TRANSCRIPT
I have a few quotations by Jesus that I just love, and I’m gonna read them and talk about them. The first one is my favorite and Jesus quotation of all. It’s from Matthew chapter 10, verse 34. Think not that I have come to bring peace to the earth. It is not peace I bring, but a sword. I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. A person’s enemies will be the members of his own household.
Now, why in the world would Jesus say that? If he loved the family system, he’s advocating open rebellion against parents. He’s saying family is hell. Family is horrible. Rebel against it. He totally gets it that family is exactly the opposite way to truth, especially if you’re an adult. If you’re trying to become conscious and you stick with your family, if you stick with your parents, if you stick with their denial, you’re not going to grow. He’s talking about knowing yourself. He’s talking about being real and being honest. And he recognizes that if you stick with your family, you’re not gonna get real. Break away from them. Turn against them. Turn, but not turn against them as human beings. Turn against their lies. Turn against their denial. Don’t turn against the truth within them.
The thing is, if your family loves truth, they’ll come along with you. They’ll get real also because everybody has a perfect true self. The worst parent, the worst human being in the world has a true self inside of themselves, has the capacity to become perfect and to become beautiful. The thing is, if they’re not gonna do it, if they have no desire to even try to get real, then get away from them.
The second quote is from Luke chapter 14, verses 26 to 27. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Now, what does he mean here? If you don’t hate your father and mother, your wife and children, your brothers and sisters, yes, even your own life? Hmm. I think what he’s saying is if you don’t hate their fakeness, if you don’t hate their lies, then you can never ever get real. What does it mean to be Jesus’s disciple? It means to follow his example and become honest and to become real and to become pure of heart, to become 100% truth, to get rid of all your denial, to get rid of all your lies to yourself and to the whole world, and get true to yourself.
Now, why does he say yes, even your own life? You have to hate even your own life before you can become his disciple. Why would he want someone to hate their own life? What he’s saying is he wants you to hate the denial in your life, to hate the lies. And I respect him for this, and I think that’s exactly what he means. I don’t think I’m doing an over-interpretation or a misinterpretation through a distorted lens.
I’ve heard people who conventionally define themselves as Christians explain this, and they use the most twisted, denial-laden explanations all about how this is the way to connect to God, and you have to reject your family in order to connect to this weird, dissociated conception of God that they have. And I think they have it totally backward. I think you get rid of the worst of your family to connect to the truth within yourself.
A third quotation, this is from Matthew chapter 12, verses 48 to 50. This is when Jesus is addressing a big crowd of his followers, and his biological mother and his brothers show up, and they want to talk to him. He says to them, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he 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.”
What I love about this is he’s saying the family that raised me, they’re not really my true family. My true family are the people who really followed deep honesty and deep truth. It’s not about blood. Blood is not thicker than water. Truth is thicker than blood. Reject the people that are fake. Reject the people that harmed you. Reject the people that try and force you into a box of denial and lies, and get real. Do whatever you have to do to get real, including turning your back on your own mother.
The fourth quotation of Jesus, in a slightly different vein, but I think you’ll see the connection. It’s from John chapter 14, verse 12. Jesus said, “He that believeth in me, the works that I do, he shall do also, and greater works than these shall he do.” What Jesus is saying here is that if you get real and if you fully connect with the truth within you and you’re fully able to manifest it, you’re gonna do even better than he did. He sees that. He sees that he still had some limitations within himself as a human being. He must have, because you wouldn’t have been able to do greater things than Jesus otherwise. He sees that a person could grow beyond him, could resolve their traumas more than he could, could be in less denial than he could, and thus could be more powerful.
This goes against Christianity in a big way because Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the perfect human being. But Jesus wasn’t a Christian. Jesus was just a real person. That’s my belief, and I believe that we all have the capacity to become just like Jesus and better. And I think I got in Jesus’s support on this one.