Keeping In Step With God
Readings:
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:57-62
Stephen Becker, M.Div.
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost, July 1, 2007
Have you completely committed your life to Jesus? I mean, completely? Have you ever thought of what it “costs” to completely turn your life over to the Lord? In our readings this evening, both Jesus and Paul talk about what is expected when we start a new life in Christ. Paul explains the cost to the Galatians. And Jesus gives us what seems—at least on the surface—the harsh reality of “the true cost of following Jesus.” So what’s Jesus saying? What’s He asking us to do? Let’s open with prayer…
In our society today we find true commitment to be a rarity; I mean, how many times have you had somebody ask you, “will you do something for me,” only to answer them, “well…depends…” I know I’ve responded like that before. I think that in our society we have come to accept being “involved” with something over being committed. So what does it mean to be truly committed to something or someone? Take a ham and eggs breakfast as an example. The chicken was “involved” in the breakfast. Now the pig…well he definitely “committed.” It’s a crude example…and a bad joke, but it really does emphasize the difference.
During Jesus’ earthly mission, He definitely taught the difference between being just “involved” as opposed to being fully committed. In fact, in our readings today we see that if you have Jesus as Lord of your life, total commitment to Him is an absolute necessity. In our reading from Luke, Jesus and his disciples were traveling to Jerusalem. This was not the trip that brought Jesus to Jerusalem to be crucified, but a trip before it. During that time, the Jews would have to travel through Samaria to get to Jerusalem and it would take them at least three days to get there. The Samaritans and the Jews weren’t example “best friends,” and usually the Samaritans would refuse to put the Jews up for the night on their way through Samaria. And by this time Jesus had quite a reputation and following, so as they walked, various people came up to Jesus to offer to follow Him. What’s amazing about Jesus is how He always used a situation, good or bad, to teach about Who He is and about His Gospel of peace.
So as the first man came up to Jesus and offered to follow Him, Jesus makes what on the surface might seem a bizarre statement: “Foxes have holes and bird of the airs have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Here Jesus identifies Himself as the Savior of the world—the Son of man—who is being rejected. There in Samaria because the Samaritans disliked the Jews so much, Jesus couldn’t even find a place to sleep for the night. So they just kept going. And seeing another man, Jesus says to him, “follow me.” Now friends, these people who came up to Jesus during His travels had to have known a little about Him. As I said, Jesus was starting to get quite a reputation. Yet nevertheless, as Jesus asks this man to follow Him, the man gives an answer like I mentioned earlier. He stalls. He doesn’t give a commitment. He basically says, “it depends…” He said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Notice that the man didn’t say that his father had died or was just about to die. If it were true, why was the man even there with Christ? So Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go proclaim the kingdom of God.” That’s a big statement. What did Jesus mean by “let the dead bury their own dead?” What Jesus is teaching us here is those who do not know Jesus as Lord, those who aren’t saved by grace through faith are spiritually dead. Just like Paul tells the Galatians, “Live by the Spirit.” In other words, Jesus is telling this guy, “if you truly believe in me, if you allow me to be Lord of your life, then follow my teachings and live.” Those who are already dead spiritually will die a real, final, permanent, physical death unless they place their faith in Jesus first. So Jesus isn’t just dismissing those who don’t believe in Him. No, in fact, just like he did with the man who asked for time to bury his father, Jesus directly addresses those of us who DO have faith, and who are spiritually alive in Christ to go, “proclaim the kingdom of God.” We have been freed from sin and death by Jesus’ death and resurrection. And so like Paul opens chapter 5 of Galatians, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” We are free from sin and death; we are free from the law; and being free, we are to go and “proclaim the kingdom of God” so that others who are still spiritually dead can find that same life in Christ that we have.
So then the next man offers to follow Jesus, but he also makes the offer conditionally when he says, “I will follow you Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.” Sounds good. Well, on the surface. As I read this, I thought perhaps the man wanted to go to his family to proclaim God’s kingdom. But then Jesus says to the man, “no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” In farmer’s terms, if you put your hand to the plow—and look backwards—and plow a crooked row—or ultimately lose your hand to the plow, you aren’t going to be much of a farmer. And theologically and practically—for us—what Jesus is saying is that if you commit your lives to Him, then do it 100%. You can’t “involve” yourself with the Church and with Christ as much as you would like, but rather you have to give your WHOLE life—unconditionally—to Jesus. You can’t hold on to some of your old sinful ways and still try to fit into the kingdom of God into your life because your sinful ways will end up destroying you along the way. Just like a farmer who looks backwards and ends up plowing crooked rows, so will a Christian who looks back on his life BEFORE Christ, perhaps by still even indulging in some of the sinful ways. That’s a maimed Christian who by looking backwards isn’t focusing on Jesus; that’s a Christian on the way again to spiritual death. That’s a Christian who is not “fit for service in the kingdom of God.
The Apostle Paul helps us to balance what Christ is teaching. Paul on the one hand teaches that we don’t have to rely upon our own good works in some vain attempt to “earn” our way into heaven because God’s grace is sufficient to save us. As Paul says, “do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” See friends, we are free in Christ; we are spiritually alive in Christ. We don’t have to do anything to be saved because our faith in Jesus brings us the salvation Jesus purchased on the cross to us. We don’t have to do anything , because Jesus well, He did it all. Making rules that a believer has to do this or has to do that is called legalism. On the other hand, thinking that now that we are saved completely by Jesus, we are free to do anything we want, including sinful things, is called license. And that’s exactly what Jesus meant when he said that those who look back while plowing are unfit for service in God’s Kingdom. Listen to Paul’s words on this from Galatians 5:13, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another, in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” That’s why Jesus calls us to turn our lives over to him completely. By turning to Christ, we will naturally want to avoid the sinful ways of this world. By trusting Jesus, our old ways will be foreign and repugnant to us. Just as Jesus called each of those men on the Samaritan road to leave behind their old lives and old ways, Jesus calls us to do the same thing. Like Paul says, “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
What I really love about the apostle Paul is his ability to take the Gospel and put it down in such clear ways for us to understand. Paul even tells the Christians in Galatia that their old sinful ways should be obvious to them and then he continues on by listing some of them. He says, “the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” These things are just like putting your hand into the plow. They will maim you and eventually kill you. Paul uses the exact same words as Jesus did when he issues the warning that “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
So like Jesus, Paul calls us to accept Christ into our hearts. That’s why Jesus set us free. That’s why Jesus calls us to leave behind all of our old sinful ways. Then Paul even defines what a life in Christ is like. “The fruit of the Spirit is love , joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” All of this—this fruit of the Spirit—will come naturally to each one of us as we move forward in Christ, leaving our old ways behind. Paul says that “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” because our old ways—even when Satan temps us with them—are now foreign to us. It’s the same reason Jesus called each of the men who offered to follow Him to follow Him. In turning their lives over completely to Christ, they can trust that the Lord will provide ways, in His timing, for their families. But if they have come from a sinful family, the last thing God wants them to do is to return to such examples of sin. But now that we have Jesus, now that we have the Holy Spirit, now that “we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
So what is the true cost of following Jesus? Friends, it’s free. There is no cost at all, because following Jesus puts your spiritual life in immediate order. Accepting Jesus gives you immediate eternal life. And accepting Jesus puts your old life immediately behind you. The free gift of salvation is given with no strings attached because once we have Jesus as Lord, the old “strings” naturally fall away because they are foreign to us. It is absolutely impossible to live a Christian life without complete commitment to Jesus Christ. That commitment is the key. Jesus is searching for those who will make that commitment when He calls. Will you? Amen. Let’s pray…
Now may the true faith…
