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| St. Paul and Onesimus |
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate
father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life
itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke
14:26)
Well ain’t that a kick in the butt! The above quote is from the Gospel lesson
assigned in the Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost 13, Year C (Luke 14:
25-33). I don’t think I’m going to be preaching that lesson at my late mass on
September 8, as we’re including in the celebration the wedding of two members
of our church’s Praise Team. I can’t quite send them off on their married life
together with Jesus telling them they have to hate each other in order to be
disciples, now can I?
I will, however, preach this gospel at my
early mass. No wedding vows at that one, but we will be having a baptism so this lesson is pretty appropriate. In
this section of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about the cost of discipleship.
When I use that phrase “cost of discipleship,” I always think of the great
Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer[i] who sacrificed his life to
help rid the world of Hitler and his myrmidons. Bonhoeffer knew that following
Jesus meant paying a price. Being baptized as a Christian won’t cost anything
at Faith Lutheran of Philadelphia because salvation is the free gift of God’s
grace. Being a disciple, however, means giving up everything you have. I really
hope the parents of the little girl getting baptized this Sunday know what they’re
getting their daughter in for!
First, however, let me digress (and I do
so love to digress) and take a little bit of the nastiness out of the quote at
the top of this post. Yes, it is true that Jesus is challenging us to “hate”
our family members[ii].
You need to know that the word used in the Greek New Testament which we
translate as “hate” is misew (or “miseo” if you don’t read Greek). It can
mean “despise,” but it can also mean to disregard or be indifferent to something
or someone. The Greeks just didn’t have a word to express a big, fat “whatever.”
Still, disregarding your family is a pretty
serious matter. It’s not something nice people do. But in New Testament times,
choosing to be a follower of Jesus could mean that your folks would turn on you
or kick you out of the clan. For us—even though it may not mean giving our
lives like Dietrich Bonhoeffer—it can mean making a painful choice to confront
someone or call them out on their destructive behavior and risk getting shut
out of the group. It may mean practicing some tough love, quitting a job,
dropping a friendship, or even leaving a club, neighborhood, political party,
or a church because you recognize that what’s going on there isn’t something
you can square up with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It can mean swallowing some
pride, asking or granting some forgiveness, or parting with some cash you’d
much rather hold onto because someone else needs it more than you. Following
Jesus is going to cost you. If it doesn’t, you may not be doing it right.
The smart guys who cook up the Revised
Common Lectionary have chosen to marry this Gospel lesson with Saint Paul’s epistle
to Philemon. If you read this little letter, you’ll see that Paul is writing to
a slaveholder named Philemon whose slave, Onesimus, has run away and is now
hanging out with Paul in some jail somewhere (Paul got himself arrested a
lot!). Both Philemon and Onesimus are Christians, but it’s pretty clear that
they’re not getting along. You don’t run away from someone who treats you well,
and you don’t take kindly to someone who is supposed to work for you taking off
without your permission.
(Yes, slavery is a terrible thing.
Onesimus may have been a captive or he may have been a bound servant, one who
was forced to work to pay off a debt. The letter doesn’t tell us. We can only
assume that Paul takes no issue with involuntary servitude because it was something
that existed in his day and he never thought there was anything to do about it.[iii])
What we learn from this letter is that
Paul has convinced Onesimus to forgive Philemon and return to him. This must’ve
been a pretty hard sell to get a slave to go back to his master, but Onesimus
is willing to pay the cost of being Christ’s disciple and will forgive the
wrong done to him. Paul’s purpose in writing the letter is to get Philemon to
forgive Onesimus, and to receive him as an equal (v.16). This is a costly thing
for Philemon’s ego, but discipleship demands that there is no distinction among
us. Paul himself is willing to pay the price by promising to either pay back anything
Onesimus took from his master (if that be the case) or, perhaps, to pay off his
debt and buy his freedom (vv.18-19). Each man has to give up something in order
to be a brother in Christ to the others.
That’s one cost of baptism right there—the
recognition that God has no grandchildren. All of us are his children, all
equally loved and precious in his eyes. My baptism has made me no more holy or
special than the baptism I’ll preside over for this lovely little girl this
coming Sunday. For the thing which must drown in the waters of the font is our
selfish sense of pride.
I’m glad you checked in on me this week.
May God bless you ‘til we meet again!
[i]
Bonhoeffer’s most famous book is called The
Cost of Discipleship. He wrote it in 1937 when the Nazis controlled
Germany, but it is still in print today. You can get it at Amazon or Barnes and
Noble.
[ii]
For some people, this may not be much of a challenge.
[iii]
Rather like Walmart. I don’t like it, but it looks like it’s here to stay.
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