ON MISSIONARIES: A PERSONAL VIEW (16)

There is nothing more problematic, even dangerous, than in reading Scripture literally to interpret all words or expressions. An example can be found in Luke 14:26: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother... he cannot be my disciple." 

Dictionaries define hate as to “feel intense or passionate dislike for someone.” Is that what Jesus meant? Does he want us to have such an intense negative feeling about our parents?

Before Joice and I left for PNG in 1958, we knew that when (not if) our parents died, we would not be able to return for their funerals. We would be 10,000 miles away with no immediate access (or funds) to return home. Consequently, we did not say “so long” to them. We said “goodbye.”

English Bible translations that use “hate” begin with Genesis 3.15 where God told Eve that she and Satan would “hate each other.” We also read in Genesis 27.41 that Essau hated Jacob because he did not receive the birthright, he thought he deserved. We also read in Genesis 37.4 that Joseph’s brothers hated him so much that they would not even speak to him.

However, In Leviticus 19.18, we read “Do not take revenge on others or continue to hate them but love your neighbors as you love yourself.” The Bible therefore also contains seemingly contradictory instructions regarding family, with verses like Exodus 20:12 ("Honor your father and your mother") opposed to Luke 14:25-26. However, Jesus uses the word "hate" to emphasize the extreme level of commitment required to be a disciple. Our love for God is to more than that for our family. We need to let go of family relationships when they interfere with our commitment to God.

Jesus loved his parents and when he was dying on the cross, he saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing nearby and said to his mother, “He is your son.” He then said to the disciple, “She is your mother.” From that time on the disciple took the mother of Jesus to live in his home. (John 19.26-27) Jesus loved his mother and wanted her cared for after his own death.

On another occasion Jesus' mother and brothers wanted to see him but were unable to because of the crowd. Someone said to Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to see you.” Jesus replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 8.19=21) He also asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother.” (Matthew 12.48-50).

Jesus did not want us to be left without the love and comfort provided by our parents. He said that “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life.” (Matthew 19.29)

When we visited Melbourne Australia on our way to PNG in 1958, we received a telegram that Joice’s father had died from a heart attack. We had seen him just weeks before and it was of course a shock.

Through a series of wonderful events, we stayed for while at the home of a colleagues in Sydney. Across the road was a small grocery shop owned by Tom and Elsie Hibberd. They became our surrogate parents. We stayed with them whenever we were in Sydney, they took us on holidays, and they visited us in PNG and later in Texas. We became family.

We had left family and houses for PNG and God gave us many more in Australia, New Zealand and America. Our children had “uncles” and “aunts” who loved them and helped them. They too were surrogate parents and family.

Over the years, we became the “apa” and “ama” (father and mother) to many Kewas, as well as the “uncles” and “aunts” to our children’s friends. We were living out the promises of Jesus and we received a “hundred times more” than we gave out.

God is never mocked, and we reap what we have sown.

Karl Franklin