Can You Make It a Little Easier, Jesus?

Jesus, in spite of our more modern, contemporary and individualized moral approach, does not make life easy. Nor does he give us simple platitudes that would make Ben Franklin jealous. His words are not easy. The yoke may be light, but that's only because he is there with us. Here are some thoughts from my favorite lectionary blogger, Sarah at Dylan's Lectionary Blog:

"None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions" (Luke 14:33).

Is there anything Jesus could have said which would be harder for us to hear?

Oh yeah:

"Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).

Both come from this Sunday's gospel reading, of course.

There is no trick of Greek translation or historical context that will make these sayings anything other than difficult, if not offensive. I can't recommend an angle of preaching or reading that could be summarized as "here's why Jesus/Luke didn't really mean this." Friends don't let friends do this to texts.

(Besides ending with such a great line,) Sarah hits the problem on the head. Family values are turned on their head. What we today may think of as "biblical family values" are nothing of the sort. At least not in Jesus' portion of the Bible. And, as Sarah points out, it is impossible to be truthful to Jesus, true to the Word, and manage to make these easy. Don't even try.You will be speaking a completely different language than the Bible does.

As we have so often said in the church, Jesus is calling us to a different family. The one on earth is not our ultimate family. It is not the one that has our ultimate allegiance. Here may be the most radical of all of Jesus' teachings. We are all brothers and sisters. All of us. No exceptions.

Back to Sarah for the insight (and Good News) for the week:

But the choice we are faced with is not between swallowing whole "family values" as defined by our culture or rejecting all family members altogether. Jesus' teaching did tear his followers out of the families they grew up in, the families that not only provided for them materially, but gave them their identity in the world and any honor they experienced. But Jesus defined the community of his followers as a different kind of family. He expected them to care for one another materially (hence the emphasis on common rather than private possessions), honor one another in a world that despised them, and to treat one another with all of the intimacy and loyalty one would expect of brother and sister.

One's father and mother, spouse and children, were welcome to join the community, becoming brothers and sisters with all its members -- but the new relationship in Christ was then to be the definitive one. That was particularly challenging for fathers, accustomed to a kind of authority that Jesus taught belonged rightfully only to God.

That's the Good News in Jesus' very hard words. Follow Jesus, and we are abandoning a lot of what gave us honor, security, and even identity in our culture. In short, we will be abandoning what gave us life. But what kind of life? Follow Jesus, become family with his brothers and sisters, and while we will share in his cross, we will share also in his risen life -- joyful, eternal, loving, and free.