land of bondage. They were given the Law on their journey to the Promised Land. Along the way, God provided for their every need while leading them day and night and meeting with them in the tabernacle until they arrived in Canaan. Consider also the image of Revelation 14 where the redeemed of God in Christ are pictured singing a new song and marching their way behind the “Lamb who was slain” to Mount Zion, the dwelling place of God. Our home – our holes, our nests – are not in this world; they are in the eternal dwelling place of God. This scribe needed to hear this message from Jesus. Remember, he en-


joyed a comfortable life, a position of honor, and influence in the religious community of his day. To follow Jesus, he’d be required to forfeit his famil- iar and comfortable life. Was he willing to pay the price of following Jesus? Was he willing to join a group of disciples who were rejected, persecuted, ostracized, and would eventually lose their lives for the sake of Christ? We cannot tell from the story.


Faith-filled Devotion to Christ and His Cause The second potential disciple is different than the first and third because


he received a direct call from Jesus to join the disciples in their pursuit of Christ. Jesus walked up to him and plainly said, “Follow me.” The man’s response is puzzling because it’s hard for us (at least for me) to imagine anybody telling Jesus to his face, “Hold on. I’m doing something. I’ll be with you when I’m finished.” But that is what this guy does! He responds with, “I’ll come but let me go take care of some other stuff first.” Jesus’s response is equally stunning. “Let the dead bury the dead. You go proclaim the kingdom of God.” Now, I could write much about burial rites in the culture and whether


Jesus is condemning a tradition that placed undue burdens on family mem- bers of the deceased. We could even make a spiritual argument that Jesus is distinguishing those who are spiritually dead and those who are spiritually alive. None of those things, however, change the ultimate meaning of the in- teraction. The guy simply isn’t ready to devote himself to following Jesus at that moment. Burying his father is nothing but an excuse for not responding to the Lord’s call immediately. You see, discipleship is a matter of faith that plays itself out in devotion to Christ and his cause. It makes our relationship with Jesus and his demands on our lives our top priority. I want you to notice that Jesus identifies one demand as paramount -- “You go


and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Discipleship is not about “me and Jesus.” Rather, it’s fundamentally missional. That means we are called to join Jesus in the announcement of his kingdom through the proclamation of the gos- pel message. There is no Christian discipleship without witness and mis- sion. “You follow me and proclaim the kingdom” is the call, not only on this disciple, but on everyone who has ever received the effectual call of Christ on his or her heart. In this instance, there is something else of note as well. Jesus connects


witness to mourning. In no way is Jesus saying that the man shouldn’t mourn the loss of his father. What he is saying is that family duties in the mourning of death or in the celebration of joy should not consume our


March/April 2022


Definite Break with Our Old Life for the Sake of Christ The third man in this story has the easiest story to understand. He came to Jesus and said, “I’ll follow you on one condition, that you wait for me to go home and say good- bye to my family and my friends. It won’t take long.” Jesus said, “No.” I want to draw your attention back to verse 57 for a moment. There Luke uses a participle to ex- press the movement of Jesus and his disciples from one village to anoth- er, meaning that when Jesus meets this third prospective disciple, he is literally on the move. To stop and wait on this fellow to go home and say goodbye would disrupt the ful- fillment of Jesus’s mission. He will not wait. The significance of this interac- tion is found in the condition that this aspiring disciple, who ap- proached Jesus about discipleship, puts upon his devotion. “I’ll fol- low you, Jesus, but let me go home first.” Jesus is not opposed to clo- sure in personal relationships when his calling on our lives leads us in a different direction. He is, however,


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time to the point that it prevents us from fulfilling our plainly stated religious duties. We are to declare by words and deeds that our hope rests in Christ and that the world to come occupies our minds. Paul said it well, “We do not mourn as those who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” So, we proclaim the kingdom of God as we mourn. And that is what Jesus called this poten- tial disciple to do. Did he? We won’t know until we get to heaven.


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