Abandon Family to Serve God ?
A contradiction not often discussed relates to the biblical teaching to abandon family in order to serve God. Matthew claims that Jesus told his disciples to "Honor your father and mother." (Matthew 19:19), but this cannot be reconciled with the example set by Jesus, as the passages below will show.
Jesus enticed two separate sets of brothers away from their families, the first being the fishermen Simon and Andrew, who left their trade and, presumably, their family, to follow Jesus (Mark 1:16-18). Later, James and John did the same thing, leaving their father behind (Mark 1:19-20).
That Jesus explicitly encouraged his followers to abandon their families is made clear in Luke 14:26, where the writer has Jesus tell his followers to think more of him than their families: "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." (Luke 14:26)
Jesus contempt for all things familial is further illustrated in the story of the disciple who begged for permission to bury his father: "Lord, first let me go and bury my father," Jesus told him to let him rot: "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:21-22) You would think that the son of an all-loving God would be sensitive enough to the poor son's grief that he would give him a few hours time off to tend to his father's corpse. Either Jesus wasn't the son of a god, or else Matthew was wrong about what Jesus said, or the historical Jesus never existed. Either way, the Bible has a big problem.
Jesus later set the example for others to follow, by himself abandoning his mother and brother. After his mother and brothers had said that he was out of his mind, and appeared outside a house to take charge of him," (Mark 3:21) Mark does not have Jesus invite her inside, nor does Mark have Jesus go outside to greet her. Instead, Mark has Jesus makes it clear to his followers inside the house that he does not regard the woman outside as his mother. He explains to his followers what his definition of a mother is: A mother is whoever does the will of God, (Mark 3:31-35), with the clear implication being that one who didn't recognize Jesus as the son of God was obviously not in tune with the will of God:
"Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you. Who are my mother and my brothers? he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:31-35)
Thus, Jesus effectively abandons his mother to serve God, thereby setting the example for the readers of Marks gospel to follow should their families, too, not believe that Jesus was the son of God. Thus, almost two thousand years before the practice of shunning of unbelieving family members was put into practice by a multitude of Christian cults, including the Jehovah's Witnesses, the precedence for this behavior was established by Jesus himself.
Joseph F. Alward
"A Skeptical View of Christianity and the Bible"
http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html
Edited by - JosephAlward on 14 October 2002 19:31:43