Was Jesus Unloving?

Newsletter arrticle for July 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Once when Jesus was teaching about himself as the bread of life his followers found it hard to understand and accept this teaching. In fact, they said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Now you might expect that Jesus then sat down and explained to them the meaning of His Words, perhaps He could have taught them about the real presence in the Lord’s Supper (although at this point He had yet to institute this Sacrament.) This is not what Jesus did. Instead Jesus gave them more things that they could not accept. He said, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe….This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” Upon hearing this many of His “disciples” turned away and no longer followed Him. Was this the loving thing to do? (See John 6:60-66)

Another time a man came up to Jesus as He was walking along the road, and the man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Now you might think that this is just the kind of highly motivated person that Jesus wanted to be a disciple. You might expect Jesus to say to him, “Come on along, I have plenty of work for you. The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.” But that is not what Jesus said to him. Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” So instead of telling of all the great work that needs to be done, and telling of all the glory that comes with being a follower of Jesus, He discourages the man and tells of the hardships of being a disciple.

In the same passage of Scripture (Luke 9:57-62) Jesus Himself gives an invitation to someone else saying, “Follow me.” The man responded, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Obviously this man was distraught and in mourning for his father who recently passed away. Since even then it had long been the custom in Israel to bury the dead the same day they died this task should not have taken long. But Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Does this seem a little insensitive and callous to you? Didn’t Jesus understand what this man was going through?

Again in that same passage of Scripture another man said to Jesus, I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” This seems like a reasonable request, doesn’t it. He wants to serve Jesus, and he doesn’t want his family to worry about where he is and what he is doing. But once again Jesus rebukes him saying, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Doesn’t this seem harsh? Even if this man was unfit for service in the kingdom of God, couldn’t Jesus have trained him or otherwise made him fit?

What about the Pharisees? These were the leaders of the Israelites, and they were all fine, upstanding people who were well respected. They did hate Jesus and conspire to kill him, but didn’t Jesus teach us to “Love your enemies?” Then why does Jesus berate them in an extended vitriolic tirade (Matthew 23), calling them such names as hypocrites (at least six times by my account), blind guides (twice), blind fools, blind men, blind Pharisees, whitewashed tombs, snakes, vipers, and He implies that they are murderers of God’s prophets. Doesn’t Jesus practice what He preached? When Jesus spoke to Satan (Matt. 4) He used more respectful words that weren’t so harsh.

Another time the Pharisees simply asked Jesus to give them a miraculous sign, presumably so that they could believe in Him and know that He truly is from God. Instead of giving them the proof they required, Jesus condemned them saying, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it ; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.” As Jesus was teaching this (Matt. 12) Jesus’ mother and brothers were outside the house, and they wanted to speak to Jesus. When He was told about this He said, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Then Jesus pointed to His disciples and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Did Jesus renounce his relationship with His family? Was He that uncaring and unloving that He preferred His friends over His family?

Obviously Jesus was neither unloving, nor unnecessarily discouraging, nor insensitive, nor callous, nor harsh, nor hateful, nor uncaring, nor a bad son and brother. The reason why Jesus acted the way He did in each of these situations is that He knew how to properly apply God’s Law and God’s Gospel in every situation. In all the situations above, Jesus was dealing with unbelievers or the self-righteous, or with people who otherwise were unwilling to die to sin and live for Christ (see Romans 6:11-14).

The reason why Jesus spoke more kindly to Satan was that there is and was no hope for him to be saved. The devil is already suffering the punishment for his sins, but when Jesus spoke in Matt. 23 there was still hope for the Pharisees if only they would have recognized their sin and repented, so Jesus got to the point where strong words of rebuke were called for, and He did not hold back because He loved them and wanted them to be saved.

In the other situations the people who wanted to follow Jesus also wanted to hold on to some worldly things, and Jesus saw the need to teach them the First Commandment, that to be a disciple of God is to love Him with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength. If you love God you cannot also love the world. Remember the words of 1 John 2:15-16, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.”

In all these situations Jesus DID show love, but remember that Jesus is not a Gospel reductionist (see this article). Jesus knows that the best thing for all people is that they repent and turn to Him for forgiveness. If someone refuses to repent then they need to be condemned by the Law until they come to Jesus. For Jesus and His disciples there is no shame in bringing rebuke or punishment on the unrepentant. Christ’s salvation is forever, but for the repentant sinner pain and shame last only a little while, and if a little pain leads people to Jesus, then it is worth it. Only the enemies of Jesus would hesitate to bring harsh words of condemnation to those who follow Jesus half-heartedly. Only the devil and his followers would call someone unloving who did and said what Jesus did in the situations described above. Let us not be turned aside from the path of our salvation, but let us follow Jesus in truth and purity.