In the Gospel of John, a turning point of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee occurred when some would-be disciples complained about their difficulties with Jesus’ preaching. “After Jesus had said these things, some of his disciples said, ‘master these are hard sayings,’ and they left and no longer went with him.” The Gospels give us hard sayings such as: “Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead, but you proclaim the new commonwealth of God. No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for God’s new creation.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke all report Jesus as saying, “If any one would come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” adding, “All who would seek to save just their own life, will lose it.”
Now let’s also be clear. Jesus was not abrogating the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother. Above all else it is our parents who gave us life. In regard to today’s Gospel passage, some commentators have suggested that Jesus was using a Semitic expression and the word hate is not a good translation of what Jesus meant. Matthew parallels today’s Gospel expressing Jesus’ meaning this way, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Hard sayings to be sure, yet it’s dishonest to dismiss the portions of the Gospel that pinch us and make us squirm. A Gospel that fits perfectly into our own lives and plans, inevitably is a false Gospel. A Gospel that just increases our self-esteem, and promises success in all we do is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility to ask what does Jesus mean by these words. It seems to me, Jesus is warning against using other people, especially people who are close to us, as excuses and putting these excuses or other people’s opinions or other idols of the world in front of, before, or in place of God. After all, the first commandment is “You shall have no other gods but me” and the second is “You shall not worship any graven image,” i.e. anything we could make and admire. That pinches us sometimes, because other people’s opinions are important to us, our families are important to us, and our self-images are important to us, and often we can fabricate some pretty reasonable excuses. Many of these hard sayings are really ways of understanding that no other person nor thing can take God’s place.
Kluane and I have visited both Canterbury Center in New Hampshire and the Hancock Village in Mass, close to the NY State border. They were both major communities of the Shakers for over a century and a half. There seems to be a wonderful atmosphere of peace and contentment that still permeates these places. The Shakers were a communal sect who understood the purpose of their existence in terms of glorifying and worshipping God. All that they did was to point to the purity and glory and goodness of God. Some made furniture and because cabinetmaking was seen as a way of praising God, every piece of furniture was made as perfect as possible. Joints fitted evenly, the backs of cabinets were finished as carefully as the front, the designs were neat and clean. They mixed paint, formulated to last for decades. They invented gadgets and machines, to show forth the ingenuity of God’s creation. They were wonderful neighbors, taking in orphans, and welcoming whole families who just needed a place for the winter. They opened their schools to those in their neighborhood. In their business dealings they were scrupulously honest and straightforward, for any other way would disgrace God.
Now the Shakers never rigidly followed a strict ideology or felt bound by tradition. They eagerly embraced and even tried to improve upon many modern advances of technology and agriculture. They were usually the first to wire their dwellings with electricity and phones. They loved fast automobiles. That was o.k., as long as God came first.
The Shakers never saw themselves as upholders of society’s values; their communal system and the practice of strict separation of the sexes was extremely radical, yet their love for children, their concern for the welfare of their neighbors, their honesty and integrity became legendary. Because loving God meant loving one’s neighbor.
Visitors today whimsically admire their simplicity and their craftsmanship, but I wonder how many understand that the Shakers set out not to live a simple life, but above all else, to live a Holy Life; not to be feted as inventors and craftsmen, but to be responsible stewards of God’s earth; not to be admired for their joy and quiet piety, but to worship and obey God as best they could.
What would the Shakers like on their tombstones? That they made good chairs? Hardly! Rather that through the example of their life and labor, God was glorified.
Why do we need to heed the hard sayings of the Gospel? Maybe to help clarify what we might want on our tombstones. Maybe to help us evaluate the stuff the world wants us to buy into. If you think Jesus gives hard sayings, listen this week to what the world dishes out.
What would you like it to say on your tombstone “here lies someone who above all else, well fill in the blank. What is it that what you want your grandchildren to remember about you?
Jesus’ hard words challenge us to take the pursuit of a Holy Life seriously; they call us to struggle with connecting our life, our work with the Gospel, and call us to ask the meaning of Jesus’ words. The person who was the senior warden at my first parish used to say if you don’t put anything into the bank, you couldn’t expect to draw much of anything out. Investing in taking seriously the hard words of God helps us grow, helps us to be strong and helps us face all the difficult challenges of our world, just as it did for those first disciples who followed Jesus to Jerusalem, and after the resurrection had the strength and courage to take the Gospel into the world.