I Have Decided To Follow Jesus ... Sort Of

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

Jesus: Luke 9:62

      Jesus had made up his mind he was going to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem for him was a dangerous place.  Along the way, he tried to get a nights rest in a Samaritan town, and they rejected him. They didn't like the fact that he was on his way to "those" people in Jerusalem.  So they would show him NO hospitality.  The "sons of thunder" didn't like this treatment of their Lord. So they asked Jesus if He wanted them to call down fire out of heaven on them.  Jesus rebuked these two -- James and John -- and they simply went to another town.

   Apparently another reaction to this treatment happened as one of the people said, "I will follow you anywhere."  Jesus seemed to not believe him.  He seemed to challenge this person's integrity.  Listen in to the conversation:

Foxes have holes, and birds have nests; but the Son of Man has no place to rest his head.

It is as if Jesus is asking the man, "Really? Are you sure about that?   If you follow me, you may find yourself  not having a very comfortable life. Are you positively sure you will follow me ANYWHERE?"  

     All of the sudden Jesus began asking people surrounding him to count the cost of authentic discipleship.  So he said to one man "Follow me." The guy said something to the effect, Sure, but first I need to go bury my Daddy. Eavesdrop again on the conversation. "Let the dead bury the dead, but you go proclaim the Kingdom of God."  He is telling this man that people who are dead -- whose spirits are dead and not called of God --- let them bury the dead.  He clearly is calling this guy who wants to follow Him ... but he only wants to sort of follow Jesus. One thing is for certain, this fellow liked Jesus company, but he did not like the cost of the call on his life.  I don't know what this particular man did next, but I do know he was challenged by Jesus to be serious about his relationship with the Son of God.  In Jesus' mind, he clearly was not serious, at the time of this discussion.

   The conversation became contagious, and so another man stepped up to volunteer ... sort of.  Again, focus on the scene:  "I will follow you, Lord, BUT let me first go back and say goodbye to my family." Notice there is another "first" in his life. Jesus was a close second, but to this man, HE was not first. The man's request may seem reasonable; however, it was not reasonable to Jesus; therefore, it is here that Jesus made one of those "hard sayings" of the Bible.  "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God."

   Each of these people knew about Jesus, but they did not REALLY know him.  They did not want to do His will.  They called Him "Lord" but did not ever make him Lord of their lives. Never mind that God's will for you and me is always "good, pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2. It really is true what Jesus said, "Not everyone who calls me 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of heaven." Check out Matthew 7: 21-23. If ever there were a group of people who "knew" about Jesus but didn't know Him,  it was these folks.  They did all kind of good works, but they wanted to be "Christians" on their own terms.  They did not want to be Christ-Followers. As a matter of fact, they didn't want to do God's will to the point that they never established a relationship with Jesus.  Jesus said of them, "I never knew you" to them on judgment day.

   When I decided to follow Jesus, I made the decision, more than once, to take the road less traveled. My beloved faithfully decided to do the same.   On one occasion, I remember turning down a lot of money to pursue God's  call, even though I would have loved doing what they wanted to pay me for. Taking the money would have changed the course of our lives, and the lives of our children and grandchildren. Though we did not know it at the time. Making this choice to not take the money was painful. We deliberately turned down a comfortable lifestyle to follow Jesus. It also turned out we wound up in a dangerous drug infested area; additionally, during our decades of service,  staying at home with my family, rather than putting my life on the line in other parts of the world, would have been far easier.  Still too, I remember leaving, with my beloved, for years away from our adult children and grandchildren to do God's will. But we know that Jesus said, "Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."  Matthew 10:37.  And if you think making such choices was easy, you do not know us.

 Let me be absolutely clear: We were not perfect at this, any more than the Apostles. On one occasion, I was resistant to doing God's will, and it cost me nearly everything.  He made it clear to me, like he did to one of the men in the above story, "You go and preach the Kingdom of God!" When I finally submitted, revival broke out at the place where we did NOT want to go.  And hundreds were impacted in positive ways, and or saved and filled with The Holy Spirit.  The lives of our children and grandchildren have been positively impacted, as will future generations. This life altering decision, as with all decisions to take up the cross and follow Jesus, was and is not about us. For God is the God of generations. God has the great big "eternal now" picture.  (Thanks Brother George Creel.) He is the God of our children and grandchildren to a thousand generations. 

     Why would we do such things?  Why would anyone do such things? Please understand that it is NOT because we are such wonderfully holier than thou kind of persons.  Quite the opposite is true. You see we decided to follow Jesus ... actually ... knowing we are indeed flawed.  We are broken. And we are lost without Jesus. We feared, fear and or revere God.  We know about this passage of scripture about how important it is to surrender all to Him. As flawed as we are, God has always been faithful.  He has always "had our six" as we like to say in the military.  He has always had our backs. He has never failed us yet. And it is because I am so broken that every single day I live, I surrender myself to the Lord, FIRST.   I  and we know that apart from Him I/we can do NO-thing.  John 15:5. So, we clothe ourselves in Him. Romans 13:14 by putting on the armor of God, as a spiritual practise. Ephesians 6:10-20.  We practise the spiritual ritual of presenting our whole bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God as spiritual worship  (Romans 12:1-2.) I/we do this because it is the only way to be non-conformist to the world system of behavior. It is the ONLY way to be "IN the world but not OF the world." John 17:16.  And in surrendering the whole self, then we are transformed to be empowered to do the will of God each day.  Like Paul, it is a "die daily" kind of life: 1 Corinthians 15:31 KJV. Then we can live each day to it's fullest. John 10:10b.

What about you?  Have you decided to follow Jesus?   Really?

SoJourner