The Love That Costs Everything Series

Title: The Love That Costs Everything

Intro: Hate? How do you hate the people who love you most?

Scripture: Luke 14:25-33

Reflection

Dear Friends,

You know, some of my earliest memories are of my grandmother sitting in her worn leather chair, that old family Bible spread across her lap like a map to somewhere sacred. Her voice had this way of wrapping around words, especially when she would read the Ten Commandments out loud. When she would get to “Honour your father and your mother,” I would think, “Well, of course.” Made perfect sense to me then. We honour the ones who gave us life, who held our hands when we were scared, and who told us stories when the world felt too big.

Years later, when I first really heard Jesus say, “Love one another as I have loved you,” my heart just said, “Yes.” Because what could be more right than that? Love is what makes getting up in the morning worth it. Love is what makes the hard days bearable. Love is the heartbeat underneath everything that matters.

But then I stumbled across these other words of Jesus, and they stopped me dead in my tracks: “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.”

Hate? How do you hate the people who love you most? How do you hate your own mama, the woman who stayed up all night when you had a fever? How do you hate your children, those little hearts running around outside your body? I will tell you, those words kept me up at night for weeks.

The Day Jesus Turned Around

Picture this with me. Jesus is walking toward Jerusalem, and there is this crowd following Him—maybe hundreds of people. They are excited, talking about the miracles they have seen and the words they have heard. Some are probably thinking this is their ticket to the good life, following this miracle worker. Maybe they are imagining front-row seats when He sets up His kingdom.

But Jesus knows something they do not. He knows where this road leads—to a cross, to suffering, to death. So He stops walking and turns around. I can almost see the dust settling around His feet as the crowd comes to a halt. And then He says those hard words, because He loves them too much to let them follow Him with false expectations.

He is not telling them to be cruel to their families. Jesus, who told us to love our enemies, would never ask us to hate the people we are supposed to love most. No, He is using the strongest language He can find to wake them up. He is saying, “Listen to me carefully. Following me is not a side hobby. It is not something you fit in around the edges of your regular life. It is going to cost you everything.”

Abraham’s Impossible Choice

You remember Abraham, do you not? God comes to him one day and says, “Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.” Now, Abraham’s probably around seventy-five years old at this point. He has got a good life, with family around him and everything familiar and safe. But God says, “Leave it all.”

Can you imagine that conversation with his wife, Sarah? “Honey, pack everything we own. We are leaving.” “Where are we going?” “I do not know yet. God will show us.”

But Abraham went. Not because he hated his family, not because he wanted to hurt anyone. He went because he trusted God more than he trusted his own understanding. His love for God was bigger than his fear of the unknown.

That is what Jesus meant. Sometimes following Him means our love for Him has to be so complete, so all-consuming, that every other love looks small by comparison.

When the Nets Hit the Water

Or think about those fishermen—Peter and Andrew, James and John. They are out there doing what their fathers taught them, what their grandfathers probably taught their fathers. It is honest work, family work. And Jesus walks by and simply says, “Follow me.”

Matthew tells us they left their nets immediately. Can you picture that? The nets were probably still dripping with seawater, their father, Zebedee, standing there watching his boys walk away from everything they had ever known.

I do not think they were rejecting their father. I think they heard something in Jesus’ voice that told them this was the moment their whole lives had been pointing toward. This was the call they had been born to answer.

Paul’s Beautiful Mathematics

Then there is Paul. Now here is a man who had everything going for him. PhD from the best schools, connected to all the right people, respect, status, a future so bright he needed sunglasses. But then he meets Jesus on that Damascus road, and everything changes.