Say What?

I began a new series of talks this past week entitled "Say What?" The idea of the series is to wrestle with some of the peculiar statements Jesus made that leave us scratching our heads. Sunday we examined some exchanges that Jesus had with three would-be disciples in Luke 9:57-62. Two of the men came to Jesus offering to follow him and a third was approached by Jesus about possibly joining the burgeoning band of disciples.

Each of the men had a particular hang-up with the concept of total abandonment because they all had something they were hanging on to. The first one was hoping to sign up because he believed Jesus would soon be establishing a political kingdom that would mean peace and prosperity for Jerusalem. This becomes evident when we realize that Jesus answered him with the veiled language of the oppressed Jews, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Jesus was not talking about his homelessness, he was talking about the fact that he had no place to set up shop to live and govern. The fox was Herod (Luke 13:32), the "birds of the air" was an intertestamental apocalyptic reference to Gentile nations. What Jesus was saying is that, while they had established places to govern and call home, the Son of Man (read Servant of Man), did not come to establish a kingdom. He came to embrace political rejection so that he could set up a spiritual kingdom of the heart.

The second man was clinging to the tradition of his day that obligated a son to stay within the confines of the family business until the father was laid to rest. When Jesus approached him and he replied that he needed to go and bury his father, it did not mean that his father was dead but that he wanted to fulfill his expectation and stay with the family until he was. Jesus' response to him was curt: "Let the dead bury their own dead...." In other words, God is calling you to life and don't miss this opportunity to find true spiritual meaning because of the expectations of the dead.

Finally, Jesus was approached by a man who volunteered to follow him on the condition that he could "go back and say good-by to my family." This guy may have heard the exchanges with the first two and thought surely Jesus would take him because he just wanted to go say good-by. At first glance this looks to be the toughest proposal for Jesus to shoot holes in. It seems all this man wants to do is tell his family where he is going, get one last hug and be on his way. But Jesus shuts him down saying, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Now that just seems wrong! On further inspection we discovered that the Greek word translated "good-by" is translated the four other times it is used in the New Testament as "take leave of." The custom of the day was that those who were leaving needed to seek permission to take leave from those who were staying. In essence what he was saying was, "Let me get the approval of my family and then I will go wherever you go."

If we are honest, when we read about these men, we feel for them. Their contingencies seem reasonable. As a matter of fact, the last two actually seem to be trying to do the biblical thing and honor their families. Yet Jesus says no. What is the real problem?

The real problem is that each of these men made something else their Lord. For the first his Lord was his political expectations. Jesus knew when he found out his expectations would be disappointed, he would bail out. The second made his family traditions his Lord. The third made the approval of his family his Lord.

What Jesus was trying to point out was that "no one can serve two masters." Like the rich young ruler who walked away because Jesus demanded that he give away his god, money, each of these men were asked to make a similar sacrifice. These demands are hard to stomach because of the incredibly heavy price extracted.

We struggle with the message because all of us have someone or some things in our lives that could easily become master: career, children, savings, image, family, friends, etc. These are all things we work to attain that would be virtually impossible to walk away from if required. But the point is not what you have to walk out of, it's what you should walk into.

When we prioritize God and make him Lord of our lives, everything else falls into place. When God is the center of our lives, we have more peace and joy with the other blessings he bestows upon us. With Jesus as Lord we have the capacity to live in gratitude for the good things he has done for us. This is why Jesus said, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." God is not some killjoy who is looking to steal our lives and our loves. He is the lover of our souls who wants us to trust him with our lives. The invitation to follow him is an invitation to trust him completely. And word teaches us that he will meet that trust with a life more abundant than we could ever dream up for ourselves.