First Draft Sermon: I Will Follow You?
Do we really want to follow Jesus?
Text: Luke 9:51-62
Jesus must have been a popular person because, according to this text, he was being stopped all the time. I can’t imagine trying to get to a place and all these people stopping and talking to you. Jesus was a popular guy.
In this passage, Jesus stopped by three people. One said he would follow him anywhere. Another said he wanted to follow him, but he needed to bury his dad. Finally, another one wanted to say goodbye before he followed Jesus.
The passage starts with Luke saying that Jesus’ face is set towards Jerusalem. He is on the way to his death and resurrection. He knows where he’s going.
I don’t think the three people who talked to Jesus knew where he was headed. The first one says he will go wherever Jesus goes, but Jesus tries to tell him that he will never have a place to call home. The second person wanted to bury his father. In reality, he wasn’t burying a man who just died, but it was a way to say that he had some things to do at that moment, but once he got things in order, then he could follow Jesus. He responds by saying that life has to take care of itself. With the final person, Jesus says if they put their hand back on the plow, trying to hold on to the old ways of life makes one not fit for the kingdom of God.
You could read that text and think that you have to get right and do better to in order to be a good disciple. But the key to this text is found in those last words. Because the anyone who looks back and places their hand on the plow is everyone. None of us is fit to follow Jesus. We are always distracted just like the people in this passage. I don’t know about you, but I am very like the first person in wanting to live comfortably.
Remember, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He is on his way to the cross. We can’t follow Jesus on our own, but through the life, death,I and resurrection we can. It is only through the grace of God that we can be disciples of Jesus.
Jesus calls us to follow and we respond. And we will fall short. And like the disciples, we will get up forgiven by God to follow again, and again.