened to Jesus and his followers and could happen to us.

We do not own creation. Nothing belongs to us. We were created to belong to the Kingdom and not the opposite. We have no control over it, or the right to judge the others who have been placed here with us. Our only goal is to try to love as Jesus loved. That is Christian hate.

LUKE 14:25–33 – NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”