Loading...Sometimes I find Jesus a bit confusing. Today he seems a little snippy, not very friendly or welcoming. As my Mother often said “ He must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.”
One person says to him “I will follow you wherever you may go.” Jesus doesn’t say “thank you” or “you are welcome to come alone”, instead he seems to complain that, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Later he invites a stranger to follow him, and the stranger responds saying, “Yes, but first let me go and bury my father” Jesus simply says, “Let the dead bury their own dead.” To another would-be follower who made another reasonable request, to say “goodbye” to his loved ones first, Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus is not coming across as a good recruiter. He is turning away people who are expressing their love for him and willingly want to follow him. He seems to be saying, “If you wish to follow me, you must drop everything that you are doing and turn your back on everyone in your life. You must give up everything to follow me.”
Doesn’t Jesus value home or family, the things we hold most dear? How is this honoring your parents as the commandment said to do? This seems harsh, not very Christ-like. It’s even unrealistic, undo-able? It leaves me asking “who can ever be a follower? Can anyone live up to these expectations? Well I think maybe we should take a second look at the passage.
Jesus lived and worked in the area close to the Sea of Galilee for most of his ministry. He lived in the town of Capernaum. He preached the gospel, healed the sick and proclaimed the Kingdom of God to all who would listen but never ventured out too far from home.
In our reading today Luke tells us that Jesus now had “intently set his face to go to Jerusalem.” He is setting out on his final journey. Earlier in this chapter of Luke we learned that Jesus began warning the disciples that he would soon be rejected, suffer and be killed. They confess that they believe he is the Messiah and they see him transfigured standing with Moses and Elijah. But the disciples still do not fully understand what Jesus’ last days will be like. Jesus knows. He has “set his face” toward Jerusalem, he will let nothing stop him or change his direction.
At this point we see a major change in Jesus’ ministry. He no longer is staying in the small towns and villages. He is now taking his message to Jerusalem itself, to the Jewish leaders, to the temple, to the center of the Jewish faith.
We all know what will happen when he gets there — He’ll be confronted by the religious leaders. Within days the people turn against him, and before the week is up, he will be crucified. His decision to go to Jerusalem marks the beginning of the end. What we are seeing here, with his face set to go to Jerusalem, is his sheer determination to obey God’s will — regardless of the costs.
And now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus wasn’t being snippy or harsh but he was doing what he often did, he uses this occasion as a teaching opportunity. There was urgency in his message. It was to his disciples in particular. He needed them to understand that they must make a total commitment if they want to follow him. They will be putting themselves in danger and their lives will be changed. Now we get to listen in as Jesus teaches and learn what his message means for us in the 21st century.
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, Jesus says. His disciples must be willing to leave the comforts of home and move into the unknown. Their lives, if they choose to follow him, will be radically different. They will leave behind what they know and go in a totally new direction.
To a would-be follower he says “Let the dead bury their own dead.” Jesus knew that the Kingdom of God is not about death; it is about life, abundant life. Life that changes everything. Following Jesus means to leave our fears behind; our fears of not having enough, our fears of our own limitations, even our fears of death.
Jesus is telling his disciples that they must be willing to let go of the past. He says to them “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God”? I have never plowed a field and I guess most of you in this room have not either. But I do understand that when plowing you have to watch carefully in front of you to keep the rows straight. If you look backward you will swerve one way or another and your rows will be embarrassingly crooked.
Jesus was saying, don’t look back. Looking back would cause you to swerve off the path. Once you start on the path to the kingdom of God you would never want to turn away from it. Looking back could result in second-guessing your decisions or regretting changes that you made. Looking back keeps us from looking forward and seeing the promise of life in the Kingdom of God.
Both of these would-be followers said to Jesus “I will follow you BUT first I need to do something.” Maybe what Jesus wanted to hear was “Yes, I will follow you AND I will also do what I need to do. “
Which of these do we choose, “but first” or “and also”? Do we say "Yes, Lord, I will follow you, I will pray, I will give, I will love others, I will do whatever you call me to do, BUT FIRST, I need to pay off my boat; I need to pay my bills and get my taxes done; I need to get the clothes washed. I need to take the children to their ball game, etc.
Jesus is not saying “to follow my path you have to get off your path”. It doesn’t have to be two different paths. His path is not one that you start only after everything else in your life is taken care of and finished.
What the would-be followers could have said was “Yes, I will follow you AND I will go and bury my Father.” Yes, I will follow you AND I will go tell my loved ones good-bye and while I am there I will tell them about you as well. Jesus is saying he doesn’t want us to follow him only when we have the time to follow him or when it is convenient.
We can’t wait until our calendar is clear, when all the clothes are washed. Following Jesus means the clothes get washed, folded and put away, the bills get paid, the kids get taken care of, you keep your appointments and meet your obligations AND you follow Jesus in a way that means you do those things in a new way.
Following Jesus doesn't mean not doing anything else, it means doing everything else with your face set toward Jerusalem. This is what a life of faith is all about, setting your sights on Christ and God’s kingdom and moving toward it, one step at a time; not letting the chaos of the world distract you, or the temptations of the world cause us to look back, but by the grace of God striving to live following the example of Jesus, day by day.
Following Jesus’ path leads us to the Kingdom of God, where, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians, we will find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity and self-control. With that sort of path to look toward, who would want to look back?
