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.”
… “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
… “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
(verses 57-58, 60, 62)
-
The main thrust of his passage is entirely clear. Discipleship to Jesus needs to be whole-hearted, all-in, sacrificial, “no turning back, no turning back.”
That’s the clear intent of Jesus’ interaction with the first man walking along the road. The man says he will follow wherever Jesus leads. But Jesus calls him to first count the cost. The Saviour himself has no permanent home, nowhere to comfortably settle down. Are you willing to follow under those conditions, Jesus asks.
That main thrust continues through the rest, but the specifics of Jesus’ subsequent conversations sound increasingly harsh. One man wants to have leave to go and bury his father. The other wants permission to go home to say farewell to his family. Jesus in effect rebukes both requests. Really? Aren’t we called to honour our parents, to value all family relationships, and to love each one as we love ourselves? Shouldn’t both these requests be entirely reasonable?
Perhaps not. We don’t know the tone of voice or the inner motivation that lies behind each. Was the first man’s father already dead, or was he simply suggesting that he would stay at home until some future day when his father passed? As for the second man, why does he say in the same breath that he will follow and that he needs to bid farewell? Are both equally important to him? Is he actually conditioning his discipleship on gaining blessing and release from family first?
Over and above these potentially mixed motives, it’s clear that Jesus is pushing the issue of the necessity of his own priority in the lives of those who follow him. On a later occasion he will abruptly say, “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). That bit of hyperbole highlights the comparative intensity of a disciple’s love and commitment to Jesus himself – so much so that love for all others, by comparison, appears like “hate.”
So, too, in this passage. The Lord is Lord of all. “Eyes on him” is the greatest priority. Looking to him first, allowing nothing else to get in the way – that’s our first order of business.
Of course, when we follow closely, he calls us to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). He charges us to serve the needs of those around us, washing feet as he himself has done. He urges us to love more deeply and sacrificially than we would have on our own. As we entrust ourselves to him, we at the same time entrust family and relations into his hands – as we do, we find he truly extends care to them through us, as we follow him. The story of the formerly demon-possessed man (released by Jesus as the demons infested the local herd of pigs) is a graphic illustration. Rather than Jesus calling him away from his home, he sent him back to care for his circle of relationships by bearing witness to Jesus himself. And from the cross, even as he laid down his life, Jesus cared for his own mother by entrusting her into the hands of his disciple John.
Human relationships are not diminished. Indeed, the commandment to love is intensified. But Jesus is to be our priority – our first love, our Lord.
No turning back, no turning back.
-
Lord Jesus, I hear your command again: Follow me. I commit myself afresh. I focus eyes on you. Teach me this day what it means to make you my constant priority. Strengthen me by your Spirit to follow closely.
-
Reflect:
Throughout the day, sing to yourself the old song:
“I have decided to follow Jesus … no turning back, no turning back.
The cross before me, the world behind me … no turning back, no turning back.”
Ask yourself: What does “following” mean for me today?
-
Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash
Comments