restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations
Christianitys Radical View of Motherhood
Jesus said, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own mother he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26). This is a hard saying of Scripture and certainly not your typical Mothers Day text. But it is a thoroughly biblical truth. And unless we accept it, motherhood will never be properly understood.
Jesus calls each of us to make a firm and serious commitment to Him, even if this upsets close friends and family. He said He came, not to bring peace to the world, but to set family members against each other. He utterly contradicts our faddish views of relationships. Consumed with a sense of co-dependence, we forget that Jesus not only heals relationships, He severs them. He divides mother and child, not because He desires disharmony, but because He demands absolute allegiance, an allegiance that may actually entail leaving father and mother altogether.
Apply the same principle to other loyalties precious to you. After 9/11, devotion to America has become virtually a religion. In our country today, as we worship pleasure, wealth, ease, and even the state, Jesus says to you and me:
You cannot serve two masters. If you love the one, you will hate the other.
He who loses his life for My sake will find it.
He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
The one who does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.
A mans foes will be those of his own household.
No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
The way that leads to life is narrow.
It is better to pluck out your eye and throw it away than to look to the right or to the left.
There is no going back, not even to bury your dead father or mother.
The commitment Jesus demands is above every other commitment. The Christian who has not settled this issue, who refuses to acknowledge that ultimately there is only one Person to obey, may do many good things and may even be respected by others. But if he has not made the supreme commitment of loyalty to Jesus he has not truly understood New Testament discipleship.
In his book Ultimate Intention Deverne F. Fronke writes: Believers may not often realize it, but even as believers we are either centered on man, or centered on God. There is no alternative. Either God is the center of our universe and we have rightly adjusted to Him, or we have made ourselves the center and are attempting to make all else orbit around us and for us.
By the time he was 30, Albert Schweitzer (1875-1963) was already world-famous as a preacher, educator, author, musician, and philosopher. He had three earned doctorates and was the principal of a theological college. He was considered to be the leading interpreter of J.S. Bach. Yet he struggled with Mark 8:35: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it.
In 1903 he encountered an urgent call for workers in Africa. Men and women who can reply simply to the Masters call are the people whom the Church needs for Africa, he wrote. Then he added, My search was over. On October 13, 1903, Schweitzer informed his family about his plans to go to Africa as a missionary doctor. In the months that followed, he was tormented by both relatives and friends who tried to convince him of his folly.
Jim Elliott was another young man who demonstrated the meaning of Jesus teaching when he left his family in Oregon to travel with his wife and young daughter to the jungles of Ecuador to take the Gospel to a little-known tribe of aboriginal people. It was to cost him his life, but his legacy was this phrase: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Thousands of students were moved by his example of discipleship and followed in his footsteps.
Discipleship may boil down to choosing between Christ and your nearest relations. A loyal soldier will give up all to serve his country, and we too must be prepared to give up all, if need be, to serve Christ. This is Christianitys radical view of motherhood. With the dawning of Gods kingdom in the person of Jesus Christ, every human institutionmotherhood includedis about to fade away, and every allegiance to those institutions stands under divine judgment.
What can be accomplished by half-hearted commitment? Can you love your wife six days a week and love somebody else on the seventh? Can you serve your country faithfully as a soldier and then serve the enemy just a few hours a month? What good is a bridge that goes only half way across the river? What joy can come from partial allegiance to Christ?
Jesus did not live with a set of open options. He was steadfast in His allegiance to the will of His Father in heaven. And He lays claim to our most loyal service and our supreme affection.
May 9, 2003
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.