As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay His head.” He said to another person, “Come, follow Me.”
The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.” Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow You, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”
But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:57-62
What is going on with this segment?
We have three people here who come seeking to be disciples but Jesus effectively turns them away.
- Candidate One: I will follow you anywhere.
- Jesus: The Son of Man has no place to lay His head.
- Which interpreted seems to mean: You will have nowhere to sleep.
- Candidate Two: Can I first just bury my dad?
- Jesus: Let the dead bury the dead.
- Which interpreted seems to mean: Forget your father’s funeral, go and preach.
- Candidate Three: Can I just say goodbye to my family?
- Jesus: Don’t look back, if you do you are not fit for the Kingdom of God.
- Which interpreted seems to mean: Forget them, follow Me.
- Is Jesus really this harsh?
- Where is gentle Jesus meek and mild?
Now He appears to have no compassion at all and no understanding for each unique personal situation.
Do you really want to be a disciple if this is the standard?
Another matter you need to address is the fit of all this.
- How does it connect to what has gone before it?
- Or is it just a disjointed, unrelated segment?
- Did these incidents all happen at the same time?
- Did all this happen sequentially as they left Galilee and headed toward Jerusalem as outlined in Luke?
It seems all three came to Jesus one after another in the order suggested.
- Is this how it happened?
- There are number of questions you need at answer before you can understand what is happening here.
- Take some time to look at before I dissect in the next Gem.
- All I will say at this point is that everything is not as it seems.
- See you back here next Gem unless you have a funeral to go to or farewells to make.
Some excuses you might want to use:
For not going to work:
- I can’t come to work today because I do not have any shoes.
- I won’t be in to work today because my plane that was going to leave on Sunday didn’t leave until today.
- I don’t want to be late for work again today so I’m calling in sick instead!
- I’ve used all of my sick days and I’m calling in dead.
- I won’t be at work today, my zipper is stuck.
For not going to church:
- I’ll get religion when I get to purgatory.
- My family can get me into heaven after I’m dead.
- I worship God at home when I’m alone.
- I do Church Online
- I went last Sunday
Religious fanatics:
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Winston Churchill