Where Our Loyalties Lie...

I was a pretty young Christian when I first read through the Gospels for myself and I remember reading the words of Jesus in Luke 14 verse 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..." I read this and was floored by it. I immediately thought, "oh man, it's true, I've joined a cult!" But the Lord was gracious with me as He pulled the veil back and allowed me to see and understand clearly what was being asked of me. Today, this verse continues to have application in our culture, perhaps even more than it did for me back then, and I hope to be able to unpack that in this blog. 

  I grew up in a very close family, we had family gatherings every week. Fridays we were at a family member’s house for just a general good time. Saturdays were for my paternal grandmother’s house, and Sundays were at my maternal grandmother’s house. This literally went on almost every week up until I left for the military when I was 17 years old. I am of Puerto Rican descent and so, if you know anything about Puerto Rican culture, you'll know that involved in all of these gatherings was great food, music, and dancing. I love how I was raised and would not trade it in for the world. It is this foundation that has helped me to see the necessity and importance of fellowship within the church. The closeness of my family and my upbringing taught me the importance of being able to laugh together, eat together, and share all of life together. 

The Lord didn't save me until my early 30's, and so by that time I had really grown in my appreciation of my upbringing, especially because I had come to miss it so much having to always be away. Then I heard the gospel, I was broken over my sin; I repented and trusted in Jesus as my savior and my Lord. Immediately I began the discipleship process, which included daily reading and bible studies. Then I read the above-mentioned verse in Luke, and I began the process of truly understanding where my new identity and loyalties had to lie. It was through this verse that I recognized my loyalty could no longer belong to my blood; that what Jesus was asking of me was to give Him everything. I was no longer a Galan, or a Marine, or even Puerto Rican first, I was Christ's, purchased by His blood, and He would not share me with anyone or anything. 

Luke 14:26 does not stand by itself, it is one verse in the chapter, and we need to follow a general rule of bible reading, "never read just a verse." We have to first look at the greater context. We have, in this case immediately prior to this verse, two parables. The first is the parable of the wedding feast and the second is the parable of the wedding banquet. I think there are takeaways from both parables that apply, but let's focus on the second because it's here where the main point is made most clear. 

Starting in verse 16 we see Jesus speaking of a man who invited many to a great banquet. As he prepares he sends his servant for his guests, and they all respond with excuses as for why they cannot attend. The first has a field he must go take care of, the second has to go examine his oxen, and the last one has a wife that he has to take care of. At this, the master becomes angry and sends for the poor, the cripple, the blind and the lame. The last line says, none of those men who were invited (referring to the ones who had excuses) shall taste my banquet. It's with this in the backdrop that Jesus then says, "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..." 

So, what's going on here? The picture is that of one being completely devoted and submitted to the master of the house. So much so that he is more important than property, livelihood, and even family. This is simply reiterated by Jesus in verses 26 and 27 as He says in verse 27, "whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Jesus is identifying Himself with the master of the house, He is the one who lays out an invitation and those who are not willing to drop everything to accept His invitation are not worthy of it and will not be welcome to partake in the feast. Jesus expects for His disciples to be more devoted to Him than they are to anything else in this world. Even that which we have our closest connections to, even those who gave us mortal life, cared for us and taught us valuable lessons in life. When Jesus calls us, the call is to abandon all ties to the world, for a seat at His table. Our lives no longer belong to us, they belong to Him and not mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, can be allowed to come between us. Our loyalty, our identity, our entire being belongs wholly, completely to Him.

This is a hard teaching, I get that, but as a parent I have grown in my understanding of it. I love my children, and because I want what's best for them, I need them to put Jesus first. For them to cling to Jesus even more than I do, to follow Him more faithfully than me, and I want their devotion to Him to be far greater than any devotion they'd have to me or our family. Because I know Jesus is able to give them so much more than I ever could. Only in Him will they have true freedom, only in Him will they have true peace, only in Him will they know true love, only in Him will they experience life abundantly, only in Him is there salvation and hope. This doesn't mean that we don't enjoy family life, but it means our family life, (as well as all of our life) is focused on Jesus and revolves around Him first, second and last. 

How is this more relevant today? Well, there are some today that demand you place your loyalties in other places besides Jesus. They want your loyalty to belong to your skin color, race, social class, sexual preference, political party, and on and on the list goes. But Jesus says, absolutely NO! He who doesn't hate all of these things, which are much less important than our immediate family, cannot be His disciple. You cannot be Jesus’ disciple and see yourself first as Puerto Rican or Black; in the same way I cannot see myself first as a "Galan" (my last name). Of those two categories, one is much closer to home than the other, my family name, and if Jesus says I have to hate that, how much more must I hate the others? You cannot serve two masters, Jesus will not allow it, He will have our loyalty split with no one. It's all to Him we owe, and all to Him we give. 

  Anyone who would demand you give loyalty to anything outside of Jesus has abandoned the gospel in one of two ways, or possibly both. First, they have abandoned it by failing to recognize that the Gospel is a call to Jesus, and to Jesus alone, He alone is the good news. To demand that anyone needs to identify himself or herself with a race or anything besides Jesus, is to abandon the Gospel. Consider the masters call in Luke, any call to Jesus cannot be preceded by a call to something else. Secondly, it may very well be that they themselves have abandoned the Gospel by failing to hate that which Jesus tells them to. To insist that something like the color of your skin, or your ethnicity be something a person has to accept to earn a seat at your table, means you are not sitting at Christ’s table. At His table, the only call is to come to Him and eat. 

This past week I have seen Christians proclaiming that "Black lives matter," and some have gone as far as saying, those who will not support the movement (which is separate from the statement) are not real Christians. Many of these Christians will not proclaim the gospel, they will not call people to repent and trust in Jesus alone for salvation. They are even willing to link arms with people who hate what Christ stands for and are actively attempting to do away with biblical values. Do Black lives matter? Yes, they are made in the image of God and are valuable from the moment of conception and throughout all their days. But you cannot use even that affirmation as the test of orthodoxy as it reveals more about your own heart than it does another’s. You cannot have a seat at that table, which demands an affirmation of BLM or any other ideology or anything at all first and expect to have a seat waiting for you at Christ’s table. As for me, I will not put my loyalty in any group of people, not even my own family because Jesus is more than enough. So, how about you, where do your loyalties lie? Jesus... or the world... you choose, but those are the only two options, He gives us no alternative.