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.”
The man along the road wanted to follow Jesus...And that is a good thing and I might think that Jesus would give the man a complement of wanting to follow Him...The man on the road makes a bold statement that he will follow Jesus wherever He goes...Now saying that we will follow Jesus wherever He goes is an interesting thing to say and ask...
Jesus is this Great Paradox to me...He does want us to follow Him...The man along the road wanted to follow Him...And being a follower of His makes the paradox continue...While one would hope that following Him would be soft, peaceful, and of some comfort...There should be some earthly ease for wanting to and following Jesus...No, following Jesus is hard...Jesus warns us the cost of being His Disciples...He tells the man on the road and us that following Him is a life nothing like this world...The man would have no place to rest his head...The man on the road, if he decides to follow Jesus, he will have not bed or place to sleep at night...Jesus had no home as He traveled around teaching...We cannot bury our father, or even say good-bye to our families...Even if it is time to plant or go to work, even that is not a reason not to follow Him right now...We can find all kinds of reasons and excuses and bad timings not to follow Him, but He is the reason for life...Why do we need a reason?...We would like to think, let us take care of what is going on on earth and in our own lives, then we can and will have time for Jesus...But right now I am busy with my family, my work, and many things, so my timing is not right and will get to Him and follow Him later...
The point here is that we are His servants while we are on earth...We are to follow Him...And follow Him now...Following Jesus is our life’s priority, if we want meaning in life, and want to find the meaning of life...The best reasons (we have) on earth and our earthly thinking acts on our thinking and provides reasons why we cannot follow Him at this specific time...The best reasons any of us can find, is not a reason not to follow Him...The time to follow Him is now...He makes that clear...