We have boiled down what it means to follow Jesus to a simple A-B-C.

Admit you are a sinner.
Believe in Jesus.
Commit to Him.

And for good measure, we often throw in a prayer of salvation just to make sure all bases are covered. However, when we consider the actual words of Jesus, we find that following him actually requires a lot more of us.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “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 (Luke 14:25-26, ESV).

Jesus could never be accused of appealing to popular opinion. Although it appears that Jesus is garnering a mass appeal, He is more interested in developing true disciples rather than crowds or adoring fans.

The difficulty in understanding Jesus’ teaching to the crowd obviously stems from the harshness of the language he uses. The tendency is to try and rationalize verses like these by thinking that Jesus is only using hyperbole and did not really mean what he is saying.

However, Jesus uses the word hate for a very specific and purposeful reason. Hate could simply mean to love less, but Jesus’ point here is that a true disciple’s devotion to him should make all other relationships appear to be characterized by hate in comparison.

What if we were told to hate our families and give up everything we had in order to follow Jesus?

This is where we come face to face with a dangerous reality. We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate. And it is entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor.

But we don’t want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away. “Jesus wouldn’t really tell us not to bury our father or say good-bye to our family. Jesus didn’t literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor.
What Jesus really meant was…”

And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with.

Excerpt from Radical: The Bible Study