Would-Be Disciples

Scripture Reading

Luke 9:57–62 NKJV

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus made exceptional demands on people. Anyone who wanted to be a disciple of Jesus could be expected to put Jesus before everything, to the point that they would look odd. Jesus expects you to put him before your financial security. He expect you to choose him instead of your own nearest and dearest family or friends. He expects those who want to follow him to have no divided loyalties. In our section today, we find three would-be disciples who fail to actually follow Jesus due to incomplete and divided commitments. As we examine them, we will see what it means to follow Jesus completely, first what Jesus meant in his day, then what that means in ours.

I. The Mercenary

Jesus’ favorite title for himself, “Son of Man” has important implications. Jesus may be poor now, but he will eventually be heir to the world Daniel 7:13–14““I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.”

No place to lay his head? Jesus did have a house in Capernaum Mark 2:1 “And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.” John 2:12 “After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.”

However, he was a travelling speaker, and in his day there were not many regular inns to stay at. As such he had no regular home most of the time.

Jesus knows this man is not ready to actually follow him in this hard lifestyle, so that’s why he answers the way he does. This man would be expecting riches to follow soon; they will, just not soon.

Danger of the love of money as an obstacle to following Jesus 1 Tim 6:6-10

1 Timothy 6:6–10 NKJV

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Applications

Less and less, but still sometimes a reality, is the person who claims Christianity to fit in. e.g. a politician, if he wishes to be elected, still needs to go to some kind of church; though this is fast disappearing.

There is a danger in getting comfortable with a good salary, should God call you into ministry. I knew a man who was formerly an engineer, and wanted to become a pastor. He had a good mind, and plenty of quiet endurance. However, because of his good job, he got used to a good salary; so when he tried to become a pastor, he looked for health insurance and never did find a church.

A bit more out there, there’s what you might do if pressured to go against what you know Jesus would have you do; for example, perhaps you are getting pressured to do some underhanded practices at work. You are afraid of losing your job, but do you have the courage to follow Jesus into financial insecurity?

Perhaps in retirement money is a little tight. Jesus understands; he was poor too.

II. The Undertaker

Bury my father. Burial of relatives was extremely important in Jewish culture

It’s the reason for Abraham’s only property in his lifetime

It’s one of the few reasons a priest could ceremonially defile himself (Leviticus 21:1–3 “And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ‘None shall defile himself for the dead among his people, except for his relatives who are nearest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; also his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband, for her he may defile himself.”

David commended the men of Jabesh-Gilead for risking their lives to obtain the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from the Philistines 2 Samuel 2:4–5 “Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, “The men of Jabesh Gilead were the ones who buried Saul.” So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead, and said to them, “You are blessed of the Lord, for you have shown this kindness to your lord, to Saul, and have buried him.”

That said, it’s fairly likely that the man’s father was actually still alive.

Burial took place extremely quickly, within a day or two of death. When Jarius’ daughter died, the mourning had already started before Jarius himself could get back to his own house. This was for practical reasons, as they didn’t embalm the body, and Israel is a hot climate. Thus, they couldn’t wait a week to bury someone.

Therefore, if this man’s father was dead, and he was just asking Jesus if he could have the funeral that week, then he wouldn’t be talking to Jesus in the first place. He’d be home actually doing the burying.

So if he’s not actually burying his father, then what is he asking? He’s asking to go home and wait until his father dies; then he’ll get the inheritance. After that he will follow Jesus.

Let the dead bury their dead

That is, let the spiritually dead bury the dead. Jesus demands precedence even over the strongest social norms. Serving him is more important than family; more important than living up to what our society expects. If you can’t serve God and your family at the same time, choose God.

Proclaim the Kingdom of God

This was Jesus’ mission Luke 4:43 “but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.””

This mission became the mission of the church Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.” Acts 28:31 “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.”

In other words, the Kingdom of God is central to the Gospel. Jesus is the King who will judge the world; only those whom he judges to be worthy will enter the Kingdom. Only those who place their faith and trust in Him will have their sins forgiven and therefore be worthy through the grace of God. Since Israel did not receive her king, the promise of the Kingdom was postponed [so the Gentiles could also believe], therefore we still proclaim that “unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

Thus the call of this disciple to proclaim the kingdom isn’t some unusual responsibility; it isn’t even implied that Jesus wants him to be in full-time Christian service. This is only the message of the church, what all Christians everywhere should desire to spread to everyone.

Application - How does this fit in the modern world?

Again, those who feel called to ministry - I believe God would be most glorified by me being in Christian service, but I’ll have a pension/fully vested in my current job. I’ll do it then. Or, I’ll wait until my kids are grown; after all, it’s hard to be in ministry and raise a family too.

Perhaps you’re getting pressure from family to not be faithful in church.

The hardest case here is the Christian woman who is married to an unsaved man. She is responsible before God to obey her husband; but she has an even higher responsibility to obey God and be in church. That’s a really hard balance to get right; and I pity anyone who is stuck in that situation.

The reverse of that situation - a Christian man married to an unsaved woman - still has a hard time of it. He is responsible to love his wife, yet by definition his values and hers aren’t the same. If she’s willing to come to church with him, that’s easier; but not all unsaved wives are willing to do that. Then he’s got to walk a rather difficult tightrope between loving his wife and being faithful to his Lord.

I can imagine a situation where someone has a good inheritance coming from an unsaved set of parents, but they are putting pressure on him to stop going to that Baptist Church. It would probably most often simply be a tension between them; but in some cases, they might threaten to write the child out of the will if they don’t listen. What’s the price of your faithfulness to the Lord?

What about parents whose child wants to be a missionary. I’ve heard of some Christian parents who don’t want their kids to be missionaries, because it usually means sacrificing seeing the grandkids regularly.

III. The Family Man

Elisha made the same request. Elijah granted it but Jesus refuses. Why 1 Kings 19:19–21 “So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.”

Part of the answer is that this man volunteers; Elisha was chosen in the middle of plowing his field. If this man is volunteering to follow Jesus, then he ought to know this was not an easy choice. To follow Jesus in the literal sense didn’t mean what it means for us- living the Christian life in the place where you already are. It meant following around the Rabbi from Nazareth as he taught from town to town. This meant staying with family was impossible. Since the life of a disciple was culturally understood, this man would have known that, thus, he would have been ready once he volunteered.

Thus, Elisha is reacting to an unexpected call; he isn’t “looking back” just preparing to leave well; this man planned the move, so if he is not ready, he is trying to have it both ways. He isn’t actually ready to follow Jesus around and be his disciple. He just wants to look the part.

Looking back

Now plowing in the ancient world meant effectively holding a sharp stick pulled by an animal or two. You had to concentrate to keep the furrow straight. Thus what would happen if you looked behind you while plowing? Artistic furrows! You can’t look back and do a good job of plowing.

Jesus declares that those who look back are “unfit for the kingdom of God.” Now that doesn’t mean that those who look back lose their salvation, since that’s impossible. It does mean something, though. It means that the kind of commitment implied in being a Christian means that it take precedence over everything else, if you can’t have both. This man wants to be allowed to have divided loyalties- he wants to follow Jesus, as long as his family doesn’t mind.

Applications

The most obvious example would be someone whose family is so opposed to Christianity, that becoming a Christian means that his or her family will abandon him. In such a case, your responsibility is clear. Choose Jesus.

But probably you aren’t in that spot. Another example is the person who says, “Pastor, I’ll start coming to church soon,” but you never see or hear from them again. They sound like they want to become more faithful to God by going to church regularly, but the expressed intent never becomes an actually thing. Now I don’t necessarily think that this person is lying - though they could be - it just means they are not actually committed to follow the Lord and go to a good church. Now this is a lesser case than the Christian who is abandoned. But it does indicate less than ideal dedication to Jesus.

Similarly, have you ever promised to get more involved in church, but somehow never got around to actually doing it? I can’t make plans on the basis of “maybe I’ll help someday.” I have to have enough workers for whatever program I’m thinking of starting.

You can generalize this to whatever you were planning to do for the Lord “when you get around to it.”