Thought for the Day – Saturday 4th July
‘As they went on their way, a man
said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus said to him, “Foxes
have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down
and rest.”
He said to another man, “Follow
me.” But that man said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.” Jesus
answered, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of
God.” Someone else said, “I will follow you, sir; but first let me go and say
good-bye to my family.”
Jesus said to him, “Anyone who
starts to plough and then keeps looking back is of no use for the Kingdom of
God.”’ (Luke 9: 57-62)
I never cease to be amazed that once a child starts to crawl they will
follow you everywhere! If you leave a room they come looking for you and if you
turn round and go back to that self-same room a moment later inevitably they
will tag along behind you too! Sometimes they just sneak up on you and you
almost trip over them such is their desire to be with you. It seems they just
enjoy your company and want to be with you regardless of where you are going or
what you are doing and it doesn’t even seem to matter whether what you are
doing is interesting or not they will just follow you as if they cannot bear to
be without you. Such love! Such trust! True devotion!
Oh that the men in our text today showed such devotion to following
Jesus!
We are not really sure if that first man does indeed follow Jesus wherever
he went – but if we look to the other men in the story it seems probable that
he, like them, would make some sort of excuse not to follow Jesus there and
then when asked.
Are we being unkind to these men who give an excuse not to follow?
Are their excuses legitimate ones?
Well, it seems Jesus thinks they are not legitimate ones. Had the man’s
father just died then that man would indeed have had to be involved in all the
funeral arrangements and I am sure Jesus would truly have understood that.
However, what Jesus’ words suggest is that the man wishes to go back to be with
his father and apparently wait there with him until the time of his death -
which could obviously be a long, long time, years even, before then coming to
follow Jesus.
Jesus replying in the way he does to this man is really saying to him
let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead for if you are spiritually
alive you should feel compelled to follow me and be really busy out there in
the world proclaiming the kingdom of God.
Likewise the man who says he must go back and say goodbye to his family
first before following Jesus is told by Jesus that if you commit to follow
Jesus, if you say ‘I will follow you sir’, but then keep looking back then you are not
really growing the kingdom of God.
The very first disciples just dropped everything and followed Jesus
there and then, it seems these would be followers are not yet ready to commit
in such a way.
Nobody ever said following Jesus would be easy and I am sure at times
we all make excuses not to follow or do something we feel Jesus would want us
to do but if we commit to following Jesus when he asks us to follow, in so
doing we commit to growing the Kingdom of God with him. Now, if we want to do
that wholeheartedly in Jesus’ name and for his sake, then we have to be like
that little child who has just learnt to crawl – we have to follow Jesus
around, constantly tag along behind him, seek out his presence at all times as
if we cannot bear to be out of his presence for even one moment and in so doing
we too will be showing such love, such trust and such devotion to Jesus.
‘Follow him, follow him, yield
your life to him,
he has conquered death, he is
King of Kings,
accept the joy which he gives to
those,
who yield their lives to him.’
Prayer
Loving Lord,
Draw us ever closer to you, renew within us a heart willing to follow
wherever you will lead and when we are tempted to make excuses not to follow
you remind us anew of your love for us and devotion to us, remind us of your
desire to grow the Kingdom of God here on earth and bring us to that place of
faith and trust in you where we cannot help but follow. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen
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