Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 487
Romans 13:8-10
Psalm 112:1b-2, 4-5, 9
Luke 14:25-33

Today we meet Jesus, ever the itinerant preacher, on the road again. He’s not traveling alone. His band of close friends and disciples has now become a great crowd of people – people who have been healed by Jesus, fed by Jesus, embraced by Jesus.

I imagine that people were feeling pretty good, perhaps even on fire in their hearts for all that they were experiencing and hearing from Jesus. They were all for trekking out into the desert, across the sea — wherever Jesus was headed.

And then he turns around and faces the crowd and says,

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)

…
                        …
                                               …

The silence is palpable. This road trip just got real.

How could Jesus say those things? Hate my those who have taken care of me? Hate my partner, my best friend, my siblings, and children? Hate myself?

I think there may be times in our life where we have wanted to banish everything from our life and focus on God alone. Let it all go, cut ourselves off, and live with single-hearted devotion to God. Many of us have even gone so far as to hate self – especially if we have been taught that we are not good enough, less than, or worthless. We have no problem denying ourselves and carrying our own cross because that’s what we’ve done our whole lives!

But we know Jesus better than this. Jesus is love, not hatred. What does he mean then when he says that to follow him is to hate everyone else?

“Hate” is a strong word and scholars say that it was likely used intentionally by Jesus. His use of the word reflects a Jewish style of argument used to demonstrate the force or passion underlying Jesus message, and that is, the importance of loving God above all else. That doesn’t mean to hate or vilify anyone; rather “hate” in this context is understood more in the sense of “love less”. Now that idea of loving less sounds like a negative.

“I love you, ehh, but I love you less than I love Billie.”

I’d be kinda hurt by that!

But I think when Jesus invites us to love God more, it’s not about a hierarchy of love, it’s not a binary of better or worse. Love is not quantifiable. It’s more like what Margaret Brennan taught me when I entered the community – all of your affections get rearranged. I think that’s true here to. When Jesus calls us to follow him, we need to rearrange our “affections” – our relationships, our priorities, what we give our energy to.

And so yes, let go of everything. Be willing to trek out into the desert, to cross the tumultuous seas, to make adjustments in relationships and rearrange priorities. But love? Don’t give that up.

As Paul writes to the Roman community, “Owe nothing to anyone, except love.”

“Owe nothing to anyone, except love.”

Have no attachments, nothing that binds you – except love.

photo : Ioana Cristiana on Unsplash