Opening illustration: During a NASA space shuttle launch, you will hear the phrase “negative return.” It is a phrase that is part of the abort protocol. It means the shuttle has reached the point and speed at which a return to the launch site is impossible. No astronaut wants to be at “negative return” and have to abort. Negative return also means, barring a major failure, that the shuttle will make it into orbit. It is the point where you cannot turn back.
One of the recurring themes of discipleship that we find in the Gospels is the call for complete surrender.
• Jesus calls us to the point of “negative return.” It is a full-on and forward moving life-long commitment where we release the option of turning back.
• There is an old hymn that says, “I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”
As we look at our Scripture today, we find this is the call Jesus gives. It is a call to follow and not turn back.
Introduction: In our text today, Jesus makes some radical demands on His followers. Interestingly, just two verses later, He laments that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (10:2). If Jesus had hired a marketing consultant, he would have said, “Lord, if you want more workers, you’re going to have to be a bit more realistic. You just lost three good volunteers because you demanded all or nothing!”
However, Jesus didn’t lower the standard. Following Christ is like taking a class on the pass/fail system. There is no curve. You either make it or you don’t. He requires that you devote everything that you are and have to Him or nothing at all. It is important to realize that these verses are not just directed to those who are considering “full-time” Christian service. They are addressed to everyone who would consider being a follower of Christ or disciple (the terms are synonymous). The Lord draws a line in the sand: “The only way to follow Jesus is totally.”
In this text, Luke doesn’t focus on the response of the three men because he wants us to apply Jesus’ words to our own hearts: Am I following Jesus totally or just casually? As someone has observed, “There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”
What does the Call of Abandonment and Surrender cost?
1. The Cost of Personal Comfort (vs. 57-58)
(a) A commendable desire (v. 57)
The unnamed disciple had the right desire in mind. It is never wrong to want to “follow (Jesus) wherever” He goes. In fact, that is exactly what Jesus commands each of us to do throughout the gospels.
In John 10, Jesus calls us to follow Him in salvation, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me … (John 10:27-28, NASB).
In Matthew 4:19, Jesus calls us to follow Him in service; “Follow Me, and I will make you … (NASB).
In Luke 9:23, He calls us to follow Him in sacrifice, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (NASB).
Truly, the desire to follow Jesus in commendable, but it is also very costly.
(b) A challenge to our comfort (v. 58)
Jesus immediately challenges this man where we all live, at the level of his comfort and possessions. Most of us work a lifetime to acquire a “comfortable” lifestyle. How that is defined may vary somewhat, but for most of us, it involves a home, a job, and certain possessions. Jesus tells us here that even the most basic “needs” must be sacrificed in order to follow Him. While He has not required all His followers to be “homeless,” He certainly sets the example for us. In other words, we are called to always choose obedience to Him over our own possessions and comfort.
This was the failing of the young man in Mark 10, who when confronted with choosing between Christ and his possessions, left saddened because he preferred his material possessions above Christ. How often have we been guilty of this same sin? How often have you been unwilling to give up something in order to obey Christ’s call to “make disciples of all nations?” How often have you spent money on your comforts while the Lord’s people suffer need?
Following Jesus is demanding! One of the first things it will demand is that you lay aside all your possessions; that you commit all your resources to Him. Have you done that? If not, perhaps you aren’t really following Him.
Jesus wasn’t a dishonest recruiter. He wants us to know up front that He is enlisting us in warfare against the powers of darkness, and that warfare is often difficult. If we’re looking for a program where our personal comfort is paramount, we should look elsewhere. Following Jesus must be more important than our personal comfort.
2. The Cost of Personal Security (vs. 59-60)
(a) The call to “Follow Me” (v. 59a)
Sandwiched between two eager, but unprepared disciples, is Jesus calling of a would-be disciple to follow Him. Jesus’ call to follow Him is recorded at least nineteen times in the gospels and is perhaps the most often repeated command of our Lord. In this case, Jesus calls the disciple to follow Him in the context of his demand for His followers to surrender their most basic comforts. That is the same call He issues today. Indeed, no one has ever followed Jesus, unless He first calls them (John 6:44) and the call to follow has always involved sacrifice. As Dedrick Bonhoffer stated, when Jesus calls you to come and follow He also calls you to come and die.
(b) The concealed greed of the man (v. 59b)
On the surface, this request seems very normal and indeed necessary, so much so that Jesus’ response sounds harsh. However, it is helpful to know the customs and culture of the day. Based on Jesus’ response, it is apparent that the young man’s father was not dead and awaiting burial. Rather, the young man had employed a common saying of the day which, in essence, meant, “Let me wait until I receive my inheritance,” then I will follow you. Knowing this, cast a completely different light on the conversation; the young man was not asking Jesus for permission to bury his recently deceased father, instead he was deferring his obedience to Christ until it was convenient and economically feasible for him. The young man was depending on his earthly father to provide the necessary security, in the form of his inheritance, that he needed in order to follow Jesus.
Illustration: How often have you and I have been guilty of similar sins? As young people, we tell the Lord, “Once I finish school, I will serve you” or “Once I get married, I will commit my life to your work.” As young adults, we tell Him, “Once my kids get older, I will go and serve you” or “Once I get settled in my career, I will serve you.” Later in life, we offer these excuses, “Lord as soon as the kids graduate” or “When I get some bills paid” or “When I have more vacation time.” The excuses are endless and just like this would-be disciple; all we are doing is revealing our greed and lack of faith.
© The command to forsake and follow (v. 60)
Jesus’ response to this man, while on the surface startling, is exactly what he (and for that matter, we) needed to hear. The man was deferring his obedience to Christ based on a lack of faith and personal greed. He was trusting in his inheritance for security rather than Christ.
Jesus calls him (and us) to forsake our excuses and our false security and proclaim the gospel. In stating that the man was to “Allow the dead to bury their own dead,” Jesus was simply saying that the unregenerate world could and would take care of such mundane matters. Jesus was not in any way degrading the practice of Christian burials. He was rather stating that we have higher allegiances and callings as believers. The command to follow Jesus far exceeds any other obligation or allegiance we have. In a similar passage on the demands and costs of discipleship, Jesus proclaims: (Luke 14:26-35)
3. The Cost of Personal Relationships (vs. 61-62)
(a) A conditional commitment (v. 61)
Like the previous would-be disciples, this man expressed his desire to follow Jesus; however, he wanted to follow him on his conditions. He was willing to follow Jesus forsaking his comfort and security if only Jesus would let him go home and say good-bye. While on the surface, this request seems reasonable, it reveals a deeper problem in the heart of this man.
Like so many, this man’s first love was his relationships with family and friends not Jesus. Jesus consistently tells us that we must not allow any other relationship to take priority over our love for Him. Indeed, we are to love Him first and foremost as the Scriptures state:
“AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH” (Mark 12:30, NASB).
In fact, in the book of Revelation, our Lord rebukes the church of Ephesus for leaving her “first love.” “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4, NASB).
How like this man are we, when we consistently place our relationships with others before our relationship with our Lord. We do this in so many ways. We worry about what our friends and family might say when they find out we are following Jesus. We seek the approval of men, often unregenerate men, before we obey the clear commands of our Lord. We spend most of our time cultivating friendship with the world rather than cultivating our relationship with Christ.
James warns us of such behavior when he writes, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4, NASB).
Toby Mckeehan and Mark Heimermann summed up well the believer’s dilemma and position in the lyrics of the popular Christian song “Jesus Freak:”
What will people think when they hear that I’m a Jesus Freak? What will people do when they find that it’s true? I don’t really care if they label me a Jesus Freak, cause there ain’t no disguising the truth. May God grant us the grace to come to the place that like the authors of the song where we can say, “I don’t really care if they label me a Jesus Freak, cause there ain’t no disguising the truth.”
(b) An uncompromising command (v. 62)
Jesus's final response to would-be disciples is but strong and subtle. As he often did, Jesus encases His teaching in the vernacular of the day.
First, He employs a common occupation of the day to illustrate the nature of a disciple’s commitment. Everyone in Jesus’ audience on that day would have immediately understood the point of the illustration, that if a plowman looked back it would affect his ability to plow properly. In fact, looking back from the plow would invariably cause him to plow a crooked row and possibly damage the crops he planted. What an apt illustration of what happens when we focus on anything other than our Savior. We invariably plow a crooked row and damage the crop. In the case of a disciple of Christ, the crop is the souls of men, and the damage may carry eternal consequences.
Second, Jesus emphasizes the consequences of disobedience, when he states that the person who looks back not “fit for the kingdom of God.” The original language here is helpful; the Greek word translated “fit” is “euthetos,” which means useful, fit, or suitable. The same word is used in Luke 14:35 to describe salt that is worthless, “It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out …” The idea being that a person who looks back, who focuses on anything or anyone other than Jesus renders himself useless to the kingdom. This is the danger of not counting the cost of commitment.
Application: Since the only way to follow Jesus is totally, each one of us must soberly ask ourselves the question, “Am I following Jesus totally?” Am I holding back something for myself? Am I keeping one foot in the world just in case? Am I hanging on to some secret sins, just so I won’t miss out on what the world has to offer? Am I trying to serve Christ and mammon? Am I saying, “I’ll follow You, Lord, but …?” Everything after that “but” needs to go!
There’s a danger that you will hear a message like this and in a moment of emotion say, “All right, I’m giving everything to Jesus! I’m going all out for Him! I’ll be a missionary, even a martyr if necessary.” But, if you don’t count the cost, you will be like the first man. How do we implement total commitment to Jesus on a daily basis?
A daily commitment in small increments begins with a total entrusting of your life and eternal destiny to Jesus Christ. He gave Himself on the cross so that you would not have to face God’s wrath on account of your sins. Jesus calls you to turn from your selfishness and sin and to follow Him. If you say, “I’ll follow Jesus, but …” you must erase the “but.” The only way to follow Jesus is totally. To be a disciple of Jesus is “The Call is of Abandonment and Surrender.”
