Ifanyone comes to meand does not hatefather and mother,wifeand children,brothers and sistersyes, even his or her ownlifesuch a person cannot be my disciple.Luke14:26 (read 14:25-33) - NIVThesesound like awfully harsh words to be attributed to Jesus! This wouldput Him against strong family ties, and following Him would involverepudiating family. But before we try to understand these sayings wemust first define what "following Jesus" means in thecontext of Jesus time which is quite different from ourunderstanding today.Todayto follow Jesus in the popular concept of Christians (Catholics andProtestants) is to accept the dogmas of the church, be baptized inthe name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and be faithfulto the teachings approved by it. To follow Jesus is to be faithful tothe Church with all that it requires.Historicallythe Church has applied the concept of following Jesusto following the Church. To be faithful to Jesuswe must be faithful to the Church. Being faithful to the Church hasled to aggressiveness in the form of persecutions, torture, wars,discrimination, slavery, genocides, executions, deportations andother violence as a part of following Jesus. Practitioners of theseacts were judged to be pious people. Even today in the United Statesthe leadership of conservative Christians promotes armed conflict,torture, discrimination and other forms of violence under the guiseof combatting the evils of terrorism. Islam and Christianity havebecome mirror images of each other.WhenJesus supposedly spoke these words the Church as we know it today didnot exist. To follow Jesus today should be something much deeper thanthe unconditional acceptance of a system of beliefs about the personof Jesus and norms of behavior determined by Christianity. FollowingJesus should be independent of formal or informal ties with what wecall "Church." To be a follower of Jesus should mean theadoption of a lifestyle compatible with his spirit, grounded in alove which produces the fruit of compassion and mercy. By harmonizingthese words with the totality of the teachings of Jesus, to loveJesus more than father, mother, spouse, children, siblings or selfmeans not to idolize them or be limited by them. It means having theautonomy of unconditional love, not ruling over them or being ruledby them. They are not our property to be controlled by us, but arefree to be themselves. It is to love as Jesus loved. To love as Jesusloved means giving up our privileges and recognize that everythingaround us is a gift and does not belong to us. That would be theChrist like form of hate.Jesussaid we must calculate how much such a love will cost. Practicing thelove of Jesus could lead us to confrontation of the social,institutional and economic evils of our age. This could make us theobject of discrimination and persecution, even costing us our ownphysical life. This happened to Jesus and his followers and couldhappen to us.Wedo not own creation. Nothing belongs to us. We were created to belongto the Kingdom and not the opposite. We have no control over it, orthe right to judge the others who have been placed here with us. Ouronly goal is to try to love as Jesus loved. That is Christian hate.LUKE14:2533 NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)Largecrowds