all ..

" if you want to follow me you must hate everyone .. father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children .. even your own selflife " ..
Jesus

hyperbole
even so, the inference is  .. rather shoocking, unnatural .. standing there telling me to diss' everyone else and follow him ??

he obviously knew what he was saying, why he said it ..

`|`

perhaps if we understood that, in the context of who this was saying this stuff, where he'd come from, the unthinkable incarnation into finite (think trying to bottle a star or a galaxy; that might get our mind headed in the direction), the road ahead for him .. the whole cosmic-scale breadth of what this one human was about ..
then maybe his words might not seem so harsh ..

`|`

when we follow Jesus under the weight of our cross, the implications are cosmic, literally - everything else pales, everyone else .. my own life pales

`|`

so while there's the embracing-in-love of people (magnified in family), there's also the perspective, the understanding that this man rightfully demands everything of me ..
.. deserves

everything else is secondary


peace