No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God

 

 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.  And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.  And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them."  And they went to another village.

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Then He said to another, "Follow Me."  But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."  And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."  But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

 

- Luke 9:51–62 

 

On Saturday we read that on the next day, after Jesus, Peter, James, and John had come down from the mountain of Transfiguration, a great multitude met Him.  Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, "Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child.  And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him.  So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not."  Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you?  Bring your son here."  And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him.  Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.   And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.  But while everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did, He said to His disciples, "Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men."  But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.  Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest.  And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, and said to them, "Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.  For he who is least among you all will be great."  Now John answered and said, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us."  But Jesus said to him, "Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side."

 

 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.  And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.  And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them."  And they went to another village.  Jesus has twice given the prediction of His Passion to the disciples (Luke 9:21-22, 43-45).  Now, as He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, it is clear He goes to His Passion.  But it is likely that the disciples expect that He goes toward Jerusalem in order to fully take His place as the Messiah, the Christ of God (9:20).  Therefore John and James Zebedee, whom Jesus has called "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17), respond in a way that might characterize one seizing material power in the context of rulers of the time.  But just as Jesus has recently corrected the disciples regarding who would be greatest in His Kingdom (see yesterday's reading, above, and the example of the little child), this response is also an opportunity for correction to the disciples regarding "what manner of spirit you are of."  The very nature of the holiness Jesus brings into the world works not to destroy men's lives but to save them.

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Then He said to another, "Follow Me."  But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."  And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."  But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."  My study bible writes about the statement, I will follow You, that there is a cost to discipleship.  Here Jesus reveals three of them.  First, the disciple relinquishes personal or earthly security.  If Christ the Lord has nowhere to lay His head, neither will the disciple.  Moreover, there is nothing, not even the honor that is due to parents, that can be an obstacle to serving the Lord.  Finally, a disciple cannot delay in accomplishing the good that is demanded by Christ.  

Jesus says, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."  Let us be assured that this does not mean a person is permanently barred from the kingdom of God.  Jesus is speaking of the demands of discipleship, the way of following Him.  If we think about the good we might miss, or the things we might have, then we are not "all in."  In other words, if our loyalty is in question as to where our deeper love calls us in the soul, then we're not prepared for this journey of discipleship and especially the taking up of our own crosses daily.  Earlier in this chapter, Jesus has taught the disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (9:23).  That taking up of the cross is a way of crucifying everything in our lives.  If this sounds harsh, one must understand it in the truly experiential terms of the journey toward Christ.  Every day of our lives, we'll be asked, in some form or another, what our real choice is, what we truly desire.  A prompting of the heart may tell us what we truly love better than what the world offers us at any particular given time.  Does our spouse need help, when we might spend the same time working at something that brings personal worldly glory?  Is a friend hurt who needs comfort?  Is there a way to donate to a cause to help someone truly needy, but that will not give us the worldly currency of a different and more widely applauded cause?  These are just daily examples of choices we might have to make, in which somehow our worldly lives are crucified.  Our choices become times of the cross, where we need to make a decision, and choose who we really are.  How we find who we really are becomes a matter of what we love the most, where our real loyalty lies, and thus who we become.  Are we going to be modeled in the image of Christ?  This is the cost of discipleship and the true goal invested in discipleship.  Christ becomes the model, giving us the image He has of us, His creation.  This is the long road of discipleship, the ways in which we take up our crosses daily.  We exchange one way of life for another, a worldly or "earthly" way of thinking and being in the world, for Christ's way of thinking and being in the world.  In this way our true image of the self is created, tested in the fire, brought to the Cross.  And as Christ indicated when He spoke of taking up one's cross daily, for each of us this is going to look different.  We are each going to have specifics we need to live, and to walk through, and to make choices about, all in the light of that Cross.  This is the way life is, and those who are outside of Christ's discipleship will not understand it except in vague terms of morality or some other kind of compass.  But the life to which we are called by Christ is a life of love and loyalties within the practice of that love.  Do we save life or destroy it?  This is the manner of spirit we are of.  What are we called upon to nurture and love?  Are we all in, or is there something else that calls our loyalty?  Our lives are meant to be journeys of faith; let us consider with what courage we look toward Him on that road.