The chapter opens with
Jesus, the miracle man, performing healing after healing. There is little wonder
why crowds followed Him (1&18).
But Jesus seems far more
interested in commitment rather than crowds. Mid-chapter a couple exchanges
between Jesus and ‘would be followers’ confirms
this.
First exchange: When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders
to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him
and said, "Teacher, 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" (18-20). With this first potential follower Jesus
explains that following Him means the potential of no home, no roots, no
security. One might have to leave his family inheritance (for Jews of the day,
their land was an inheritance directly from the Lord). Following Jesus
costs...
The second exchange:
Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first
let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead
bury their own dead" (21-22). The call to this guy is to not go to
his dad’s funeral, but to follow Jesus immediately! My dad is still alive. I
can’t imagine what Jesus is asking… forget about dad’s funeral come with Me. I
realize that is exactly what some of the early missionaries had to do for the
call and cause of Jesus. The foreign missionaries of the 1800s who sailed to
distant lands, would never come home and likely had little or no contact with
families once they left. Literally, the call of Jesus asked this of
them.
Apparently Jesus was not
afraid to ask us to choose sides. Jesus verses anything we might hold near and
dear.
How different the call to
follow Jesus in most of our churches is today…
Lord, I am a
bit afraid to ask You what You are asking me to give up in order to follow You…
With trembling heart I ask, ‘Lord what would You have me do? Where do You need
me to go?’ I am Yours. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment