You Have No Idea....

Luke 9:57-62

The Cost of Following Jesus

⁵⁷ As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

⁵⁹ He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹ Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Powerful....just powerful. Now i got this idea from Bonhoeffer, i cant put him down. His story is unbelievable. it has everything i love. it has theology, history, i love anything to do with WWII and the Nazi's (i find it very interesting). Bonhoeffer has all of it. but this passage is something that i always looked over, never truly got the full grasp of it.

the first man/potential disciple offers to follow Jesus without waiting to be called to be his disciple. Jesus warns the man that he has no idea what he is about to be involved in and he is in know way of knowing. Jesus is on his way to the cross, the whole purpose of Him is "suffering" and this man wants to follow without being called. "No man can choose such a life for himself. No man can call himself to such a destiny, says Jesus, and his word stays unanswered. THE GULF BETWEEN A VOLUNTARY OFFER TO FOLLOW AND GENUINE DISCIPLESHIP IS CLEAR."

the second man/would be disciple is called by Jesus to follow, but he says he needs to go bury his father first, because it was by law he needed to bury him by a certain time. he knows what he wants to do and he knows what he needs to do. he is held from following Jesus by the law. there is a legal obligation standing as a blockade between him and Jesus. "at this critical moment nothing on earth, however sacred, must be allowed to become between Jesus and the man he has called- not even the law itself." His would be disciple cannot go against the grain, cannot go opposite of what the Lord is calling him to do because THIS CALL, THIS GRACE, IS IRRESISTIBLE.

the third man/potential disciple is willing to follow Christ, is willing to give everything up for him, but he immediately puts up a huge barrier between him and Christ. He says "Suffer me first, let me go back and say bye to family, then ill come follow you." he wants to follow but only as long as he sets the terms first. discipleship is a possibility but only as long as certain conditions have been filled. by him offering up his own terms, he alters the whole position, "discipleship can tolerate no conditions which might come between Jesus and our obedience to Him." He wants what he wants and what Jesus wants, and Jesus' answered him "⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” he cannot look back at what he want if we follow Jesus, because like his disciples, they left everything behind to follow and never looked back.

Where would Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John be if they looked back at what they had while following Jesus. the discipleship would have been tainted.

Which one are we? which one are you? which one am i? just something to think about.