If Jesus were to physically walk into our home, our school, our workplace and ask us to go with him, what would we say? Would we ask him to wait while we finished our presentation for the boss? Would we say, “just a minute Lord, I want to finish teaching this class”? Or maybe we’d ask him to hold on until our spouse got home and we can say goodbye to them, or see if they want to come too. Perhaps we’d ask him where he was headed.
So, the question we all to need to ask ourselves is, is there anything we would want to take care of before getting up and following Jesus? Are there any conditions, however minor they might seem to us, that we would put on following him? Is there anything we’d be reluctant to give up? And if we did manage to just get up and go, would we eventually miss something we’ve left behind?
If we are honest with ourselves, most of us would answer yes to the above questions.
However, that’s not what Jesus expected of the people we read about in today’s passage. He expected them to literally drop everything and go with him on the spot. Those who wanted to do something first received a rebuke. It’s not clear from the passage if these people did go with him. Perhaps Jesus told them not to bother.
I think Jesus has been very gracious to most of us in the western nations when it comes to discipleship. He usually only asks us to give up certain habits or activities, thoughts, attitudes, or language; or to take part in certain ministries at church; or maybe to go on a short-term missions trip. Our response to even these is often not what was expected by Jesus when he was on earth.
How many of us could be the type of disciple we read about in Luke?
John
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3 comments:
This is really a challenging passage. We have so many things today that we are occupied. We live in a very busy world. It is easy to lose focus in this environment. There are some many things that hold us back today. Yet Jesus teaching is simple...leave it all and follow me.
What am I willing to give up for the master? Do I give up time with my family, time to myself? I ministry we get mixed signals from those around us. On one hand we are called to follow without regards to family, and yet others tell us we need to take care of family first, then ministry? Is there a balance, is there a compromise?
John,
You said it well -- you made me feel the urgency and total commitment that they must have felt. It is always a little more simple sounding when it is someone else, but when we put ourselves in those shoes - it's tough.
Andy
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