Snowmass Chapel’s beautiful new banner handmade by local artist Pat Rangel

Jesus loved, healed, guided, transformed, forgave, and comforted.  People flocked to him and traveled far and wide just to be near him.  Broken people were not the same after encountering him.

But we are mistaken if we think that all of what Jesus had to say was easy to hear, reassuring, or validating.  Jesus pushed buttons that needed to be pushed and often his most pointed words and difficult teachings were aimed directly at those who were the most religious and, on the surface, faithful.

Without a doubt, Jesus said and meant hard things sometimes.  That said, his intent was never to destroy a person, but rather to use every way possible to bring the person back to the love of God, a right understanding of God, and to the right motives for actions.

One of Jesus’ hardest sayings is found in Luke, chapter 14.  Here Jesus said to a large crowd, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.”

On the surface, Jesus’ words seem completely incompatible with what we know of Jesus throughout the Gospels.  But if we want to understand what Jesus was getting at, we need to look at the word “hate” in Greek and what it means.

The Greek word used in Luke 14 is hate but hate to Greeks meant something vastly different than what it means to us in 2017.  Hate in Greek has everything to do with priorities, what comes first, and what is loved more.

Jesus in essence was saying, “Love me more than your father, mother, wife, and children, then you will not only know what it means to follow me, but you will also end up loving people more as a result of doing so.” Or, “Love me the most and you will end up loving those who matter the most to you more.”

This teaching has nothing to do with rejecting anyone.  It has everything to do with the path to loving human beings more than we might otherwise.  The more we love God, the more we align ourselves with Christ, the more love becomes the essence of who we are, how we act, what we feel, and what we say.

I often use an image of a triangle to illustrate this point.  Picture yourself on one on point of the triangle.  Picture a close family member on another point.  Finally picture God on the third point.  As the two people move closer to where God is on the triangle, note the distance between the two people becomes smaller.  The more Jesus is our priority and our first love, the more we will love others because by doing so, the more we will learn to love like God.