A Sermon preached on February 1, 2009, by the Rev. Dr. S. Randall Toms
At St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:57-62)
Many of the modern books about Jesus make him look like a slick promoter who knew how to push all the right buttons in order to get as many people as possible to follow him. When I look at these treatments of Jesus, he seems to be an ancient Amway salesman with a pyramid scheme that would get many people to buy into his product of eternal life. In this era of church growth expertise, some people have tried to make Jesus in to the world’s most successful marketer, someone who packaged his product of salvation in just the right words so that his movement would be guaranteed to attract crowds and grow. But unless Jesus was employing some kind of reverse psychology, he doesn’t seem to use the right words and techniques that would gather a permanent following. It is true that his miracles of healing and feeding thousands of people did attract large crowds, but then he seemed to say exactly the wrong thing and scared people away. Sometimes when people followed him, he questioned their motivations. In John 6:26, he looked at a crowd that was following him and said,
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” All these people are following Jesus, and he turns to them and says that they are following him just because he is a free meal ticket. Then he launches into a discourse about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and after the end of that speech, we are told, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66).
In our text for today, once again, people come to Jesus, expressing their desire to follow him, but he responds with words that would seem calculated to dampen the enthusiasm of any would be followers. Instead of encouraging people to continue to follow him, he says things that would tend to dissuade any such commitment. People often tell me that my kind of preaching will scare people away. Of course it does. I preach the most unpopular doctrines in the world: we are all sinners deserving the eternal wrath of Almighty God; there is only one way of salvation, and that is through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; a life of strict obedience based on the commandments of Holy Scripture; reverence and a holy sincerity in worship; and a day of judgment is coming and at the end of that judgment, heaven and hell. These are the central themes of my preaching, and they are ridiculed not only by the world, but by the Church at large. Of course many people are going to visit here, shake their heads and walk away. But the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ also checked the eagerness of many prospective disciples. If my preaching doesn’t offend people, if it doesn’t make people turn away and say, “I just can’t see God being like that,” or, “I just can’t live that kind of life,” if it doesn’t offend the sensibilities of 21st century Americans, then I am not preaching the gospel of Jesus.
In our text for today, a man came to Jesus and said, “Lord, “ I will follow you everywhere you go.” This is the kind of man that we would like to have to join our church. Matthew’s gospel tells us that this man was a scribe. What a coup that would have been for the disciples! They could have gone around bragging, “Look at the kind of people we have in our group. We have a scribe, an expert in the Law of Moses, and he has seen the light and is now a follower of Jesus.” We often think the same thing of potential members who might join our church. Think of the money that person might bring into the church. Not only that, but he is such a highly respected member of the community that his presence in our church would lend us instant credibility. People will think, “Well, if such highly educated, if such successful business people attend that church, then maybe there is something to it after all. We are going to get all kinds of visitors to come to our church because that person joined.”
Not only does this man have the reputation we are looking for, but he is so enthusiastic. We don’t have any indication in this verse that Jesus called him, or that Jesus spoke to him and asked him to follow him. Instead, it sees as though this man came running up to Jesus and on his own initiative volunteered. He had probably seen the miracles that Jesus performed and had heard his teaching. He must have been thinking that this is the Messiah. This is the one we have been looking for and I can’t wait to be numbered among his disciples. Don’t you love it when people come to our church with that attitude? No one invited them. No one pressured them into coming. They just show up and volunteer for service. I know I like it when people say, “I’ve heard you preach. I’ve read your sermons. I’ve seen the lives of the people in your church and the way their families are strong. I see what conscientious workers and employees they are, and I just can’t wait to be numbered with these people.”
Then look at the level of commitment on the part of this man. He says, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” Now, you can’t ask for a much greater degree of dedication than that. I mean if a person came to our church and said, “I am so anxious to join your church, and I am ready to do anything you ask me to do,” we would whip out that membership card and say, “Sign on the dotted line.” I can imagine the disciples must have been thinking, “Isn’t this great! We are about to have a Scribe, a man of wealth and reputation, and a man so dedicated he is willing to go anywhere with the Lord.”
Then, out of nowhere, it seems as though Jesus says something that would seem to restrain potential disciple’s passion. Instead of welcoming this stellar convert with open arms, he says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Why would Jesus say something like this to such an enthusiastic prospect? Remember that , our Lord Jesus Christ knew the hearts of all men, and he obviously knew something about this man that he wanted him to think about before he so enthusiastically enlisted in the army of the Lord.
It would appear that this man was wealthy, or perhaps he may have been someone who merely wanted to be wealthy and wanted to follow Jesus for that reason. He may have seen the feeding of the multitudes, or he may have seen the miracles that Jesus performed and came to the conclusion that Jesus was the Messiah. He does call Jesus, “Lord,” indicating, at least, a high level of respect, maybe even a sense of that he was the Christ. This man may have been laboring under the idea that the Messiah was going to set up an earthly kingdom here, and early disciples such as himself would be on the ground floor when the new administration of the kingdom was set up.
Whatever might have been the reason for this response on the part of Jesus, we can be sure that Jesus was asking him to think about the nature of the commitment he thought he was willing to make. Jesus was asking him to count the cost, as he taught all would be disciples who thought of joining his band of followers. Jesus once said,
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27-33)
So many people, when they think of following Jesus, think everything is going to be smooth sailing, a life of constant happiness, no suffering, no trials, and no tribulations. But Jesus warns that if you come to him, you are coming to take up a cross, and if anything, your way of life is going to become much more difficult. We think when we come to Jesus he is standing there with a pot of gold in his arms guaranteeing our financial prosperity and magic handkerchiefs that will make our sicknesses go away. Instead, Jesus stands there with a cross, and says, “If you follow me, this cross must be laid to your shoulders right now. Are you willing to take up this cross and follow me?”
Following him may mean a life of suffering. Following him may mean a life of poverty. This is the one thing he confronts this man with, perhaps because he, like the rich young ruler had great possessions. Being a scribe, he may have been used to a life of comfort and respectability. Such a man needed to be confronted with what following Christ could mean. Jesus is saying, “if you think following me is the way to fortune and fame, take a look at me. Foxes have holes in the ground where they can rest, and birds have nests where they live and seek shelter; but, I don’t even have a place of my own to put my head.“
Years ago, I heard one of these prosperity preachers say that Jesus didn’t really mean this, because he said Jesus was a very rich man. This preacher said that Jesus just said this to get rid of the man because he could see that this man wasn’t sincere. Such an interpretation not only makes Jesus a liar, it also is a denial of Scripture. Paul said in II Cor. 8:9: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through is poverty might be rich.” Jesus left the wealth and glory of heaven, so that we might be spiritually wealthy. Our Lord was poor, and when people desired to follow him, he told them that it would cost everything they own.
These prosperity preachers will twist Scripture any way possible, because they want people to follow Christ for the loaves, for the miracles, not out of love for the person of Christ himself. Matthew Henry said, “Christ will accept none for his followers that aim at worldly advantages in following him, or design to make any thing but heaven of their religion.” If you want health and prosperity in this world for following Christ, don’t bother. He offers you one guarantee—freedom from the power and penalty of sin. If you get anything else in the way of worldly, material things, consider it lagniappe.
After you have considered these facts, are you still willing to follow Jesus anywhere he goes? The Christian is someone who has given everything to Christ. It doesn’t mean that we have to sell all our possessions and live lives of abject poverty. But it does mean that nothing, not even my most prized possessions can stand in the way of my commitment to follow Christ. If obedience to him means that I lose everything I have, so be it. It’s already been given to him anyway the moment I became a Christian.
This man was on the verge of making a rash commitment that he had not really thought through. Many people make such commitments to Christ now. This man, seeing all the miracles that Jesus did, swept along by the excitement of the crowd, may have just been caught up in the magic of the moment. How many people have done that, perhaps at an evangelistic crusade or in a very emotional church service? This so often happens in our teen years when emotions run so high and the impulse to be a part of group is ats its peak. Many other people were making a commitment, so they followed suit. The music was so powerful that it brought tears to their eyes, and their hearts were overflowing with all the wonderful words that were being sung about Jesus, and they made a commitment to follow Christ without ever considering what it was that Christ demanded of them. Some people make such rash commitments at a time of crisis in their lives.
How many such commitments have I seen in my 40 years of ministry! People are facing a sickness, a personal tragedy has come to their lives, or perhaps they have gotten themselves in real trouble and they are afraid, and in that moment of crisis, they turn to the Lord. Sometimes, it is nothing more than making a deal with God, and they say something like, “Lord, if you get me out of this, I will follow you.” Others are not making deals with God. They are genuinely sincere. They realize that they have made a mess of their lives, and, at the end of their ropes, they turn to Christ. But such people usually have not considered the cost of discipleship. They merely want to start over, to get a second chance, and Jesus seems to offer that to them.
But what do we so often find to be true of those commitments made in such emotional moments or in moments of crisis. As soon as the emotion wears off, so does their commitment to Christ, and like a man who did something stupid when he was drunk, the person says, “I did what? I know I made a commitment, but I didn’t know it meant that it would cost me everything.” This is why many of us look askance at sudden conversions, though we realize that there have been many true and genuine conversions were swift and impulsive. There is an old proverb that says, “Soon ripe, soon rotten,” and so it often proves with people who make a spur of the moment decision without due consideration. As for the person who has made a commitment in a moment of crisis, once the crisis has subsided, then the level of commitment subsides as well, especially when they see that commitment to Christ may mean that they find themselves in far greater trouble than the crisis they are experiencing now.
Matthew Henry said, “They that take up a profession in a pang, will throw it off again in a fret; let them, therefore, take time, and they will have done the sooner: let him that will follow Christ know the worst of it, and expect to lie hard, and fare hard.” To all people who seem to be so enthusiastic to be a follower of Christ, he says, “Stop. Think about what it means to be a follower of mine. Count the cost.”
Alexander MacLaren put it like this:
Discipleship which is the result of mere emotion must be evanescent, for all emotion is so. Effervescence cannot last, and when the cause ceases the effect ceases too. Discipleship which enlists in Christ’s army, in ignorance of the hard marching and fighting which have to be gone through, will very soon be skulking in the rear or deserting the flag altogether. Discipleship which offers faithful following because it relies on its own fervour and force will, sooner or later, feel its unthinkingly undertaken obligations too heavy, and be glad to shake off the yoke which it was so eager to put on…. Men have vowed, and did not know what they were vowing, pledging themselves, in a moment of excitement, to what after years discover to them to be a hard and uncongenial course of life. They have been carried into the position of professed disciples on the top of a wave of emotion which has long since broken and retreated, leaving them stranded and motionless in a place where they have no business to be. Every community of professing Christians is weakened, and its vitality is lowered, by the presence and influence of members who have said, “ will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,”but whose vow was but a flash in the pan, and never meant anything. They did not know what they were saying. They had not stopped to think why they were saying it, still less did they take the advice of the Master to count their forces before they went into the battle, and see whether their ten thousand could meet him that would come against them with twenty thousand.
In our generation, we would not have spoken to this man the way that Jesus did. We would have hidden the cost, rather than asked him to count the cost. As a matter of fact, we have boiled down the demands of the gospel to such a degree that we would tell him that there was no cost at all. Our Lord was different, for he not only revealed to people, up front, the cost of discipleship, but also warned them to consider if they truly understand what it will mean to follow him.
Now, the next person in our text has different personality than the one who was so impulsive in his decision to follow Christ. This man doesn’t come running to join, for Jesus extends the invitation to him, “Follow me.” This man doesn’t utterly reject the call of Jesus. He merely says, “Let me go and bury my father.” On the surface, that doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request to make. After all, taking care of our parents is a duty enjoined in Scripture. This man could have said that all he was doing was honoring the fifth commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” As a matter of fact, in Jewish custom, honoring parents with a proper burial exempted that person from all other duties that might have begged for a person’s attention. But Jesus will not grant him this duty that was normally expected of a child. What did Jesus see in this person that would elicit what seems to be a rather callous command on the part of Jesus?
There is a question about whether the father was already dead. Since it was Jewish custom to bury the person the day they died, so if the father was already dead, this son would have taken care of it immediately. It could be that the man was saying that his father was very old or sick, and about to die. Couldn’t he stay with his father until he died and then follow Jesus? Or it could be that this man is referring to a second burial of his father. In those days, the body of a Jewish person was buried and then allowed to decompose for a year. At the end of the year, the family would go and collect the bones and put them in an ossuary, or bone box. If that is the case, then the man may be saying, “Let me wait for a year and take care of the final rites for the bones of my father.”
What is our Lord’s response to this man? “Let the dead bury their dead.” This response is usually taken to mean, “Let those who are spiritually dead, who have no concern about spiritual things, bury the physically dead, but you have more important work to do. Preach the kingdom of God.” If Jesus is speaking of the custom of reburying the bones of the dead, then Jesus may be saying that such a custom should be in no competition with the importance following him. If that is the case, then Jesus would be saying, “Let those in the graves take care of such business. You have an important task to the living.”
One scholar has said that to the Jews of the first century, no statement would have been more shocking to them than this command of Jesus to let the dead bury their dead, because it went against all that they believed about the duties that a child was supposed to perform for his parents. Whatever Jesus might have meant when he said, “Let the dead bury their dead,” the one thing that is certain about this command is that it indicates that our relationship with Jesus demands priority over every other relationship or duty. Jesus was consistent on this point: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).
When our Lord said that we should hate father, mother, wife, children, brethren, and sisters, he was not saying that we should hate them in the sense of despising them or have feelings of ill will toward them. Nor was our Lord saying that we have the right to neglect our duties as children to our parents. I have known many parents who excused the neglect of their children by appealing to the excuse that they were doing the Lord’s work. Our Lord is not giving us an excuse to neglect our families. He was merely saying that when we compare the love we have for them with the love we have for Christ, it is no contest. There is not even a close second. Our love for Christ excels our love for everyone and everything else. He is saying that if you take our love for our family members, as great as that love may be, and compare it with the love we have for Christ, the love we have for family members would seem like hate in comparison. It is for this reason that Jesus responds in this way to this man.
Our Lord, knowing this man’s heart, knew that his family was an idol, and that when it came to a choice between being obedient to Christ and submission to his family, this man would choose his family. Jesus is merely saying that our love for him must exceed all other loves. You see, this man had something very important to do at home, something that he thought took priority over the demands of Christ on his life. But if he had gone back home, once this duty to his father had been discharged, no doubt something else more important than following Jesus would have arisen. Perhaps he would have had to stay home to take care of the property his father had left. Who knows what other important, legitimate reasons would have presented themselves. When it comes to following Christ, that were will always be an infinite number of important, pressing concerns that will present themselves as rivals to our duty to follow Christ; but our Saviour demands, that nothing, no matter how important, no matter how legitimate, is to be placed before what he has called us to do.
Then another person came and said to him, “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home and at my house.” Now again, that seems like a reasonable request. “All I want to do is say. ‘Bye.’” But our Lord says, “No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” What did our Lord see in this man that would have brought forth such a response?
Someone has said that this man’s problem, like the one before him, was “me first.” “Let me first….” Following Christ was important, but there were other things in his life more important at the present time. Although it may seem insignificant that he wants to go bid farewell to his friends, such an action may have been devastating for him in a spiritual sense. What would those at his house most likely have told him? “Are you sure you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Think of all that you will be giving up by going with him? You have nice home with a nice warm bed every night. You have a nice job with a good income. Think of all the good times you will have partying with your family and friends in the future.”
This is why Jesus responded in the manner he did. He knew that this man’s heart was not fully committed to him. He knew that even if this man did make a commitment to follow him, he would always be looking back, longing for the things he left behind. He would be like Lot’s wife, who seemed to love the things of Sodom, and had to have one last look behind her. He would be like the children of Israel, who, every time hardship arose in the desert, they were looking back, wondering why they ever left Egypt for this. Eventually, he would have been like Demas, forsaking the Apostle Paul and gospel of Christ,” having loved this present world” (II Tim. 4:10).
With Christ, you must make a break with the world, a decisive one, turn your back on it, and run the race, looking before you only in the face of Jesus Christ. Actually, I changed the metaphor there a little, for our Lord was not speaking here of a race, but of plowing a furrow. If a man is trying to plow, but he is looking back, what kind of furrow do you think he is going to plow? He will be all over the place, out of line, running into other furrows, and, in general, making a mess of things. So it is with us if we keep looking back to the world. We make a mess of the work of God, never being able to put forth a full-hearted effort, because we have never really decided what it is that we really want to do in life. Yes, there is something in us that know that we should serve Christ, but we are always looking back at the world, regretting the things that we left behind. The work of God can only be done with those who with singleness of heart have turned their back on the world and with steadfast purpose, seek to serve Jesus Christ.
These last two men seem to be the opposite to the first, and thus, obtain a different response from our Lord. To the first, Jesus says, “Think about it. Take your time.” To these two he says, “The time is now. There is not a moment to spare.” Though Jesus may seem to be contradicting himself, we actually see his wisdom in knowing how to deal with the particular personalities with whom he has to deal. If you aren’t sure what Jesus demands of you, find out now. On the other hand, if you do want to follow Jesus, nothing must stand in your way. Don’t be too hasty to make a commitment that you know nothing about. On the other hand, don’t think too long, because if you do, the things of this world have a way of drawing your heart away from that which is most important.
The approach that Jesus takes with would be followers is the one we should take as well. We must not sugar-coat discipleship, but like our Lord, show people, up front, what it means to be his disciple, though it may drive many people away. Actually, to the natural man, there is nothing attractive about true Christianity. Yes, the miracles look good and the blessings look good, but the cross never looks attractive to the person who has never fully committed himself to Christ. It is not that we are trying to discourage anyone from following Christ. How we long that everyone would do so! But we must be honest, brutally honest, even as our Lord was, and confront people with the fact that if they would be saved, Christ demands absolute loyalty in every area of life.
Let me close with a quotation from Spurgeon from a sermon he preached on this passage:
Does anyone here say, “That was rather a hard method of our Lord, to tell this hopeful person that, and so discourage him”? Ah! Dear friend, it was a very safe and proper method. Our Lord wants not to gather to his army those who cannot be soldiers. If we cannot endure what lies before us, it is better for us honestly to turn back than to pretend to go forward. If we enlist a man who is not sincere at the first, we are doing him a serious injury; we are doing ourselves an injury; we are doing the whole cause of Christ a solemn injury before the eyes of men; for all they that go back, like dogs to their vomit, bring disgrace upon the good cause. All those who say that they are Christ’s, and then go and live ungodly lives, stain the name of Christ. They do more injury through having made a profession, than they would have been capable of doing if they had never made that profession. Now, as the church hastily counts up her numbers, and says, “so many were converted,” the world has another register, and counts up the apostates, the backsliders, and the wanderers; and it is a serious blow struck at the crown and glory of Christ when the world can say, “Such and such a man bore Christ’s name, but he acted like a servant of the devil.” Hence our Lord was wise, as the great heart-searching Saviour, to let this man know the worse side of religion; that, if he did take up with it, he might know what the cost of it would be. So would I say to everyone here, that we want you to come, we want you to join the army of Christ, we want you to be followers of the Redeemer, but not unless you will count the cost first. We beg you not to take the name of Christ upon you, unless you are truly his in your very soul. Do not dare to be added to the Church of God, unless heart, soul, and spirit, your whole nature goes with your profession, and you become truly and really a follower of Christ. The enthusiastic often comfort a preacher, but they as often delude him. Let him be on his guard, and try well, with searching truth and with untiring preaching of the whole gospel, those who come to him, lest the great heap on the threshing floor should suddenly prove to be nothing but chaff, when God’s great fan comes to blow upon it.
I know that some of you have thought these sermons that I started preaching at the New Year, have been hard, and they will continue to be throughout Lent. But you see, it is only through preaching like this that men and women, boys and girls, are confronted with the gospel of Christ. Just as the Church has made the gate wide and the way broad, the Church has lowered the demands of Christ until they are non-existent. I know that we are in a very small minority, but we are only obeying the example of Christ who laid out the Christian life in plain terms and said, “Count the cost.” To the impulsive and the hesitant, we say, “Count the cost! And do it now!”
Amen.
