Hating Life

It is essential to realize that just as we all use rhetorical devices in speech and writing, so did Jesus. To take everything he said literally would be foolish. Parables, for example, are a rhetorical method used to drive home a greater truth – usually one big truth. A good parable gets close enough to a real life event that the audience can nod along with approval. If they fail to get the meaning, at least they have heard a good story.

Jesus also used hyperbole. At least I hope that’s what he was doing. To wit: If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. ~ Matthew 5:29,30

Those statements are not meant to comfort. They are meant to make us sweat. “What did he mean by eyes and hands causing us to sin? Uh, oh.” Was the “you” and the “your” 2nd person singular or plural? It doesn’t matter. He could be speaking to one or to a multitude. He is forcing us to think. And, in so doing, he stitches us up in one big bag. We’ve all sinned with our eyes. We’ve all sinned with our hands. The church is full of sinners. Being a sinner is our entry ticket to Christianity – at least the humble admission of such. If we were to take this literally, we’d have a church jam-packed with the faithful hobbling about both blind and limbless. I don’t see a lot of that. There are stories of supposed saints down through the ages who did remove body parts. Origen, the great theologian and church father, allegedly took care of the self-mutilation business “a little further south” on his own body.
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And so yesterday, we see Jesus saying that unless we detest or hate this life, then we are not really prepared for heaven. Those are strong words. He used this same argument on another occasion. He said this: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, and even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. ~Luke 14:26

Now, in the balance of everything else Jesus said and did, does it follow that he meant for us to hate all of our loved ones and to do so absent a few body parts? I’m not one to think so. Yet, I do not want to disregard the force of these rhetorical devices. Jesus was using hyperbole to make a point – a point of comparison. I might say that I love my grandson and that I love pizza. Only an oaf would think I mean the same thing by the word “love.” If it came down to a choice between saving a pizza or my grandson from harm, I would definitely let the pizza come to a bad end. I love my grandson so much more than pizza that the distance between the two might appear as hate by comparison.

So, when it comes to “hating life” I believe that what Jesus is saying is that we are to love the next life more than this one. Those who grasp this will do things counter-intuitive to a good and comfortable life here on earth. They will love their enemies. They will be generous to a fault. They will risk embarrassment and persecution for their faith. They will do all of this because they have learned to love the other life in a way that is qualitatively and quantitatively different than their love for this life. Essentially, what it comes down to is this: We are to hold this life loosely because, in fact, this life holds us loosely.