A Study of Luke 9: 23
Follow The leader - Conclusion
Howard Hendrix, a popular author and speaker, once stated; "the question was not whether people were following us, the question was who were we following." Jesus has invited us to follow Him in our journey of life. That road may be tough at times and the requirements may demand a maximum sacrifice, but the destination leads us to total completeness and satisfaction. Our challenge is to take the trip, recognizing we have surrendered our role as leader, and be willing to go wherever. whenever, and to do whatever He calls us to.
In the 57th verse of Luke 9, a young man approaches Jesus and says he is willing to follow Him wherever He goes. Jesus responds," Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." We are left with the impression that the young man turned away because where Jesus was going led to discomfort. Many of us have faced the same situation. The one thing we can be sure of if we follow Jesus, it will result in challenging us out of our comfort zone. Jesus may be calling us to step out and follow Him as a leader in our home, our business, with our friends and neighbors, or in some remote area that is out of our comfortable settings. The question is, are we willing to follow Him into these areas? Charles Stanley once said, "there is no feeling in the world like knowing God is in something." We can only experience that knowing when we have trusted Him enough to follow Him out of our comfort zone.
There is another man who Jesus invites to follow. This man acknowledges Jesus as his Lord, but then places something else in front of his relationship with Jesus. He tells Jesus, " first let me go and bury my father." Now, he has just set Jesus up as Lord, but the very next word out of his mouth is "first". We don't know if his father was already dead or if he just wanted to wait until he no longer had his father with him. In either case, it sounded like a reasonable request. His relationship with his father was admirable, but it was before his relationship with Jesus. So many opportunities are lost because we say we will do it tomorrow. Those opportunities may never fit our whenever.
The final story in this passage presents the situation of following Jesus in doing whatever He ask. This young man approaches Jesus and declares to Jesus that he will also follow Him. This time, the young man wants to go and say good bye to his family. Again, not an unreasonable request. But as with the others, he has placed something else before Jesus. History has shown us how common this can be. We can look at great men of God like Nicodemus and see where he placed his religious reputation before Christ. The rich young ruler placed his possessions ahead of following Jesus. We don't have to look at these great men, we only have to look at ourselves for our whatever.
I believe the point Jesus is making in these passages is that He has to be the first in our life. For us, the one first thing we are most reluctant to give up is the one thing that has the most potential to become a wall between ourselves and Jesus. It may be the walls we have seen in these passages of Luke, but it also may be walls we build of fear, doubt, or our age. It is these walls of whenever, wherever, or whatever, that cause us to experience the fear and doubt. For some of us, it is an age factor. We are either too young or too old to begin following God in the journey He has created for us.
What we fail to see is what God has on the other side of the wall. He has so much to offer us if we could just have the faith to look over the walls. The only way to break down our walls is to stop depending on our feelings, exercise that faith, and place our trust in Him. Every thought determines our decisions, our decisions determine our actions, actions determine our character, and our character will determine our destiny. Never should we let the walls determine our destiny.
"If anyone wants to come with me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me" People in every corner of our life are looking at us to see where we are going. Will we be the ones who will take the challenge to follow Jesus as a Godly man, a Godly husband and father, and a Godly business man?
