What we will see in this section of Scripture is not a suggestion of whether you want to take the hard road of following Jesus as a Christian but rather that the road for a Christian will be hard. This comes to us in many different ways. It may come along as persecution, temptation to sin, the pull to be worldly or just everyday problems. There is never a promise of a life of ease for a Christian and there is no room to hold on to our old lives. We must be willing to give it all up at the moment of salvation. Now the process of sanctification will help us throughout our lives to realize the things we must give up but the willingness to give up anything must be in our heart. If that is not there then as we will see, that will set you apart from who it is that is considered true followers of the Lord Jesus. Once again it isn’t that Jesus requires us to give everything up all at once but rather through the process of sanctification that we all are in at different levels.
Please don’t take my words as being legalistic because that is not the intention. The intention is that Jesus calls all Christians to a life free from the external pulls from the flesh and the world. With that in mind we must understand that we will all struggle to stay in that direction all of the time but it must be the willingness and direction of our life as Christians. We will look at this Scripture with our thoughts on other passages that Jesus has already taught concerning what following Him actually means.
I want to first look at our Scripture for this study. Look with me at Luke 9:57-62 that says And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” 61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first permit me to say farewell to those at home.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
We will only look down to verse 60 for this study because there was way to much to talk about in each of these points so I split this section into 2 studies. So we will look at 2 points for this study and 2 for the next that will walk us through this topic of following Jesus.
To open up the first 3 points I want us to remember back at the parable of the Sower or soils that Jesus spoke on back in Luke 8. There were 4 soils, 3 represented the different types of people that reject the Gospel and one represented the true Christian. In those 3 that reject the Gospel there is one that Jesus explains in Luke 8:14 as the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of life, and do not bear ripe fruit.
I believe we will see that these first 3 people in our study for this time and for the next study, fall into this category in different ways. This is somewhat like subpoints of that category of those that just can’t let go of the world.
With that we will look at our first point.
1.Following Jesus requires FORSAKING yourself.
Look with me at Luke 9:57-58 And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
The idea of forsaking self is not new to our thinking. In fact it was just earlier in this chapter where we dealt with very thing from Luke 9:23-24 that says And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
We took 3 separate studies to look at Luke 9:23-27 that deals with this same idea. Here is the link to each of these: Discipleship Is Denying Self, Discipleship Is Taking Up Your Cross Daily, and Discipleship Is Following Jesus.
The fact is we could go through many teachings our Lord has done up to this point in His ministry and see that He has taught on what truly following Him looks like. But I believe each time we see Him speak on this subject that we get a little deeper understanding of this idea of authentic discipleship. Here Jesus encounters 3 different people who either want to follow Him or have the potential to follow Him. The problem will be seen in their inability to let go of their old life.
We need to remember that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem for the last time. He knows that He will go there and encounter opposition eventually. At first many accept His message, His power, His authority but soon afterward they will turn on Him because of the influence of the religious leaders of Judaism. Clearly we see that they are traveling as they encounter this first individual. Look again at Luke 9:57 that says And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
This seems to be such a positive action from this unknown man but in reality it’s not what it seems. Matthew gives us a little information on who this is from Matthew 8:19 that says Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
Clearly we see this is not just some random person that comes up to Him but rather one of the scribes of the Judaism. Scribes were learned men who studied the Law, transcribed the Law and even provided commentaries on the Law. They had the important task of preserving the Scriptures as they copied them down. So this scribe is not a person that is just looking at Jesus from some superficial standpoint or because of the miraculous but seems to have a grasp that Jesus is at least a Teacher of the Law.
As always Jesus knows the hearts of men as John 2:24-25 says But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.
Even though this scribe seemed to have good intentions, Jesus knew that there was something lacking in His commitment. Jesus responds by saying in Luke 9:58 “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
I do want to point out that we do not have Biblical commentary on why Jesus said this but all 3 of these situations need to be looked at in light of Luke 9:23-27 because that text gives us the foundation of what true discipleship looks like. So with that we can look back at those verses with the fact that Jesus says to first deny oneself. The statement Jesus says to this scribe seems to line up with that very statement. Jesus knew that the scribes were looked upon as very important people in Judaism. They were the one’s that would interpret the Law from Hebrew to Aramaic. They were looked upon from the common people as people of high knowledge and status so the test would be of whether this scribe really wanted to follow.
Jesus let’s him know that if he really wants to follow then he need to expect that the comforts of life, the status he has will not be as it is. This is a lesson of denying oneself. This looks different in some aspects for different people and here this man needed to know that the ease of life, the high view from the people was not going to be what he had anymore. Jesus was not saying that all followers would end up homeless or in poverty but that we must be willing to give up whatever it is that places self on the throne instead of God.
Before we move to our next point I want to us to notice that there is no indication of whether or not this man or the other two decides to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. Let’s look at our next point.
2.Following Jesus requires leaving the FUTURE to God.
Look with me at Luke 9:59-60 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
This man does not approach Jesus but rather Jesus approaches Him. Matthew indicates that this is one of Jesus’ disciples. This is not one of the 12 by the fact that Matthew says another of the disciples. These 2 men seemed to have been following Jesus as true learners of the Lord Jesus. But it was at this time that there seems to be a shift in the chance to commit to more than just being in the crowd. Jesus says to this disciple, “Follow Me.”
This is interesting that this is the same way Jesus called many of the 12 disciples as well. This seems to be the same kind of call, not to be of the 12 but to be fully committed to Christ. I would agree that by the answer of this disciple it seems that he was not willing to truly commit. Does this indicate he left from following Jesus, maybe but we can’t be 100% sure. What we do see is that he makes an excuse to not follow in that type of commitment. He says in Luke 9:59 “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
This seems like a fair request but the problem is that if his father was already dead then this man would not have even been in front of Jesus or traveling with him. The implication seems to point that his father was not dead yet but that this man wanted to secure his future with the inheritance that may be coming his way when his father does die. I think we see clearly that this man was not ready to make a true commitment to Christ. He wanted the benefits of being a part of the crowd but was not willing to truly follow. He wanted to look like a person that was truly following Jesus but in reality he had not came to that point of full commitment. He was unlike the disciples that were called by our Lord.
Matthew 4:20 says of Peter and Andrew after Jesus calls them that they immediately they left their nets and followed Him.
The also James and John in Matthew 4:22 immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Matthew when called left everything behind, and rose up and began to follow Him, Luke 5:28 says.
Like I said not everyone is called to leave everything in an instant but that should be our willingness as Christians. *Jesus tells this man in Luke 9:60 “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
This statement is not meant to be harsh but is pointing this man to what truly following is. Following Jesus is not living for our future plans but living in the present to proclaim the Gospel everywhere to all people. This man was unwilling to follow Jesus because he wanted just a little more from his own life, maybe it was an inheritance he was waiting for, maybe he wanted to make sure that his mother was taken care of after his father passes on or maybe he just was making an excuse to not commit in the way that was needed to continue with Christ.
These two men are examples to us that shows us things that hinder us from truly following Christ. Maybe you are in one of these groups of either lacking complete denial of self or living life for future hopes and dreams. Being a Christian is not just saying I “believe” in Jesus or it isn’t just attendance at church once or twice a week, or it is not about the amount of money or time you give to the church. Being a Christian is about Jesus being your Lord and that means that He is Lord over your life, your future and even your family as we will see next study.*
Have you ever came to a time in your life where you denied self and left that old self there? Have you maybe stepped back over into those old ways and found yourself living in an unrighteous lifestyle? Today is the day to ask God to forgive you, repent from your sin and self and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior so that you will have eternal life.
Disciple's Direction 