As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 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.” And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 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.” Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62).
How easy it is to claim that we follow Jesus. We have all said it, prayed it and made internal and possibly public commitments resolving that we will follow Jesus anywhere. Sometimes we find ourselves doing it daily as we try and keep our spiritual focus on what is truly important. We take that step to restore our passion, re-energize our discipline or faithfulness when we feel like we have drifted away, reduced our “commitment” to lip service, or just become stagnant; it happens to everyone. Jesus had a random person declare the same thing, “I will follow you wherever you go.” We do not know what motivated this individual to make this public announcement to Jesus. Was this energized by conviction, repentance, or maybe guilt? Maybe he was just making an emotional response because he was so excited to see Jesus in the flesh. He could have been completely sincere and genuinely in this declaration to pursue Christ. On the other hand, we don’t know if he was trying to impress others or Jesus by making a claim that sounds great but knew in his own heart it wasn’t going anywhere.
Jesus response would indicate an inherent problem with this person’s claim is that he did not understand the implications of his own statement. Jesus pushed back to force him to consider those implications and it seems to include more of a commitment than what he may have been ready for. Interestingly, Jesus does not pass judgement on his claim or desire, but he does check to see if he understands what is involved in following him.
Whatever this individual thought was involved in following Jesus it may have been limited or possible laden with contingencies. Whatever picture he had in his own mind about following Jesus, Jesus pushes back on that picture to make sure this person understood the critical implication to “really following” Jesus. It is one thing to claim to follow Jesus anywhere but it is quite another to choose to follow Jesus. In the same way, it is very easy for us to say we follow Jesus but, for most of us, we may not understand all the implications of our claim.
I think we have often exchanged this personal responsibility to choose to follow with a misplaced plea for God to fix our heart through revival. Many of us want God to fix our heart and we believe the solution to our spiritual indifference is revival. If God would carry us through the crucible of revival and the Spirit of God swooped down and wrecked the hardness in our heart to bring deep, heart-wrenching conviction about our sin that is what we desire. If his work brings repentance and a revitalized passion for Jesus, then we think our commitment problems are solved. I am certainly not against the idea of revival (sometimes not sure what it means) because we all assume it is a work of God. But Jesus never suggests that the solution here is revival, or repentance, humility or fasting. Revival, in and of itself, is not the solution either. God is not a concierge to do things for us especially when it undermines our responsibility to choose to follow. He is the God who calls, we are the people who by faith choose to follow. The Christian life is not about bouncing from one emotional or spiritually energized experience to another – that is not sustainable. Life is not meant to be lived out of crisis but out of choice. He is not our concierge to simply fix the crisis of our heart, He is the God who calls us to follow with all our heart.
No matter what, we cannot follow unless we surrender and choose Jesus. I am not talking about “I already did that” kind of insight. If we truly value Jesus and claim to follow (or desire to follow) Him, then the very nature of Jesus would compel us to value Him so much that we will, “deny self, pick up our cross and follow…” no matter how I feel or what others may say about it. We follow because we see Jesus and choose to follow … or we don’t. It is (almost) that simple!
In His grace, Brad Little
