Day Fifteen: How to Hate Your Family (Mark 3:31-35)
Devotional: Not only was Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra one of the all time greats, he was also a man known for his curious sayings. Here’s a few of them… "I never said most of the things I said.” "When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” "Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.” "Never answer an anonymous letter.” Of course, what made his sayings memorable was that they didn’t really make sense.
There were times in the gospels when Jesus’ sayings didn’t seem to make sense. Today’s passage would certainly be an example of that. Jesus talked about the importance of loving people. And who should we love more than our family. And yet, when people told Jesus that His mother and brothers were looking for Him, He states that it’s actually the crowd listening to Him that were His mothers and brothers. Seems out and a little disrespectful.
Now, whenever we come to a difficult to understand passage, we need to compare Scripture with Scripture. And when we do so, we see how He lovingly treated His mother, Mary. Even on the cross, He was taking care of her. While dying an agonizing death on the cross, He took the time to tell John to take care of her when He was gone. And yet you see these other curious sayings from Jesus.
In Matthew 10:34-35 Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” And in Luke 14:26: “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."
What in the world is going on? It was Jesus using hyperbole (exaggeration for affect). He wasn’t saying to truly hate them or to use a sword against them. A sword divided. Jesus is saying, “Who’s side are you ultimately on?”. Specifically if you’re family does not believe or follow Jesus. Of course, we still love them but where does our ultimate ALLEGIANCE lay? We aren’t to hate our family, as we understand the word, it’s the idea of “loving less”. Our love for the Savior supersedes our love for family.
Can we honestly say that? Is Jesus our first love? If we had to choose our allegiance, would it be Jesus, even at the expense of family? We need to love our family who don’t yet know Christ. But we can’t compromise our commitment to Christ and the kingdom when our family disagrees or tries to stop us.
The great news we discover in the gospels is that eventually Jesus’ family would come to believe that He was indeed God. What about the family we have who do not believe? We must live with an uncompromising commitment to Christ even if it costs us everything. But let’s do so in a way that shows the unconditional love of Jesus. A great formula for reaching our family for Christ… uncompromising commitment + unconditional love.
Prayer: Take some time to pray for family today. Pray for those who know Christ but also take time to pray for those family members that need to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Devotional: Not only was Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra one of the all time greats, he was also a man known for his curious sayings. Here’s a few of them… "I never said most of the things I said.” "When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” "Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.” "Never answer an anonymous letter.” Of course, what made his sayings memorable was that they didn’t really make sense.
There were times in the gospels when Jesus’ sayings didn’t seem to make sense. Today’s passage would certainly be an example of that. Jesus talked about the importance of loving people. And who should we love more than our family. And yet, when people told Jesus that His mother and brothers were looking for Him, He states that it’s actually the crowd listening to Him that were His mothers and brothers. Seems out and a little disrespectful.
Now, whenever we come to a difficult to understand passage, we need to compare Scripture with Scripture. And when we do so, we see how He lovingly treated His mother, Mary. Even on the cross, He was taking care of her. While dying an agonizing death on the cross, He took the time to tell John to take care of her when He was gone. And yet you see these other curious sayings from Jesus.
In Matthew 10:34-35 Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” And in Luke 14:26: “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."
What in the world is going on? It was Jesus using hyperbole (exaggeration for affect). He wasn’t saying to truly hate them or to use a sword against them. A sword divided. Jesus is saying, “Who’s side are you ultimately on?”. Specifically if you’re family does not believe or follow Jesus. Of course, we still love them but where does our ultimate ALLEGIANCE lay? We aren’t to hate our family, as we understand the word, it’s the idea of “loving less”. Our love for the Savior supersedes our love for family.
Can we honestly say that? Is Jesus our first love? If we had to choose our allegiance, would it be Jesus, even at the expense of family? We need to love our family who don’t yet know Christ. But we can’t compromise our commitment to Christ and the kingdom when our family disagrees or tries to stop us.
The great news we discover in the gospels is that eventually Jesus’ family would come to believe that He was indeed God. What about the family we have who do not believe? We must live with an uncompromising commitment to Christ even if it costs us everything. But let’s do so in a way that shows the unconditional love of Jesus. A great formula for reaching our family for Christ… uncompromising commitment + unconditional love.
Prayer: Take some time to pray for family today. Pray for those who know Christ but also take time to pray for those family members that need to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.
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