Luke 9:57-62
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- Snow Day Protocol
Text: Luke 9:57-62
Verses 57-58 – Jesus over Comfort and Acceptance
The statement “has nowhere to lay his head” comes right after Jesus had a town which rejected him staying there.
The whole reason that they are now “going along the road” rather than in a nice home is because the town in Samaria did not want him to stay there. He sent messengers ahead of him to prepare the way. When he got there the messengers told him there was no place for him to stay because the people didn’t want him. Now they are back on the road going to another village.
So anyone who would follow Jesus as one of His disciples is taught that being a disciple of Jesus can lead to rejection and a lack of comfort. If someone would say to Jesus “I will follow you wherever you go” they must remember that “wherever you go” can include being rejected by people and not having a place to stay.
There’s an old saying you might have heard before “the cross comes before the crown.” Being a disciple of Jesus indeed does lead to peace, love, and joy. But sometimes we can be misled into thinking that being a Christian means it will be easy-street from here on out. As you people who have been believers awhile know: there is power and joy and life in being a Christian, but it’s not easy-street.
*story of Jenni and I running in China*
Sometimes people are misled into thinking that’s what being a Christian will be like!
Here walks the path of our Savior: He is now on a road with no guarantee of anywhere to stay the night. The town they are leaving from told him there is no place for you here. And He is on the way to Jerusalem, the town which will eventually crucify Him. But the end of that path was ascension into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of God, waiting to receive His eternal inheritance of the saints He has redeemed with His own blood. And angels worship Him there.
There is a good end to following Jesus. It is well worth it. But don’t expect crowds to cheer you along the way! It may include wonderful days of sunshine with encouragement. But you can also turn a corner and find people ready to insult you and beat you with sticks.
Verses 59-60 – Jesus over Everything
Burying your parents was one of the most important duties for Jewish people – as indeed it is in most parts of the world and for good reason.
The only way to be absolved from the duty was if a person was taking a Nazirite vow or was the High Priest. You might wonder why anyone at all would be absolved from the duty: it’s because to touch an undead person made you ceremonially unclean. Having the High Priest of the nation being unclean would be a serious problem since they were supposed to be the primary intercessors between God and the people. They gave the sacrifices that helped keep the nation safe from God’s anger. You didn’t want him away from his duties.
And the Nazirite vow was an intense period of fasting and self-dedication to God. John the Baptist, who ate locusts and wild honey and didn’t touch wine, was very probably taking a Nazirite vow. To suddenly have to go and bury one’s parents would ruin years of commitment because of the uncleanness involved.
So a core part of Jesus’ message here is that nothing is to interfere with your commitment to follow Jesus, not even the most serious of responsibilities. Following Jesus is the most important commitment for you to make, even over family.
Now, let’s qualify that, as that needs balanced lest people abuse it. Jesus, who is now telling this man that following Him is more important than burying his father, also told the Pharisees that they were sinners and hypocrites for not taking care of their parents. The Pharisees made a special law called “corban” where they would declare something “corban” which meant it was meant for God. But what it really was used for was to keep it for themselves so their parents couldn’t have it.
Parents in their old age would go into their Pharisee son’s home and see a nice chair or something that would help their aging back. They’d ask their son “can I have that?” The son would say “I’m sorry, but you cannot, because it is corban.” It was a false display of piousness for selfish purposes, and Jesus called them out on it.
So, taking these two incidents together, we must know that Jesus is not teaching believers to not care about their families. Very far from it. The consistent teaching of Scripture is that families are important to God.
What is being taught here is rather that following Jesus is even more important than family. 99 out of 100 times, those two things will be compatible and that’s going to mean loving and doing nice things for your family. And if a person uses following Jesus as an excuse to not help their family when they should, that is no different from when the Pharisees would call something corban. Its selfishness disguised as piousness.
But sometimes it will mean choosing Jesus over family, as it did for this fellow. I wish we knew a little more about the circumstances here to know what made this instance special, but the man was told he must follow Jesus now and leave someone else to bury his father. That’s what happened, no sugar coating it. There is a bit of a hint here where Jesus says “leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Surely this must be talking about the spiritually dead. Zombies just exist on television and in Halloween costumes. Physically dead people can’t bury other physically dead people. So he is essentially saying let non-Christians bury your father.
I take the intention to be that a burial can be performed by non-Christian people, and so his father is going to be buried one way or the other. But proclaiming the kingdom of God can only be performed by spiritually alive people. It’s a little like the verse coming up in 10:2 that says “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” In fact, given how closely they appear, it’s very probable that is the reason.
Anybody can bury his father, but only he can be one of the laborers helping to harvest the plentiful field. I imagine the man probably was a little taken aback by this demand, as initially it appears quite cold, but it makes sense.
It isn’t as cold as it appears. His father’s funeral will be taken care of, really, it’s OK. And that vessel is not really his father anymore: his father has gone on to the next life. His time on earth has passed. But there are many, many people out there who need to hear about Jesus, and they need to hear before their time on earth has passed. It really is the more important thing.
Verses 61-62 – No Looking Back
You know that song “I have decided to Follow Jesus, No Turning Back, No Turning Back?” We sing it here sometimes. These verses are the inspiration for that song because that is the essential message. Following Jesus is not something you do just to try it out and then turn back from. And starting out on your walk following Jesus with exceptions and buts is not a good way to start.
“I’ll follow you Lord, but”
“But I won’t believe all that you say.” “But I won’t love that one person.” “But I’m not going to tell other people about it.” “But I’ll never go to another country.” “But I’ll hang on to this sin.” And on it goes.
We all like to give conditional statements. They are nice because they leave a way out if you don’t like where things are headed. Many people have a serious problem with commitment. They always leave a door open somewhere to get out of it: just in case.
And we all have stuff that we would rather not do. And we all have stuff we’d rather be doing.
You know those funny shirts and bumper stickers that say “I’d rather be on the beach.” Or “I’d rather be eating pizza.” Yeah, a lot of the time, I’d rather be eating pizza too.
But that kind of mindset is not what it looks like to follow Jesus. Being uncommitted makes us unprofitable servants. The road isn’t easy, and if you start on it with a lot of conditions, it’s only a matter of time before you get off the road.
The example that Jesus responds with comes from farming. If someone is managing a plow and looking backwards, they are not going to be plowing in a straight line, are they? Just try walking from point A to point B with your head turned behind you without holding a plow, and see how well you do. Add a plow to the mix and it’s going to be a mess.
Runners are taught over and over again in a race: don’t look behind you! It will throw your balance off, cause you to not go straight, etc. It does nothing to help you in the race that you are in.
How much more, then, in the even greater field of proclaiming the kingdom of God, is a person unfit to do so if they are looking back?
You might look at this request from the follower and say “but it’s such a small thing!” That’s sort of the point. It’s an argument from the lesser to the greater. If we know that even such a small thing as saying farewell to family before committing to follow Jesus is inappropriate, then we know that all the other things are going to be inappropriate too.
If “but let me say farewell to my family” is inappropriate, then don’t even think about saying “but let me keep on sinning!”
And you know when we do that, I have noticed that God has a way of working in us to break that kind of behavior. It is unwise to tell God what you won’t do, or what you want to do before following Jesus, let me tell you!
*Story of shortly after getting saved me criticizing missionaries*
*Jenni not wanting to be a missionary to China*
And hey, guess what! Turns out God knew what He was doing and His ways were better than our ways. If we had not gone to China, we would have missed out on so many rich experiences. And biggest of all – we wouldn’t have met and married!
Application: