Time for hate

 There are some passages in the scriptures that we, as clergy, are supposed to explain away. For example, when Jesus says 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple,' we're supposed to say that he didn't really mean it. 

For some reason, we bring forward to the listening public the idea that Jesus just wanted to fill in pages, and wasn't actually saying things that, you know, needed to be said. But that prompts the question as to why Jesus would bother saying these things if he doesn't mean them. We would have to come up with some kind of scenario in which Jesus really wanted to get this information across to you, but didn't actually mean any of it. 

But what if he did?

There is a new movement afoot of Biblical literalism that says that there needs to be a lot more focus on the words of Jesus Christ where he tells you how to love and care for your neighbor, and that he meant all those things literally, and I can get behind that. What I can't get behind, though, is the idea that in addition to all those very true sayings, Jesus said a bunch of stuff that was obviously said simply for exaggeration, and is not meant to be taken seriously. And he's not going to tell you which is which.

People may say that context, or culture of the time or what have you will tell you what parts of the words of Jesus are supposed to be taken seriously and which aren't but I've never been a big fan of Jesus as some kind of cosmic trickster, who just won't tell you which parts of his word is truth, and which is a trap. Instead, I take the Bonhoeffer approach, which is the route of expensive grace. 

By the way we argue, we distance ourselves fundamentally from a biblical hearer of Jesus’ word.

If Jesus said: leave everything else behind and follow me, leave your profession, your family, your people, and your father’s house, then the biblical hearer knew that the only answer to this call is simple obedience, because the promise of community with Jesus is given to this obedience.

But we would say: Jesus’ call is to be taken “absolutely seriously,” but true obedience to it consists of my staying in my profession and in my family and serving him there, in true inner freedom.

Thus, Jesus would call: come out!—but we would understand that he actually meant: stay in!—of course, as one who has inwardly come out.

Or Jesus would say, do not worry; but we would understand: of course we should worry and work for our families and ourselves. Anything else would be irresponsible. But inwardly we should be free of such worry.

Jesus would say: if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. But we would understand: it is precisely in fighting, in striking back, that genuine fraternal love grows large.

Jesus would say: strive first for the kingdom of God. We would understand: of course, we should first strive for all sorts of other things. How else should we survive? What he really meant was that final inner willingness to invest everything for the kingdom of God.

Everywhere it is the same—the deliberate avoidance of simple, literal obedience.

How is such a reversal possible? What has happened that the word of Jesus has to endure this game? That it is so vulnerable to the scorn of the world?

Anywhere else in the world where commands are given, the situation is clear. A father says to his child: go to bed! The child knows exactly what to do.

But a child drilled in pseudotheology would have to argue thus:

Father says go to bed. He means you are tired; he does not want me to be tired. But I can also overcome my tiredness by going to play. So, although father says go to bed, what he really means is go play.

With this kind of argumentation, a child with its father or a citizen with the authorities would run into an unmistakable response, namely, punishment. The situation is supposed to be different only with respect to Jesus’ command. In that case simple obedience is supposed to be wrong, or even to constitute disobedience.

This is a long quote, but it gets to the point of how we approach the word of Jesus Christ. Of course he said to do certain things that require simple obedience, but we sure don't do it, do we? But when we disobey God, it's not as though we just say 'we don't want to do that,' but rather 'that's not what Jesus could possibly have meant.' and this part about hating your family, and yourself, that's on that list too. Sure, Jesus couldn't possibly have meant that. He meant to love your family more than you love him!

But that's where we get into trouble. For I have seen innumerable people have principles, even Biblical principles, and break them down based on how things are going in their families. They may have a view about Biblical morality, sexuality, church attendance, what have you, and then when push comes to shove, and their children, spouse, whatever disagrees and lives in accordance with that disagreement, all of a sudden, Jesus didn't really mean that. He meant the opposite. Conveniently. 

You have to have these principles as non-negotiables, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. These are things that are required for you and for me, and we don't get to quit on them when things in the real world disagree. In fact, we must be in the business of conforming ourselves to God, rather than conforming God's word to ourselves. Literally anyone can do that, you know. Anyone on earth can shrug, and say that God's word needs to fit them. But the truth of the matter is that we need to fold before the word of God. The expensive grace of Bonhoeffer says that when we disobey, or find fault with God's word, it's going to be a matter of us knowing why it is that we are doing wrong, and then realizing exactly why it was that Christ had to shed his blood.

Does this mean that you have to go out and be actively rude and difficult to your family? Of course not. But think about yourself only for a second. You know that frequently, over the course of your life, you want to do things, think things, say things that God emphatically rejects and you know that you shouldn't. When you go to church on a Sunday, and you confess your sins, you confess that you have sinned in thought, word and deed, by what you have done, and by what you have left undone. When it comes to you, you can typically work out that when you sin, you need to bring those sins to God to be forgiven, which he does. If you can work that out about yourself, you can work that out about those around you as well. Realize that the things your friends and family do are the same, really.

And when we talk about cheap grace, we have to remember that every time we look at the scriptures and say 'God couldn't possibly have meant that,' what he is showing you is what he is prepared to do for you, because you are not prepared to do it for yourself. When he says that you have to hate your father and mother and wife and children and even your own life in service of the Gospel, Jesus spends the rest of the New Testament living all that out. But he doesn't live all that on behalf of God. He lives that all out, he keeps what we would have thought he couldn't possibly mean, for you.