TGBC: a hard saying indeed

The Good  Book Club
Saturday, March 10. Luke 14:25-35

 Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 

So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

 ‘Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; they throw it away. 

Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

THOUGHTS FOR SATURDAY. Here again, Jesus shockingly turns core social convention upside down by demanding that his disciples leave their families behind to follow him. Peter & Andrew, James & John did so when Jesus called them away from their fishing boats, nets, father and families. Is Luke thinking of Elisha turning his back on his family at the call of Elijah, to accommodate Luke's theme of Jesus as prophet? IDK. I wonder if this exclusivity demand is a scriptural background for Christians’ called into celibate priesthood and monasteries and convents? By comparison, my own vocation is definitely conditional, because my family comes first with me, how about you? And is this actually Jesus saying this, Jesus son of Mary? Who could hate such a (traditionally if not quite scripturally) doting mother, even for Jesus' sake? 

This is a hard saying indeed, and I wonder if it reflects a period in Luke's time when people, perhaps especially Jewish Christians, faced and were being threatened with shunning and disowning by their families for being members of the developing Christian church with its increasingly high christology?

The second pic is from The Passion of the Christ as Jesus falls with his cross, Mary breaks through the crowd and rushes to him, as he says, “See, Mother. I make all things new.” It is one of the most devastatingly moving scenes I have ever experienced in a motion picture. 

Still and nevertheless, from a literary perspective, the word about the cross is anachronistic, Luke writing after Easter.

The combination about the tower and the foundation and the kings waging war, lacks context here and neither follows from the preceding nor leads rationally to the “So therefore” that begins the next thought. I’m not sure what I’ll do with that if it ever comes up on my Sunday to preach. Probably preach on the Leviticus lesson.

Salt? Yes, though generally around my house salt does not have an opportunity to lose its taste. A primary flavoring and preservative, salt was dearer in Jesus’ time, you didn’t just go down to the Seven-Eleven or drive over to Publix and buy a new carton of Morton’s. In those days, salt was not likely the fashion item it has lately become, with iodized salt, and sea salt, and gray salt, and pink salt. “Please pass the salt.” And if you’re being cautious about contagion and the flu, when you pick up the salt shaker or the salt grinder on the table in the restaurant, remember: the last diner at your table sneezed into his hand just before picking up the salt grinder. At any event, the salt saying seems more a truism than a proverb.