“As they were walking along the road, a man said to Him (Jesus), ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’ He said to another man, ‘Follow me.” But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.’ Sill another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’ Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.'” (Luke 9:57-62)
Jesus was always straight forward when talking about the cost of discipleship. It was one of the reasons that Jesus didn’t have more followers. After reading the Scripture above one could wonder why anyone would follow Him. Whenever anyone asked what they needed to do to follow Him Jesus would respond honestly and with authority…sacrifice.
To follow Jesus means to be willing to sacrifice the comforts and security this world has to offer, “the Son of Man has no place to lay His head”.
To follow Jesus means to be willing to sacrifice taking care of the things that are temporal in order to focus on the things that are eternal, “let the dead bury the dead…proclaim the Kingdom”.
To follow Jesus means to be willing to sacrifice the way things used to be (looking back) in order to move forward in His service. Paul expressed it this way:
“But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13, 14)
To say “yes” to Jesus is to say “no” to the things that would distract us from His Kingdom work. It is saying “no” to the things that compete for our affection, attention and loyalties. For the rich young ruler it was his riches. For the Pharisee it was his religious rituals. For Nicodemus it was the opinions of others. For Peter it was his overconfidence in his strength. For Judas it was greed and a warped expectation of what the Messiah would be.
Today, meditate on the Jesus who modeled for us a life of unselfish love and sacrifice. A life more concerned about personal character than personal comfort. He calls us to put our hand to the plow and not to look back. What are the things in your life that you need to say “no” to. Ask the Lord to point them out. This could be uncomfortable but remember…living with a Kingdom mindset is living an “inconvenient faith”.