Clashing loyalties come into play as schools re-open. Parents consider what they owe to their own children and to society in general. Risk, opportunity, urgency clamour to be heard. Yet another decision has to be made on the basis of inadequate information.
Family comes first. We are mostly agreed about that. We put loyalty to our closest above loyalty to outsiders. We have more than a shred of sympathy with E.M. Forster when he said he hated the idea of causes and that if he had to choose between betraying his country and betraying his friend, he would have the guts to betray his country. Most of us would rate our family members – or our friend – more highly than our neighbours or our compatriots.
And yet. And yet. There is another point of view. In Luke 15.26 we have that extraordinary statement by Jesus: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be a disciple of mine.’
How can this be? Parents regularly exert themselves to get all the help they can so as to ensure their offspring pass exams, do well at a particular sport and get favoured treatment from those who can give them a leg-up. If that is OK, blameless and indeed commendable, how is it that the words of Jesus go plain contrary to such preferential concern? Because it is preferential treatment that parents secure. Their own children get what other children go without. Some would say that we here see pushy parents fulfilling their surrogate ambitions. This is socially divisive and self-seeking behaviour by parents who should know better.
Undoubtedly Luke’s account of Jesus’ words claims our attention. It is far from the bureaucratic polysyllables that dominate our public discourse nowadays. It is language that works. It is also language that can be dissected and discounted as emotive and intemperate. A critic may shrewdly point out that whereas the Old Testament constantly uses the word ‘family’, the New Testament uses it only once.
The point is clear. Family comes first – or almost so. But there is a higher loyalty. Jesus is acknowledging that family loyalty prevails but only in the way that personal survival comes first. Greater even than concern for personal survival is adherence to the author and finisher of our salvation.
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