25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. 30 They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
31 “Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? 32 And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. 33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.
34 “Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? 35 Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”
Luke 14:25-35
Dear God, over the last year, I’ve noticed that Jesus seemingly didn’t try to get everyone to follow him. aHe would actually make it hard. He would say things that would push people away. Like the time when the crowds started to get really big because of his miracles and the spectacle of his presence, and he gave them the “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood” line (John 6:53). And now here he is saying something that seems to be contrary to how I would think you would feel. I have to hate everyone else, even my family and myself? What happened to loving my neighbor as myself? What happened to his admonishment to the Pharisees when he accused them of keeping people from loving their parents? (Matthew 15:3-9)
I think I know the answer to these questions, and it’s not that complicated. But it can be very hard to follow. I think the answer is that my job is to not put any of those things before pursuing you. If my selfishness gets in the way of following you, then I need to die to my selfishness. If I allow my wife and children to become my idols and spend my efforts trying to get them to fulfill my as a human and man instead of looking to you as my God to do that, then I am not only hurting myself but I am hurting them as well because there is no way they can live up to what I can get from you. So I see Jesus not telling me to hate my wife, children, or parents, but to remove them as idols and follow you.
Father, as I sit here right now, just before 7:00 on Wednesday morning, November 4, I do not know the outcome of the elections yesterday. I don’t know which races are decided, which are still being counted, or who won or is winning? I’ve intentionally kept this information from myself. I avoided coverage last night because I didn’t want the outcome to be an idol to me. I’ve avoided the news this morning so that I could spend this time in prayer with you before I learned the shape of our government starting in January. Frankly, there’s only so much I can do about it anyway. So, in the spirit of these words from Jesus, I will come to you “hating” (you know I don’t really mean hate there) my own family, friends, self, and even my government, and putting my faith and trust in you. I don’t know where all this is going or how it all works out. But I pray only that you will lead me to a peace that passes all understanding. A peace beyond all doubt (from the song “Lord, I Don’t Know” by the Newsboys).
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
