The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr
Luke 14:25-33 – September 7, 2025
Hate your father and your mother.
Hate your wife and your children. Hate your brothers and sisters. You should even
hate life itself. Either do this or do not be my disciple. If you are not
willing to lay down your life for me – to die for me – don’t even consider
being my disciple. If you can’t give up all your possessions, don’t even
consider becoming by disciple.
These words from Jesus are a bit hard
to hear this week. Growing up, I was always taught that you shouldn’t “hate”
someone because that was such a harsh word. You may dislike a person a lot, but
you should never “hate” someone. If we take these words for what they are, Jesus
seems to be saying you have to hate all else in order to follow him. What do you
think Jesus means through his words?
There's a movie that came out in
2010, called Of Gods and Men. It’s a true story of French Trappist Monks
living in a monastery in Algeria in the 1990’s. For years, the monks lived
peacefully along side their Muslim neighbors, providing medical care and
assisting with other needs. Over the years, they built great friendships with
the Algerian people. In 1991, after a disputed election, Algeria went into
civil war and violence from extremists spread. The Trappist Monks were in
serious danger. They were continuously being threatened. Their Muslim friends
begged them to leave for safety.
The monks struggled with what to do.
Do they leave their mission and go back to the safety of their homes – back to
their lives and families? Do they stay no matter what, amongst the violence and
upheaval? The monks were torn, split between some wanting to stay and some
wanting to go. Over several meetings, through much prayer and silent reflection,
the monks came together for a final vote. When the votes were counted, every
monk voted to stay. The monks weighed the pros and cons of staying. They looked
at all the costs verses the rewards.
After Jesus’ seemingly harsh words
on hate, he tells two stories. Each story has to do with estimating the cost of
doing something. If you’re going to build a tower, you don’t just start
building. You estimate the cost first, so you know that you have enough money
to complete it. If you are going to war, you don’t just send your troops into
battle. You have to calculate how many men the opponent will be sending and
make sure you are sending enough men, so you won’t be defeated. Jesus says that
when we follow him, when we hate mother and father, we have to calculate the
cost. We need to know the cost of following him. Counting the cost is
imperative. The Trappist Monks counted the cost before they all voted to stay.
Jesus wants us to count the cost
when we choose to follow him. In Jesus’ culture, to use the word “hate” did not
mean that you despised something as it does to us today. In Jesus’ culture,
“hate” was a comparative word. It meant that you loved something less than
another thing. Many stories of the Bible use the word “hate,” not meaning
hostility towards something or someone but instead to mean a preference or
priority.
When Jesus says to “hate” the
members of your family, he means that your love for Jesus has to come first. Jesus
is telling us to love our family and love the life that we are living but love him
more. We cannot place our life, our family, or our material things over our
commitment to following Jesus. Jesus is to be the center of our lives.
Does it make a difference to hear
Jesus’ words in this way: Love me more than you love your father and your
mother. Love me more than you love your wife and your children. Love me more
than you love your brothers and sisters. Love me more than your life itself. Love
me more than you love your possessions. It may make it a little easier to
understand what Jesus is saying but it doesn’t make it easier to do, does it? To
make these choices, we have to count the cost.
At a previous church I attended we
did a book study on the book Follow Me by David Platt. He dives into the
question, “What did Jesus really mean when he said, ‘Follow me.’?” One thing
Platt says is that “we want to be disciples as long as doing so does not
intrude on our lifestyles, our preferences, our comforts, and even our
religion.”[1]
“Becoming a Christian is not, as many have come to believe, ‘acknowledging
certain facts or saying certain words …. the call to follow Jesus is not simply
an invitation to pray a prayer; it’s a summons to lose our lives.”[2]
The Trappist Monks weighed the risks
and chose to stay in Algeria. In 1996, during the height of the conflict, seven
of the nine months were kidnapped – two were away at the time the others were
apprehended. After weeks of captivity, they were executed.
The monks didn’t hate their life.
They loved their families and their lives, but they loved Jesus even more. They
loved Jesus more than their own survival and wanted to stay where they were to
do Jesus’ work. They weighed all the risks before they decided to stay. Their
love of Jesus and devotion to his promises made every other loyalty they had
secondary.
Jesus is not calling us to be
martyrs. Jesus is asking us to be disciples. He is simply asking us to put him
first and to make him a priority in our lives. Asking us to “lose our life” is
really an invitation to “find true life.” When we lose our life, we gain the
only life that truly lasts. Jesus is asking each of us to stop and consider
what our faith means to us and is Jesus worth everything. Amen.
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