Fit to Follow the Lord
Following the Lord isn't about how talented we are, but more about the choices we make. What will it be for you? An easy life without Jesus or a hard life with Jesus? Luke 9: 57-62 teaches us about those choices and what is means to be Fit to Follow the Lord. July 8, 2007
Talent has never been the issue when it comes to following the Lord. After all, he called lowly shepherds, stinky fishermen, and dirty prostitutes to follow him. Moses couldn’t speak, Martha couldn’t focus, Jonah was a scaredy–cat, and Sarah couldn’t have children – but all of them followed the Lord. During Jesus’ time on earth lepers were closer to him than religious leaders and naïve children understood more about the kingdom of God than the most intelligent teachers of the law. It’s not a matter of talent. It’s a matter of choice. What’s more important – following the Lord or making excuses why it isn’t something you’re good at but you’re thinking you might want to improve some time?
In today’s gospel we learn a lesson from three people of interest who make their own choices about following the Lord. And they help us see what it means to be Fit to Follow the Lord.
The first follower came to Jesus and promised, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus believed him, but Jesus also knew this person didn’t totally understand where Jesus had to go. Not only that, but this person didn’t understand what it would take to get there. Jesus explained, “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Using his title “Son of Man,” Jesus emphasized his lowly humanity as compared to his exalted divinity, reminding this person that Jesus would endure hardship and humiliation all the way to the cross. Is this really where the person wanted to go, and how he wanted to get there? Think about this. Jesus, the creator of all, enjoyed fewer privileges as a human being than common forest animals like foxes and birds. His followers must be ready to do the same, shirking privileges and sharing his humiliation. So which will it be for you? An easy life without Jesus or a hard life with Jesus?
In the past we’ve chosen the easy life. A sad choice according to Jesus who said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13). For many people choosing what is easy has led to destruction, to a curse and separation from God and his blessings. But Jesus didn’t choose what is easy. He chose the narrow path to Jerusalem. The narrow, less traveled path to the cross. A path of poverty, of lowliness, of shame. And in that choice of Jesus he chose us, chose our sin and guilt. He went without a life of luxury to pay the price demanded for our forgiveness, ultimately claiming him in death, so that his true treasure would be a resurrection from the dead that paves the narrow path to eternal life for us. Don’t be afraid of the difficulties you’ll experience when you choose the narrow road! Jesus still walks on that road, that narrow road, and so he walks with you all the way, making you Fit to Follow the Lord, choosing Jesus because he has chosen you.
One book about Christian marriage applies this truth to forgiving a spouse. It says, “Please know that it isn’t your spouse’s sin which crucifies you, though you might have thought so; rather, it’s your loving willingness to forgive. That was the cross of Christ, the cross you take up when you deny yourself and follow him. Therefore, forgiving will not immediately soothe your pain; instead, it introduces a different pain, a much more hopeful pain because it is redeeming. You do “deny yourself” and die a little in order to forgive. Pride dies. Fairness dies. Rights die, as do self-pity and the sweetness of a pout or the satisfaction of a little righteous wrath.... You die a little, that the marriage might rise alive” (Walter Wangerin, Jr., “As for Me and My House: Crafting Your Marriage to Last,” Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987, pp. 95-96).
The second follower requested that Jesus allow him to go home and bury his father before following Jesus. That posed a problem. We know from Matthew’s account of this event that at any moment Jesus was getting on a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. If the man left to bury his father then he would miss the boat. Not only that but according to Jewish law he’d be unclean for a week and quarantined from people. Burying his father is more complicated than it sounds. Jesus tells us more, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Jesus knew this person’s father and that he was an unbeliever. So, talking in spiritual terms because physically dead people can’t bury physically dead people, Jesus defines priorities for the second follower. He says that hose who are spiritually dead – unbelievers who are physically alive on this earth – can just as easily bury other spiritually dead people – unbelievers who have physically died – since there will be no Christian comfort at the funeral of an unbeliever anyway. More important than offering empty hope to people who don’t want it or can’t hear it, according to Jesus, is proclaiming the kingdom of God to people who need it. This second follower must face his sentimental desires and decide whether to follow them.
It’s been said that sentimentality means loving something more than God does, and believing something less than God does. It’s settling for less than what God has planned for us and making it look like we’ve achieved more. The second follower would have looked and felt really good making funeral arrangements for his father, but it would have prevented him from following Jesus. What looks and feels good in your life that, when you’re really honest, is getting in the way of following Jesus? Are you doing something about it? The Bible gravely warned in today’s second lesson that those who continue to live according to the acts of the sinful nature “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21). It also reminded us that we have the power to get rid of those sins because we “belong to Christ Jesus” who helps us “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25). The kingdom of God is ours because of Christ Jesus, who sends his Spirit to walk with us on the narrow road making us Fit to Follow the Lord, choosing him because he has chosen us.
One furniture store in Santa Fe, New Mexico posted a sign that read, “Tomorrow we will give away everything in the store.” Customers get a bit exited until they realize that the sign will be there tomorrow and say the same thing, putting off the give away sale for yet another day. That’s the concern Jesus has about the second and third followers, and us.
The third follower asks to go home and say good bye to his family before following Jesus, to which Jesus replies, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” The reference is, of course, to a farmer making every effort to plow and sow his field in straight lines. Looking around or behind is going to distract and disrupt straight driving – like when you’re driving your car and try to reach around into the back seat to grab your bag and realize you’re veering off the road. If this follower went back to his family would they really let him leave? Would the person really have the courage to say good bye? So here’s the choice: the comfort of what we already know, something familiar from the past … or the challenge of following God into the unknown and the unfamiliar, where he beckons us to go? For some of us here today, that means a difficult decision between faith and family.
“Go,” Jesus urges. “Keep looking ahead,” Jesus directs. “Proclaim,” Jesus calls. The life of blessings Jesus has planned for us is not tied to some static position of staying where we are but on an exciting journey where he leads us on Fit to Follow the Lord, choosing him because he has chosen us.
One professor stood before a class of 30 molecular biology students and passed out the final exam. He stated, “I have been privileged to be your instructor this semester, and I know how hard you have worked to prepare for this test. I also know that most of you are off to medical school or grad school next year, and am well aware that you are under pressure to keep your GPA up. So, because I am confident that you know this material, I am prepared to offer an automatic B to anyone who opts to skip taking the final exam.” You could hear the relief in the room. A number of students jumped out of their desks, thanking their professor for the lifeline. “Any other takers?” he asked. “This is your final chance.” A few more decided to go. Then, the professor handed out the final exam to the remaining students. It contained only two sentences, which read, “Congratulations, you have just received an A in this class. Never settle for less than your best and keep believing that you are preparing for something better.”
Jesus knows that we can do better than B grade following. Oh, he gives us the freedom of choice and we can opt out of it if we really want. But today, he makes us the same promise. The promise that we are Fit to Follow the Lord and we will do so when we strive for our best and keep believing that he is leading us to something better. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on July 8, 2007
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