Friday, October 23, 2009

God promises you a cross.

God promises you a cross.

Luke 9:57-62 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

I realize that we looked at this story in Matthew but Luke adds yet another person to it, so I wanted to point this out too. Notice at the very end there’s yet another man that says he wants to follow Jesus, and all he asks is that he be allowed to run back home and say goodbye to his family first. Our Lord’s reply to this man seems quite harsh at first. To us it really doesn’t seem like much to ask—after all, his family will be worried about him, so it would only be right for him to return and let them know what he’s going to do. This should make us realize a couple of things right away. First that as God Himself said, His ways are not our ways, and His Will is always more important then anything else in our lives. It should also make us remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We should never get so comfortable with Him that we take Him for granted or begin to treat Him like “one of us”.

The term used by Jesus, that the person who “looks back” is not fit for service in the Kingdom of God is a reference to Lot’s wife. Let’s take a quick look at that story and see how it fits here.

Genesis 19:16-17 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

Genesis 19:26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

We usually attribulte her being turned to a pillar of salt for her act of disobediance which is quite true. But when we bring this story and link it with what Jesus was saying we can see too that it was more then disobediance. What Jesus is saying is that those who choose to follow Him must be willing to totally break with the world, and those who “look back” are showing a reluctance to break with the world.

What this man asked is also similar to what Elisha asked Elijah when Elijah called him, and Elijah allowed it. The difference here is that Jesus’ calling is that much more important then Elijah’s calling was.

With all of the various excuses that the men gave in the above passage, we can see several temptations that affect us all at times. The first is pretty obvious in that it is that we are often tempted to procrastinate for some reason or another when the Lord has called us. The next one is often one of the hardest or possibly most heartbreaking, but we are tempted at times to stay with our families rather then leave them for Christ. If a family member is constantly standing in our way or trying to keep us from Christ then we must leave that person behind for Him. Jesus made this very clear. He knew that families would become divided because of Him.

Luke 12:51-53 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Another temptation is to get entangled in the affairs of the world as though they are as important as Jesus is. They are not. This world is not our home. We are strangers here now, therefore nothing in this world should ever hold us back from our Lord or from doing His Will.

2 Timothy 2:4 No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.

James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

John 15:19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

These then are some of the many temptations that can come between us and Jesus. They are al part of the price, “the cost” of following Him. They are all things we must be willing to give up when called to do so. Do you remember when Peter denied Jesus just before the cross? When Jesus rose again, He came back to Peter and asked Him a question. It’s the same question He asks each one of us:

John 21:15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”

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