2. sunday after Trinitatus 9. june 2002
2. line of text.
Lukas Chapter 14.
The Cost of Being a Disciple
25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
31"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
34"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
My words
I indeed find those words of Jesus insane and I phoned two priest and a young theolog. The two priests gave an interpretition I hardly could understand. But they agreed in me that we need to have the events in easter in our mind to throw its light on those difficult words of Jesus. The theolog told me that the hebrew language had only few words. And he said that there was only one word to express the opposite to love. And the word hate is a translation of a word that covers a wide rangde of feelings. The meaning is that our foundation in life is the Love from Jesus that never change.. That his love to us humans was so big that he gave his life so that we never shall fear to be punished nomatter how great a sinn we make. Jesus words will always be there. Also when the ones we love are dead. We are loved by God also if we dont believe he is. We are loved by Love. But the text above is an old text written of people hundred years after the events. We cannot hate our own life if we want to live. We must believe in ourselves because Love believe in us.
Palle Jensen