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 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 it happened on the day after the Transfiguration, when they had come down from the mountain, that 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.  Let us note in the context of this story that Jesus has been teaching the disciples about the essential importance of humility to the concept of greatness.  On Saturday, we read that Jesus responded to the disciples' dispute among themselves about which of them would be greatest, presumably in Christ's kingdom which they may believe is both imminent and also a worldly kingdom.  He aimed to correct their thinking regarding what greatness is, bringing a child to His side and teaching 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" (see above).  Then when John told him they forbade another who was not of their group, but was casting out demons in Christ's name, Jesus taught them, "Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side."  So this rebuke to John and James follows those teachings on humility, and adds another dimension to their understanding:  "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."   It is yet another distinction of discipleship in Christ's kingdom, for "greatness" on worldly terms meant being like Caesar or other ruthless rulers, all-powerful, and vanquishing those who do not submit.

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 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 comments on this passage that there is a cost to discipleship.  When this man declares, "I will follow You wherever You go," Jesus reminds him of three aspects of His own life that a disciples needs to understand in terms of following Him.  First, my study Bible says, a disciple relinquishes personal or earthly security -- if the Lord has nowhere to lay His head, neither will the disciples.  Second, there is nothing, not even the honor due to parents, that can be an obstacle to serving the Lord.  Finally, a disciple cannot delay in accomplishing the good that Christ demands.

 

 We should note, as has been indicated above, how each new teaching on the road toward Jerusalem is preparing the disciples for the type of kingdom they will be serving, what manner of discipleship they are learning, and the basic understanding of greatness that turns a worldly understanding upside down.  For the early Christians, the world was a place in which greatness was measured by strength and power.  The greatness of a Caesar was a boast of how many he had conquered or killed.  Julius Caesar wrote a book on the Gallic Wars (waged between 58 and 50 BC), in which he bragged that under himself as general over a million Gauls were killed.  This was propaganda meant to prop up his image, and indeed his resulting reputation helped him to win a civil war and declare himself dictator (in addition to gaining him much wealth).  This was the sort of thing thought of as "greatness" in the world into which Jesus was born, and in which the disciples now walk toward Jerusalem and Christ's Passion.  So, if the disciples expect Jesus to come into His kingdom when He arrives in Jerusalem, and if their expectations are that of a worldly kingdom, we can imagine the training they are undergoing for the things that are to come.  As pointed out above, from the time that He overheard their dispute as to who will be greatest in this kingdom, He has been teaching them about service and humility, about receiving even a little child in His name as if it is He Himself they receive.  He has taught them not to forbid others working in His name even if they do not follow with their group.  In today's reading, Christ is rejected by a Samaritan village as He begins the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, and we can see the question posed by John and James Zebedee, the Sons of Thunder,  "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"  (1 Kings 18:20-40).  We might say that it sounds also as if they would like to experience the capacities of their own power that Christ has shared with them.  But Christ rebukes them, teaching them restraint and humility and the nature of His Kingdom and its mission:  "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."    They will need to correct their own understanding of greatness and of power, and of what it is that makes Christ's Kingdom great.  Let us not forget the transformation that takes place in the disciples which we can follow through the Scriptures, for John will become the Evangelist who gives us the Gospel and the Epistles which, more than any others, will emphasize the nature of God and the Kingdom as love (see, for example, 1 John 4:8).  James will become the first of the Twelve to be martyred (Acts 12:2).  Finally, we're given a number of things that are of importance with regard to traditional family structures:  a stable home, duties to parents and family, the expressions of affection or familial ties.  All of these are things most of us understand as good.  But note that what Christ teaches here is that loyalty first comes to God and however we are called to serve the ultimate Source of all good (James 1:17).  This is not to say that all of these ties of affection, family, and stable structure are false or bad -- but it is a powerful teaching that there may be times when we have to put those things second to the ways in which we are called, even when we are powerfully tested in our love for family and community.  Often it seems that we confuse sentimentality with the call of love:  there are times when the responsibilities of love are in conflict with our sentiment and nostalgic feelings of comfort.  We might be called to make hard choices -- such as the ones on display in the Gospel -- to learn to discern where love's powerful call to personal growth and spiritual fruit is calling us to struggle, to put our "hand to the plow" and go forward into what we don't yet know but where God's love is calling.  It has always been a part of many spiritual struggles to seek such discernment amid conflicting loyalties, in the Gospels and in the lives of the saints.   There is a deeper truth that calls to the place in us where God wants to bring us forward to the fullness of identity, the flowering of the potentials our Creator sees, that which brings the hundredfold harvest to the world.   It is a love that reaches down more deeply than all the other loves we know.  Just like tending and nurturing a garden, this is the call we need to know for the beauty of the world, and the new things we're asked to cultivate when we put our hand to the plow.