Luke 9:57 “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.””
We can make all kinds of excuses to not follow Christ. Some of the excuses made are our jobs, our families, our own recreation, and even our rest is offered as excuses to follow Christ at a more convenient time. Like these in our scripture folks will say, “Lord I will follow you wherever you go”, but then as He explains the conditions of His work, folks would not relinquish the comforts of their lives to follow Jesus. Like in the days of Christ, creature comfort has become the god of many. Folks want to put conditions on following Jesus. One wanted to wait until the demise of his father before he followed Jesus. The father had not yet died but was elderly and the man wanted to wait until his father passed before he followed Jesus. His response was basically let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead, but you must go preach the kingdom. Jesus is not being hard hearted but showing that all these concerns were merely excuses. Another agreed to follow Jesus but desired to go back and bid farewell to his family. There is nothing wrong with either of these requests except that Jesus recognized their plea’s as excuses to wait for a more convenient time. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah threw his mantle over Elisha which meant that Elisha had been chosen to follow Elijah. Notice Elisha’s response, “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” 1 Kings 19:20-21. Notice that Elisha did not return to his father’s house, but destroyed his team and equipment, which solidifies his commitment, and then followed Elijah. In the book of Acts, Paul was sent for by Felix to hear him concerning his faith. “Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.” Act 24:25. Notice that Felix became afraid. But rather than vowing to follow Christ, he chose to put it off until a more convenient time. Notice in Luke 9:62 Jesus told these excuse makers that no one who is plowing can look back. One cannot follow the course if he is always looking backwards. You cannot please God looking away from the kingdom.
Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Terry Jackson