Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Nothing can come before Jesus. If we love anything more than him we'll cling to this life. We'll refuse to follow him to the cross. That still leaves a lot of room to love father, mother, son or daughter. But Jesus must come first. We're called to enter into the death of Jesus. Because it is death we are talking about we are all too ready to make excuses even of the many good things he puts in our lives.
We need to place Jesus first so that we don't run when we face the cross. Only then do we taste the promise of life he offers.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
The path to life does not so much involve loving the things of this world less as it does loving Christ more. When Christ reigns in the center of our hearts he puts the rest of our lives, the other things we love, in their proper order. Sin has less and less leverage to affect us. We prepare ourselves for the life we will live forever in heaven and begin to taste that life even now.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.
Let us receive the prophets, the righteous ones, and the disciples of Jesus who bring this message to us. His messengers are those who make it their life to put Jesus first. We should be like the woman from Shunem who is so hospitable to Elisha. If we receive the people the LORD sends us with hospitality we can be sure, that like her, we won't lose our reward. Our reward, first and foremost, is freedom from sin and eternal life.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet's reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man's reward.
It isn't about the economy of the transaction. It is because to truly receive such people is possible only when we put Jesus first in our own lives and then see Jesus in them. The reception of the prophet becomes its own reward. It's hard for our selfish hearts to even understand just how good this can be. But those who learn to put Jesus first and then find him in the little ones know exactly the joyful shout of which the psalmist speaks.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
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