Proper 18 C
Love and Hate
St. Luke 14:25-35
4 September 2016 – Redeemer
Let’s hope Jesus does better this week than last week when He ruined that dinner party – healing on the Sabbath, touching sick people, upsetting the whole seating chart, and making all the guests uncomfortable. He likely didn’t win any followers among the Pharisees. The pressure’s on. Great crowds were following Him. Perhaps Jesus’s campaign team can conduct some surveys and find a way for Him to become more attractive. If He doesn’t turn His Kingdom campaign around pretty soon it might just be Him, all by Himself, a Kingdom of One.
So how does Jesus begin His sermon to the masses? What does everyone want to hear? What do your ears want to hear this morning? Your daughter’s cancer will be cured. Your marriage problems will subside. The stock market is going to finish the year strong. Hillary or Donald (whichever one you want – if you want one) is going to be president. The Democrats or Republicans (again whichever one you want) will save the country, give you free health care, pay for your college loans, raise your Social Security check or guarantee a job that will make you rich without working or thinking. We’d all vote for that Kingdom.
So the crowds are following and Jesus turns to speak. Come on Jesus. You can do it. Follow the polls. Win us over. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Well, there goes the campaign. Jesus isn’t going to win anyone’s heart with that sort of slogan. You know how this story ends. The crowds diminish. Even Jesus’ disciples abandon and deny Him. He ends His journey all alone in Jerusalem – betrayed, arrested, convicted. The Kingdom is, in the end, a Kingdom of One – only Jesus, alone on the cross. That is precisely what He is preaching to the crowd that day. The Kingdom is Jesus alone.
Let’s be clear “hate” here means “hate.” It doesn’t mean prioritize. It doesn’t mean put God first in your life and yourself and all your loves second. Hate means hate. But we need to be careful that we don’t define hate as it is defined by our culture, because right now most faithful Christians are falsely accused of being “haters.” Hate, in Minnesota, means that if you disagree with me about anything you must hate me and you wish to harm me. If you don’t let me do what I feel with my body or my life you are a hater. So “hate” today includes the accusation that you desire to harm the person and deprive them of something.
That is not the Biblical definition of hate – for God Himself hates the wicked and those who do violence (Ps. 11:5), but what does He do for them? Does He not in love send His Son so that they can be forgiven? Surely the Lord hated the sin of His beloved Old Testament bride Israel as she ran after every good looking, pleasure-promising god that came along. What did He do for His bride? He warned her, scolded her and always loved her by sending prophet after prophet, finally sending His Son through her and to her to bring her back to Himself.
It’s as simple and as hard as this –if your mom or dad, or anyone in your family would get in the way of your faith, of following Jesus, then you must hate them. And, as odd as it sounds, that doesn’t mean you don’t love them and honor them. In the same way, if the desire of your life takes you away from Jesus, then you must hate even your own life.
There are parts of the Christian faith that are completely reasonable. And then there are teachings of Christ that are beyond mysterious. Such as this — when Jesus tells you to “hate” people and even your own life He is loving you. For the Kingdom of God is Jesus only. It’s Him all alone on the cross. He alone forgives your sin. He alone covers up your soiled conscience and life to make you lovely in His Father’s eyes. He alone suffers the anger of His Father over your sin. In His death and resurrection alone are you die to sin and are raised to life. If you put anything beside Jesus, next to Jesus, even ranked second to Jesus, it will be deadly to your life, dangerous to your faith. Your life with God is not Jesus plus something, but Jesus alone.
Moses’ farewell sermon in Deuteronomy serves as a vivid example of this same preaching (from Brent Kuhlman sermon) “What will it be? Life or death? Blessing or curse? You can’t walk the fence. You can’t straddle both sides.” Hear O Israel. The Lord is One. Life is with the One True God who freed you from Egypt, who drowned Pharaoh’s army, watered you from the rock and fed you with the manna. Trust Him and live or turn away to the gods of this land – Baal, Molech, Ashera, idols of Canaan, and die.
In essence Jesus is preaching the conclusion of Moses’ sermon. Life is with the One true God, with Jesus, who brought you out of slavery by His death and resurrection, who washed you in the saving flood of Baptism destroying sin, death, and Satan’s hold on you, who feeds you in the wilderness of this world with His very body and blood. Trust Him and live or turn away to the gods of this land – the idols – your spouse, your children, your pleasure, your sports, your weekends, and die.
“Count the cost,” says Jesus. “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him.” In my recent reading and studying of Biblical times I have been learning more and more about shame and how shame was abhorred in the ancient world. Jesus spoke about it last week – if you take a seat of honor and then are asked to sit lower – you will move down in shame. Here again, if you cannot finish something you start you will be mocked – shamed by your failure.
Christ Jesus came so that you would not have to be shamed before your Father in heaven. He took your sin. He was mocked in your place. He experienced the shame of leaving the highest place, the place of honor as His Father’s only begotten Son and then being asked to take the lowest place – the place of a damned sinner, your place. He paid the cost, endured the shame. Count the cost – could you undo your sin? Could you build your way to heaven? No, in shame you couldn’t even lay a foundation. The tower of your salvation is built, finished, stretching all the way to the Father’s house in Christ alone. He counted the cost – He went out, not 10,000 against 20,000, but One against the whole host of your enemies – your selfish nature, your innumerable sin, Satan, death, and hell. One against all. On that hill outside Jerusalem it looked like He lost, dead as dead, but His blood is God’s blood, His flesh is God’s flesh, and that was more than sufficient to pay the price for your sin. Three days later He rose from the dead – alive, victorious over sin and death. Your enemies are dead. Your sin forgiven. Your coffin open. Satan silenced. No other god can deliver that. No pleasure will match it. No family member that equals it. Love Him and you will – must – hate all that would take you away from Him.
Sometimes those who love you hurt you because they love you. What good parent hasn’t reduced a child to tears? What faithful pastor hasn’t made us squirm because of our sin? What loving spouse has not confronted us with marriage destroying behavior? In a far greater way today. Jesus preaches “hate” because He loves. He doesn’t preach an American sermon – you can have it all and me too. Just keep me in the top 10, at least half the time and we’ll be fine. No, He preaches a sermon full of love to His disciples because it is full of Him alone, only Jesus. Whatever else intrudes upon that, you must hate, because God’s love and life for you is found in (and only in) the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
3 September 2016 anno Domini