Jesus was a strange man. You may think not, but you only have to try and read some of his sayings with no Christian pre-conditioning. Take the three sayings captured in Luke 9:57-62. They are lumped together here by Luke, but taken from different encounters Jesus had with people, and given no immediate context. Let’s take a look.
Luke 9:57-62
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Just consider how absurd they sound even to us as followers of Christ. The first man was offering himself unreservedly to Christ and his cause, and what does Jesus say? “That’s fantastic son, you’re going to be a great asset, I really need committed men like you, welcome to my company of followers?” No! What he really says is, “Listen son, I don’t know if you can hack it! I think you will find the going too tough. I can’t even guarantee you a home or bed. Why don’t you give it a bit more thought!”
Then he calls a second man, out of the blue, and says simply, “Follow me.” And the man, busy with all sorts of legitimate, pressing concerns in his life says, “Yes Lord, as soon as I bury my father.” And Jesus, unbelievably, says, “Tell them to bury their own dead.”
Then when another man is called, he has an even simpler request, and says, “Yep, just let me fly home and say goodbye to Mum and Dad, my brothers and sisters first, and I’ll be right with you.” And what does Jesus say? Incredulously, he says something along the lines of, “If you turn back boy, you’re not fit for my Kingdom!”
What are we to make of these amazing sayings? These sayings are shocking! And, actually, that is what they are meant to do. Jesus is a master communicator. He gets our attention, and then he directs us. Today I want to look at the first of these sayings, and next time the other sayings.
The way we do our evangelism is to make it as easy as possible for people to enter into the fellowship of the church. Of course we must lay out all the teachings and responsibilities for the prospective follower, we can’t change that, but we try to make it an easy transition. Jesus does not seem to do this, at least not at the level of discipleship. He seems to actually try to dissuade some would be followers. He says, “Count the cost first, before committing yourself.” “Think about this carefully.”
Here is the mark of a powerful doctrine, of a movement of substance. Jesus commands the high ground here. If you are fully ready for the responsibilities and hardships, you can step up to the challenge.
It was the challenge that Jesus was soon to face that hung heavy on him when he made these statements we have read. Look at,
Luke 9:44, 45
“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.” 45 But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them… And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.”
What a fearful prospect, to be betrayed into human hands! I mean to be dumped into the midst of a mob of stampeding cattle would be frightening for most people. But to be betrayed into the midst of a race of rational, sensitive, humans? Religious people, after all! What could be the danger there?
Look further back at verses 21 and 22. “ He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
So, is this the danger that was worrying Jesus? Yes, I think so, but not only because of the rejection of men. You know Jesus actually did find hospitality among friends often, and for a while he seems to have maintained a house in Capernaum. But the comprehensive rejection from God’s own chosen people was a heavy burden to bear. He had not found human kind or God’s elect race very welcoming, and now the shadow of the cross had darkened his path. Look at verses 30 and 31, set on the Mount of Transfiguration,
“Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendour, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem.”
Do you now start to see the gravity of this to Jesus? Here his Father sent Moses and Elijah to strengthen him ahead of his trial in Jerusalem. It was not just the crowd of mankind who would gather to condemn him. It was the rejection at the hand of God that was the real trial.
Most of you have surely seen Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ,” portraying the torture and death of Christ at the hands of men. This is probably a reasonably accurate portrayal of the human side to the suffering of Christ. But I often criticise it because the originators of the film don’t seem to comprehend that there is another even more torturous story of rejection here. They don’t seem to see the rejection of Jesus by God his Father.
Granted, it is a very difficult task to portray this. But if you are making a film that is going to have such a big billing in the world, and you miss the essential element of the deeper story, what a gaff that is! I am sure hundreds of thousands of people flocked to see this film, and what impression would they come away with? I know if I were a non-believer I would think, “Well, many humans have suffered much more than this man did? What is unique here?”
But Jesus is heading toward an unprecedented rejection in Jerusalem, not just in the history of man, but for all eternity. He is taking on himself the sin of mankind, the penalty of which is death; that is, the equivalent of eternal death. Really there is no other death. Lazarus was only sleeping, Jesus said. Those who do not believe will “perish” according to John 3:16. Perish means to “vanish” for evermore, in scriptural language. That is the fate of the lost.
That was all Jesus could see in front of him. He could not see beyond the grave. We don’t understand this because we are finite, but this is the real sacrifice he made for us.
Do you feel the heaviness of this life at times? Do you wonder when the blessing will come from the Lord? Maybe you don’t have a home? Maybe you don’t have a family? Or at least one who loves you? Jesus knows what you are going through.
In July 1941 in Auschwitz concentration camp a prisoner had escaped while on a work detail outside the prison. The Commandant was furious. If the escapee was not found within 24 hours, 10 men would be selected at random to die as a reprisal. That night no one slept much. They all knew death, but the idea of this lottery haunted them. Koscielniak, a commercial artist, said, “The lucky ones were the dead ones.” Gajowniczek hoped to be re-united with his wife and two boys after this nightmare was over.
The next morning they were marched to the quadrangle and lined up to stand all day in the hot sun. At the end of the day the escaped prisoner was not found. For what seemed like an eternity for those men, the commandant paced up and down the rows of prisoners. Every now and then the crunch of gravel under his boots would stop, and he would point to a prisoner and say, “You!” The unlucky man would be taken immediately to a cell where they would receive no water or food until they died. The tenth man was Gajowniczek. As the guards pushed him forward he broke down, weeping, “My wife and children.”
Then there was a stirring in the ranks of prisoners as a thin apparition of a man came forward. “You there! What do you want?” the guard said. “I want to talk to the Commandant.” Kolbe stopped a few paces from the commandant and looked him in the eye. “Her Kommandant, I wish to make a request, please?” “I want to die in the place of this prisoner,” he said, pointing to Gajowniczek. “I have no wife, no family, no children. Besides, I am old and not good for anything. He’s in better condition.” He knew the Nazi mentality. “Who are you?” The officer asked. I am a Catholic priest.” The block was stunned. The commandant was uncharacteristically speechless. Some thought he would take them both. After a moment he granted the request. And Father Kolbe was taken off to the death bunker to die in the place of Gajowniczek.
In the harshness of that place, Kolbe had been practicing the compassion of Christ, sharing his food, giving up his bunk, praying for his captors. They called him “the saint of Auschwitz.” Kolbe outlived the other nine. He died only after a lethal injection, on 14th August 1941.
That’s what Jesus did for the whole human race. Father Kolbe was just following the lead of his Saviour. Christ was prepared to “perish” for all of us. From Gethsemane forward He could not see past the grave.
2 Cor. 8:9 “Look at what a depth of poverty our Lord submitted to for us, …that we through his poverty might be rich”.
He who created all, and planned birds to have nests, and even foxes to have holes; who formed the first man from dust, and the first woman from this man’s rib, and then joined them together in the first marriage, in paradise. This Son of Mankind did not even find a place of succour among humans, but was treated like an animal for our redemption. He didn’t have a place to call home; no place to lay his head. Not even nature had provided him a pillow. He condescended to the meanness of our nature to testify his love to us, and to teach us a sanctified contempt of the world and of things regarded as great in it, and to point us continually to regard another world as better.
Christ also had in mind that his apostles had no certain dwelling-places, and Jesus was identifying with his followers. Paul would later say,
1 Cor. 4:11-13 “To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.”
Jesus had pioneered this path before them. But it has always been this way, because the writer of Hebrews tells us about the father of the faithful, Abraham,
“By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Heb. 11:8-10)
Here was Abraham, promised a homeland, but neither his son nor his grandson received that land, and indeed, their descendants spent 430 years in slavery and then another 40 years wandering in the wilderness before they finally tasted the milk and honey of that land.
After Israel was established in the land God gave them, King David, after a rocky start, finally started to settle down and feel a little self assured about his security. David was starting to think about the material things in life that gave him a sense of security and peace. Read
2 Samuel 7:1–7 1 Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” 3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.” 4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”
The Lord goes on to give David a dressing down regarding his personal journey; that God had called him from being a shepherd, one of the lowliest of livelihoods, appointed him prince over this nation Israel, and defeated all his enemies before him. In the Tabernacle God is actually modelling the lifestyle he wants His people to lead while they sojourn here on earth. He doesn’t want them to get too settled in this world of woe; in this canker pit. He wants them to see that the God of all the nations prefers to reside in a perishable tent, a constant reminder that there is no real security in fortresses and walled cities, and especially in chariots and war horses, but that security resides in Him alone. A grand Temple gives the God of the universe no prestige; He did not want or prefer it. Then the Lord continues,
2 Samuel 7:11–17 11b Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. 17 In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
God changes the talk from the material back to the spiritual again. He uses “house” in the sense of lineage or people (household). Most of us would be forgiven if we thought that God was talking here about Solomon and the kingdom under him, and the Temple he built. But the focal point here is Jesus.
Look at the words he uses in verse 14, “When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.” Here is a prophecy of Jesus, despised and rejected of men, and yet King of Heaven at the same time. He would be punished for our failures! Oh what a great gift he left us!
So he says to David, “Listen, don’t you worry about building me a house, because I will build an everlasting household for you and all my people.” He built that household of the saved through Jesus life and death.
The central message of the covenant that God made with his people is this – its repeated many times through scripture, but this instance is from Revelation 21:3 “He will tabernacle (tent; dwell) with them as their God; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them…”
And when Jesus walked among us, he was doing just that. He was the tabernacle among us. God didn’t ask for a brick and mortar home in the wilderness, and he didn’t seek one when he walked in human garb. He didn’t have a pillow to rest his head on, but he was “God with us.”
The reason we don’t know who the man Jesus called was or what his response was, is that we are supposed to put our name in there. If we have offered our allegiance to Jesus, do we know what we are committing ourselves to? What about your response? What would you answer if Jesus said this to you? Are you ready for the challenge? Can you hack the pace? Can you follow Jesus?
Jesus was a most gentle man to any who were struggling with sin, to the poor in spirit. To those who thought of themselves as the power-brokers of this world, he cut them down with words, to try to drive some sense into them. And to those of us who decide to be his followers, his disciples, he doesn’t molly-coddle us and coax us into the task, because he knows it will be a ‘hard row to hoe,’ a tough road to travel.
“Take up your cross and follow me” does not mean that we might have an argument with our mother, or a tough day at work. It means we will have to modify many things we do in life compared to our neighbours. We won’t take a job on Sabbath. How could we work on the day God declared holy? Many professions are out of the picture for us because they go against the principles of the Kingdom.
We can’t fight in an army. How could we kill our brother? We can’t work in a cigarette or alcohol factory, or a pub. How could we work where they are selling things that wreak havoc on family and health? It could mean we have to die for our faith.
In Auschwitz Father Kolbe knew what it was to ‘take up his cross.’ While he was dying, Gajowniczek became bewildered, and he wept and refused to eat. Koscielniak brought him to his senses. “Pull yourself together! Is the priest to die for nothing?”
We should ask the same question, “Is Christ to die for nothing?” Will you let his gift go begging? Or will you grab hold of it with both hands. I want to challenge you to make up your mind here and now.
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