As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
"I will follow you wherever you go."
We can imagine that this person was impressed by and in awe of Jesus, overwhelmed by his teachings and mighty deeds, and ready to by swept up in this current of wonderful things. Jesus needed this person to more accurately count the cost in order before following him. He wanted a mature commitment and not the impulse of a moment.
Jesus answered him,
"Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."
He did not tell this person no, but he did advise him that to follow him wouldn't be always only be good times and sunshine. Perhaps the individual was thinking Jesus could lead him directly to a place of rest in an earthly Kingdom. But while Jesus would go on to remember people once he came into his Kingdom, to prepare places for them, and to bring them in to finally find true rest, this was not the plan for the near term. The Son of Man did not go toward a palace like that of Herod, "that fox" (see Luke 13:32), nor would he be welcomed to the altars of the temple of Jerusalem. Although "the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God" (see Psalm 84:5), Jesus would not be welcomed there. Jesus had only recently described the necessity of taking up one's cross in order to follow him (see Luke 9:23). Here he made explicit the practical consequences of such a decision.
And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."
We don't know for sure how long this potential recruit desired to delay. It may have been that his father was still alive and so he was putting off the call to some indeterminate date in the future. Or the death may have been a recent occurrence and therefore much less of a time commitment. Either way we see in the response of Jesus the urgency of his call. Just as he himself set his face toward Jerusalem he desired followers whose priorities were not split, but who loved the Son of Man even more than father or mother. Any equivocating of the importance of the Kingdom with even the best of earthly goods was a limit and a liability, a potential excuse to not fully embrace everything the mission entailed. From the point of view of the Kingdom even one's friends and family who did not follow Jesus existed in a state of spiritual death. Merely burying bodies was all but to accept the present state of the reign of death. Jesus was the one who could give spiritual life, and to do so was what gave urgency to his mission.
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
There was greater urgency to the call of Jesus even that that of Elijah to Elisha, who had been plowing when Elijah called, but who was allowed to say farewell to his family (see First Kings 19:19-21). Jesus was one greater than Elijah. He did not need to call down fire as Elijah had done, but he insisted on a far greater urgency than had Elijah with Elisha.
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."
What we don't find as we look at all of the followers of Jesus in Scriptures are the part-time disciples or the hobbyists. Of course no one started with the sort of absolute commitment Jesus required, and for that reason many fled when the the hour of the cross came near. But even after that they continued to recognize that the greatest good and perfect rest could only be found in Jesus himself and so they were able to turn back to him who never in fact gave up on them. They were not perfect, but they persevered, rising again by grace when the shortcomings of their own commitments to follow Jesus were revealed.
Similarly, Jesus is calling us to outgrow identities where disciple is just one of the many things that defines us, to really put first things first so that everything else might find its proper place. Why is this so urgent? Precisely because he himself is the one of whom Job spoke with such holy fear.
He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
marvelous things beyond reckoning.
No comments:
Post a Comment