So I would say, Well, let s split the difference. Let me show you how you can give away a lot of what you have, but not everything. The minute I do that, I m beginning to shave the hard corners off these sharply unambiguous statements, and I have to ask myself whether I could ever fit the definition of one who could follow Jesus. Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother. I ve had New Testament scholars smoothly explain to me that Jesus as a Jew used a form of Semitic discourse known as hyperbole.
Extreme language is used to make an emphatic truth.
He might have said, Whoever does not love me more than father and mother. If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. Well, that s what I do. When I m confronted with the really hard teaching of Jesus, I sue for peace. Now, let s be reasonable, I want to say.