Three Radical Demands (1)

 

“As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, ‘I will follow You wherever You go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’ And He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ But He said to him, ‘Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.’

 

“Another also said, ‘I will follow You, Lord, but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Luke 9:57 – 62.

 

Jesus confronts three people with three radical demands, and in doing so He confronts us; He confronts us as individuals, as husbands and wives, as families, as congregations.

 

He tells us that “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head,” and in doing so He tells us that to follow Him wherever He goes means that we will have no rest in the world, no place in world to identify with, no political, economic, social, ethnic, national, or other movement in which we may rest, that we may call home – just as the Son of Man has no such place, so those who follow Him will have no such place – our identity must always and forever be in Him and only in Him.

 

In saying that the dead must bury their own dead, Jesus tells us that there are only two types of people in the world, those who have the life of God in them and those who don’t. We are to go and proclaim the Gospel so that those who are dead my live. There are those who are burying the dead, and then there are those who are proclaiming Jesus so that the dead may rise – both in this age and in the ages to come.

 

In saying that no one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God, Jesus reinforces His call to discipleship in Luke 9:23 – 26; we are to take up our cross daily, losing our lives for His sake and the Gospel, denying ourselves and proclaiming Jesus and the Gospel.

 

While these teachings of Jesus may seem radical to us, they represent normative Biblical discipleship – that is, they represent what ought to be the norm in our lives and in our churches. Are they the norm? Do we hear this call to discipleship on Sunday mornings? Over media? In daily conversation? Do our books and other writings reflect this call? Do our small groups meet within the context of this call?

 

We may have the “right” doctrine and beliefs, but if our lives are not “right” in following Jesus Christ, if they are not conforming to His call, then do we not have what James styles “faith without works, which are dead”?

 

Well, to be sure Luke 9:57 – 62 is a challenge, a sobering challenge, a reality check.

 

How does the passage challenge you? What questions do you have about it? What does it look like in your life? What does it look like in your congregation? In your friendships? In your family?

 

To be continued…