No Ifs, Ands, Or Buts!

But each was in its own way as much a crucial moment as that moment I first decided to invite Christ into my life.

Jesus simply laid it out clearly and plainly, no ifs, ands, or buts. Do you want to follow me or do you want to go home and wait for a more convenient time to make the commitment to Christ?

We love obligations! If we do not love them we feel compelled “do our duty” so to speak… sometimes our sense of duty or our obligations or our vested interests or our choice of lifestyle or our hobbies and passions are more powerful than our desire to follow Christ. Jesus essentially stood before the man, opened his arms and said, “There are two roads… which will you choose?”

In our text today there is a second cost that any person wishing to make a “rational choice” regarding his or her commitment to Christ must consider.

II. The Longing Look, Luke 9:61-62

Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.” Luke 9:61

This is not the first time in the Bible that someone who was wished to say good-bye to his family before setting off to follow God’s leading. In I Kings 19:19-21 the Prophet Elijah saw Elisha plowing a field with a team of oxen. Elijah went up to Elisha and threw his cloak over Elisha’s shoulders and walked away. In that culture placing your cloak on another person’s shoulders meant that person was passing the torch, so to speak, to his successor. Elisha was to follow Elijah and learn to be a Prophet and eventually take the place of Elijah as the new Prophet in Israel.

Elisha left his oxen standing in the field and chased after Elijah and said, “First, let me go and kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you!” And Elijah said, “Go on back, but think about what I have done to you.”

Elijah told Elisha to go on home and kiss is parents good-bye but “think about what I have done to you.” You need to make an important choice in your life so think about it really, really hard.

So to the man who wished to go home and say good-bye to his parents Jesus said,

“Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

I understand that farmers today have all manner of GPS and Sensor Devices on their farm tractors and implements. Apparently it is possible to plow or plant or do just about anything without having to actually steer the tractor… in which case you can gawk all about and even look out the back window of the tractor cab all the while the tractor continues in a perfectly straight line. But that ain’t natural!

When Jesus posed that agrarian image anyone of that culture would understand and if you’ve a smattering of a farm background you understand that when you plow or push a lawn mower or look in your rear view mirror too long or whatever… if you look back at where you’ve been you will veer off course.