Now that’s a harsh gospel. I don’t know if it refers to the time when I was young and I dragged my little sister across the kitchen floor, by her hair, because it was her turn to do the dishes.
Or the time my youngest brother, Pete, was about 4 or 5 and he was busy eating his breakfast cereal with his face really close to the bowl. Then another brother, George, walks by and pushes Pete’s face into the bowl. And we all watched it. We said, “Why did you do that?” George said, “I don’t know. His face just needed to go into the bowl.”
Or the time, our entire family was floating down a river on inner tubes, and my younger brother Guy had enough, so he just grabbed an overhanging branch and wasn’t going any further. Well, we out in the middle of no-where. So I swam upstream to talk to him. And he wouldn’t budge, so what did I did? I did what needed to be done. I slapped in the face. He let go. and we continued.
Living with siblings is a struggle. For those of you who don’t have many siblings, then just ask the dog or cat how nice you were to them.
No, I don’t think Jesus is referring to the usual “trying to harm” one’s family member, just because they are family. He is referring to the fact that there is something greater going on in life. And when we “hang on” to something being more important than God, we are in trouble. That is, when we cling to anything (even a family member) and not do as God want’s we are in trouble.
It’s like the story, it’s actually kind of a joke, that goes like this. There once was a man who didn’t really believe in God. He was looking over a huge cliff and all of a sudden he slipped and fell. Well as luck would have it, halfway down the cliff he caught hold of a small scrubby tree that grew out of the cliff wall. He was all alone as he hung there. There was no one near. He couldn’t climb up and to fall would mean death. Desperate he looked up to the sky and cried out to the heavens, “God if you do exit, if you are up in the heavens, help me!” Nothing.
He called again, God, help me.”
Then to his amazement, he heard an answer, “All right,” said the voice, “Let go.”
“Let go?” said the man, “God you don’t understand I too far up if I let go…..”
“Let go” the voice repeated. The man was silent.
Then he called out, “Ugh, is there anyone else up there?”
You see, at some point in our lives we need to trust God even if that means hurting or severing what “society” tells us or even our own family members tell us. We have to start making some difficult decisions. Most of us are “people pleasers.” That is, we want things to always be happy and smooth. But Jesus is saying, “WAKE U P.” Stop doing things just because others want you to do it. Trust the presence of God. Trust the message of God in your life.
And basically that message comes down to only a couple of principles that Jesus states over and over again: Forgive
Everything belongs
Act out of love (especially doing service for the down trodden)n
Still we have to live with difficult people and doing those things that are not always easy. That’s Jesus’ point . . . do the right thing always.
That might mean making some huge changes in your life. It might mean acting in a way that doesn’t tolerate bad behavior or bad attitude. But it does mean that in the end . . . you can safely trust that you have acted in a way that God wanted for you.
And most of the time it means . . . “let go.” There is a saying in retreat work, “Let go. Let God.”
I have a litany of what “letting go” means. It is from Alcoholics Anonymous group
To “let go” does not mean to stop caring,
it means we to realize that can’t do it all for someone else.
To “let go” is not to cut ourselves off,
it’s the realization that we can’t control others.
To “let go” is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is ultimately not in our hands.
To “let go” is not to try to change others or fix others, or blame
others, it’s simply to make the most of ourselves, to search out our own shortcomings and try to correct them.
To “let go” is to judge less
and allow others to be human.
To “let go” is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own destinies.
To “let go” is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes, and cherish myself in it.
To “let go” is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.
To “let go” is to fear less and love more.