Luke 14:26
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
What am I willing to do to be Jesus’ disciple?
Am I willing to take my cross and follow Him?
What will serving Jesus cost me? My health? My safety? My family? Even my life?
Is this perspective to radical? Why would God call on His believers to abandon their family, friends, and everything they have ever known to be His disciples?
There are so many questions that I could ask, but it doesn’t change the fact that God has given us the answer already, all we have to do is look for it.
Jesus bought and paid for your life with His very blood. God is your eternal Father. He wants you to be His son but a man cannot have two masters. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). This seems like a radical ideology, but in reality, Jesus wants you to focus solely on Him.
When Jesus said take up your cross and follow me, He was saying prepare yourself if you want to be my disciple. In today’s time, we say take up your cross and follow Jesus often, but in Biblical times, saying take up your cross meant that you quite possibly would be putting your life in Jesus’ hand, leaving behind everything that you have known, and quite possibly be rejected by everyone around you for going against the status flow of the time. It would have sent shivers down the spine of anyone who heard Jesus say that.
Why?
Because crucifixion was one of the worst ways to die in that time. So for somebody to willing take up a cross would be asking them to possibly die in agony.
He died for us so that we may live, so is it unjust of Him to ask us to follow him even unto death?
Absolutely not!
Jesus has called us to follow Him wherever He leads even if that means suffering, hunger, loneliness, pain, and even death. He will be with us through it all.
So to answer the main question: Am I willing to Hate my Father and Mother to be Jesus’s Disciple?
The answer is yes. Jesus left His Father to come down to earth and die a horrible death for me. He loves me that much and more. Everything else on earth pales in comparison to Him and what He has done for me.
