1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21
Psalm 16: 1-2, 5, 7-11
Galatians 5: 1, 13-18
Luke 9:51-62
Jesus' back and forth in this Gospel with would-be disciples seems fairly harsh - their requests seem reasonable enough, don't they? It helps to remember that at this point in Luke, Jesus is journeying to Jerusalem, where he will ultimately be arrested and put to death. Earlier in the chapter (9), we find Jesus miraculously feeding a crowd, Peter naming Jesus as "the Christ", Jesus warning them about the burdens of discipleship, a mysterious transfiguration, healing a boy of demonic possession AND the disciples arguing about who is the greatest! I'm tired just thinking about all this action!
While Jesus is repeatedly trying to prepare his followers for his suffering- and theirs- many are simply getting caught up in the wonder of all these amazing things. So when one eager disciple comes up and says he'll follow Jesus 'wherever', Jesus wants to be sure he understands the depth of the required commitment! And as for telling the bereaved son to 'let the dead bury the dead', Jesus was speaking in hyperbole to a person he recognized as spiritually alive, not dead. And to the third person he advised the need to eliminate distractions and prioritize obligations if he would be successful. (Looking back while plowing ensures a crooked row!)
Just after this Gospel passage, Jesus sends out the 72 disciples on a mission - so he really was making sure that would-be disciples were up for the task! (It would have been a disaster for his mission if the disciples went out and whined about the food and accommodations rather than preaching the Gospel message! Have you ever followed a car that has the fish emblem on it, and witnessed the driver behaving in a most un-Christian manner? Kind of like that.)
There's a freedom that Jesus offers to those who choose to follow him. The freedom of the promise of the Gospel. But he's no huckster- he's not trying to trick any of us into the life of discipleship-- we all know that some choices are inconvenient, painful even. But we have it luckier than Jesus' original disciples- we know the truth of the resurrection! And we are gifted with God's Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us through it all.
- What are some of the distractions that keep you from fully following Jesus?
- How might you attend to them?
No comments:
Post a Comment