Luke 9:57-62 As they were walking along the road, a man
said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have
dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He
said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and
bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you
go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you,
Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied,
“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the
kingdom of God.”
“These words destroy
the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do.
And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to
remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come
or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He
says, “. . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Luke 9:59 . This
man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect
for his father. We put our sense of
loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to
take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ
whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61 . The person who says, “Lord, I will follow
You, but . . .,” is the person who
is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations
about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes,
as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the
call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.” CHAMBERS
These are hard words .. I have several conversations with
people in ministry over the years who have said … the family must be first … my
wife must be first … in the context of these verses, what do you think Jesus
would say? That
is saying my wife must be first … I love God,
but not more than I love my wife. Then
who is your god? If I were to say, “I
love god but I love money more.” What would you say to that? “Well the Bible says you cannot love God and
money!” Replace money with any other noun you wish. God must be first .. husband, wife, children,
parents … the list goes on.
So what is at issue here?
Does God have your whole heart … Matthew
22:37-39 “Jesus replied: [to the question
what is the greatest commandment] “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like
it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
How many things can
be first? That’s right .. one. There are no “ties” in our relationship with
God. He is either first or He is not. God
included this encounter between Jesus and the man in Luke because we need to
know what it means to follow Jesus. It
does not mean to abandon your family .. reject them .. it means that obeying
God has primacy in your life. Your
relationship with God is like the relationship of a prime number to the number
1. A prime number in math, simply, is a
number that cannot be divided by any other number but 1 or itself. No other number can enter into the relationship
between 1 and that number. (Sorry if you
don’t like math analogies.) Your relationship is “prime” with God. I will resist continuing with the analogy.
The bottom line … there are a number of “good” things that
might cause you to not follow Jesus … Things that would cause you would turn away … you are
tempted every day to choose something else … I want to encourage you to choose
Jesus .. to live by faith … stop
treating God like He is a divine waiter, standing
by waiting to take your next order. What
He wants is of no consequence, it is all about what you want. That is what the man in Luke was struggling
with .. it is what we struggle with … to
offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). To take up our crosses and follow Jesus. ELGIN
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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