More Than Me

If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it. Matthew 10:37-39

EVEN AS JESUS SPENT time with his disciples, he began preparing them for when he would no longer be with them. Jesus knew the costs the disciples would be required to pay for being identified with him after his departure. Halfhearted love and halfway commitment would not be enough to kindle the kind of courage they would need to endure the persecution and rejection that was ahead for all who were called by his name.

Jesus didn’t want his followers to be surprised when they experienced tremendous pressure to forget about following him and return to Judaism. In the early church, Jews who embraced Christ were no longer welcome at the synagogue, which would be where their families had found their home and place of belonging for centuries. Many had to make very painful choices between pleasing their parents and following Christ.

Even today, as our children emerge into adulthood, Jesus’ call for them is to love him more than us. He still calls them to refuse to cling to the plans they may have had for their lives and the plans we may have had for where they would live, how they would live, and what they would live for.

Lord, it seems a bit strange to pray that ________ would love you even more than he loves us, but we know that’s what you’ve called him to. More than that, we know that as his love for you makes him more determined to obey you than to obey us, more determined to give up his plans and dreams for you than he is for us, he will be living the blessed life. And that’s what we want for him. So we give ________ to you, Lord, asking you to fill him with that kind of love and level of commitment to you, so that nothing and nobody —not even his parents —will deter him from a life devoted to the cause of your Kingdom.