The Faith
There is a crossroads that we all come. Not the one that Robert Johnson sung about but the place where we must make decisions with eternal consequences. We hear the proclamation of the gospel. We hear Christ say, “Follow me.” The call is for a faith of reckless abandonment. “When Christ calls a man,” wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “he bids him come and die.” But what is our response?
Matthew tells us of a time when a scribe declared to the Lord his intentions in saying, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go;” but Jesus’ response was, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matt. 8:18-20). There were crowds following Jesus, but the Lord knew the heart of man, and understood His mission. He would be betrayed and crucified, and while lowly foxes and birds have safe places to rest, Christ and His followers would endure much suffering in days to come. People would reject the Son of Man and Messiah’s followers would likewise be rejected.
On another occasion, someone came to the Lord with the proposal: “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father,” to which Christ responded, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead” (Matt. 8:21-22). It was not that the guy’s father just passed away and the Lord was simply telling him to forget about attending the funeral; rather, the person was offering an excuse to delay making a commitment. In the ancient world, the eldest son was not only to take care of the funeral for his father, but also to place the bones in an ossuary after the soft-tissue had rotted away. The person was essentially making an excuse to delay his commitment for up to a year or more (if his father was still alive). Does Christ ever really tell His followers to neglect their family obligations? Is God anti-family? Of course not! The real issue is that many walk away from the Lord with excuses that only appear to be noble.
Luke speaks of yet a third person who said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home,” Christ responds; “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62). In this instance the Lord sought to emphasize the kind of reckless abandonment associated with the faith. Even in the Old Testament, the Elijah allowed Elisha to bid farewell to his family (1 Kings 19:19-20), but business was not as usual in the kingdom of God. Christ message is that there is nothing of the old life that can be taken into the new life. It was not about breaking up families, but taking a person with their families into a whole new world. Just as plowing in a straight line requires the farmer to keep eyes forward without looking back, the Christian needs to keep focused upon Christ. As the old hymn goes, “I have decided to follow Jesus…no turning back…”
There is a new life, but it involves a death to the old life. It is a new life that is patterned after the cross. Christ died and rose again. He offers His own life to atone for the sins of many and His resurrection becomes the first fruits of many who shall rise again to eternal life. This new life is not one of ease and comfort but one of eternal reward and treasures, which neither can be stolen nor destroyed. Life with Christ is not something to put off, for now is the time for salvation. Neither does Jesus fit easily into the old life but those who follow Christ are born again into a new life.
Matthew tells us of a time when a scribe declared to the Lord his intentions in saying, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go;” but Jesus’ response was, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matt. 8:18-20). There were crowds following Jesus, but the Lord knew the heart of man, and understood His mission. He would be betrayed and crucified, and while lowly foxes and birds have safe places to rest, Christ and His followers would endure much suffering in days to come. People would reject the Son of Man and Messiah’s followers would likewise be rejected.
On another occasion, someone came to the Lord with the proposal: “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father,” to which Christ responded, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead” (Matt. 8:21-22). It was not that the guy’s father just passed away and the Lord was simply telling him to forget about attending the funeral; rather, the person was offering an excuse to delay making a commitment. In the ancient world, the eldest son was not only to take care of the funeral for his father, but also to place the bones in an ossuary after the soft-tissue had rotted away. The person was essentially making an excuse to delay his commitment for up to a year or more (if his father was still alive). Does Christ ever really tell His followers to neglect their family obligations? Is God anti-family? Of course not! The real issue is that many walk away from the Lord with excuses that only appear to be noble.
Luke speaks of yet a third person who said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home,” Christ responds; “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62). In this instance the Lord sought to emphasize the kind of reckless abandonment associated with the faith. Even in the Old Testament, the Elijah allowed Elisha to bid farewell to his family (1 Kings 19:19-20), but business was not as usual in the kingdom of God. Christ message is that there is nothing of the old life that can be taken into the new life. It was not about breaking up families, but taking a person with their families into a whole new world. Just as plowing in a straight line requires the farmer to keep eyes forward without looking back, the Christian needs to keep focused upon Christ. As the old hymn goes, “I have decided to follow Jesus…no turning back…”
There is a new life, but it involves a death to the old life. It is a new life that is patterned after the cross. Christ died and rose again. He offers His own life to atone for the sins of many and His resurrection becomes the first fruits of many who shall rise again to eternal life. This new life is not one of ease and comfort but one of eternal reward and treasures, which neither can be stolen nor destroyed. Life with Christ is not something to put off, for now is the time for salvation. Neither does Jesus fit easily into the old life but those who follow Christ are born again into a new life.
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