Marine Corps Drill Instructors are the people of legend; they are entrusted with turning recruits into the next generation of U.S. Marines.
My image of a drill instructor comes from movies like “Full Metal Jacket” and “An Officer and a Gentleman.” These drill instructors are like unhinged maniacs with explosive personalities, relentlessly training recruits who also have a heavy academic workload and a demanding physical fitness schedule.
The essence of the drill instructor is best captured by the Marine Corps Drill Instructor creed or pledge:
“These recruits are entrusted to my care. I will train them to the best of my ability. I will develop them into smartly disciplined, physically fit, trained Marines, thoroughly indoctrinated in love of Corps and country. I will demand of them, and demonstrate by my own example, the highest standards of personal conduct, morality and professional skill.”
A Drill Instructor does not go home at the end of the day when he or she is training a platoon. Instead, they stay with the platoon. The Drill Instructors are with the recruits 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 13 weeks. They are highly trained professionals who are the foundation of the process of making Marines. They ensure that the recruits receive the best training possible to prepare them for the rigors they will face as a Marine. Recruits will be pushed to their physical and mental limits and beyond.
After listening to the gospel today, I can’t help but think that Jesus might have been the original Drill Instructor who demands just as much from his disciples as the Marine Drill Instructor expects from each recruit.
Jesus’ language is startling and harsh, seeming excessively severe. Just look at the first line, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
This first requirement to being a disciple is a very severe introduction to becoming a disciple. What does Jesus mean?
In order to understand the meaning of Jesus’ words, it is essential for us living in this century to understand the figures of speech prevalent in the time of Jesus. Jesus, in the tradition of the Semitic languages, is using a figure of speech in which there is an outsized exaggeration to make a specific point.
To understand the figure of speech, we have to know the meaning behind the expression. We still use such figures of speech today. For example, a weather reporter could say, “It is raining cats and dogs.” What does that mean?
We exaggerate to make a point. The exaggeration is the cats and dogs. The point is that it is raining really hard.
With the start of the football season, we can expect to hear a broadcaster declaring that one team massacred another. The exaggeration is “massacred.” The point the broadcaster is making is that one team won over another.
The exaggeration Jesus used is “hate.” The point Jesus is making is that we need to make a total commitment. That is, prefer nothing, absolutely no one person or no one thing, before Christ. The exaggeration helps us understand the condition of becoming a disciple.
There is a second condition to be a disciple: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”
We should have no problem understanding this condition. We have plenty of crosses and hardships every day. Our crosses come in various shapes and sizes, and we all have them.
The heavy cross was forced on the bruised shoulders of Jesus, causing extreme pain. Even though Jesus was totally innocent, He accepted the cross. You and I are often forced to do things that we do not want to do, yet we do it because it is the right thing to do and that is our cross to bear.
When our own problems seem overwhelming, it helps us to look around and see what other people have to cope with. Then you may consider yourself truly fortunate that your cross isn’t so heavy when compared to other people’s burdens and crosses.
There is a third condition to being a disciple, and it is found in verse 33, the last sentence of today’s gospel. “In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
This is another figure of speech or exaggeration to make a point. The exaggeration is “all possessions.” The point is that we are called to give up whatever hinders us from making a total commitment to Christ or prevents us from carrying our own cross.
The demands that Jesus makes upon those who follow him are extreme, very much like the demands on a recruit by a Marine Drill Instructor. Christianity is not just a one-hour worship service on the weekend. Jesus doesn’t want admirers but people who have a personal relationship with Him. A spirituality that costs nothing is worth nothing!
In 1937, Dietrich Bonhoeffer authored a book entitled “The Cost of Discipleship.” He spoke out against Hitler and as a result, suffered greatly and was imprisoned. In the book, he coined the term “cheap grace.” Cheap grace is grace without discipline. Cheap grace is grace without the cross.
It takes great personal expense to be a U.S Marine, or an excellent student, or win the U.S. Open or be a successful writer or musician. Sometimes you have to give up everything and be willing to spend hours each day practicing your skills and submitting to rigorous programs of training, diet and exercise.
Being a disciple of Jesus does come with a high cost, and there is no such thing as cheap grace or cutting corners. If we put Christ first, we will necessarily love our father, mother, spouse, children, brother and sister. If we follow Christ, we will necessarily carry the weight of our own crosses and help carry the crosses of others. If we commit to Christ, we will necessarily detach ourselves from our possessions.
Jesus can’t be accused of using a “soft sell” approach when it comes to the cost of becoming one of his disciples. The cost? Everything: family, comfort and possessions.
Jesus doesn’t call us to be convenient Christians but to be committed Christians.
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