"He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Luke 9:59-62
Wow, really? I read those verses and thought, okay Jesus that is kind of strict don't you think? How come you wouldn't let the man go say good-bye to his family? Then I thought that even though those words may at first sound harsh, there is something more important going on here. I can't look at these verses based off of my first human instinct.
Imagine that Jesus Christ, the Lord, shows up while you are at work and is standing in front of you saying, "Come follow me": not in an hour, not in a few minutes, but right now in this very second. Leave everything you know and everything you have, and just follow me. How many of you would go? Forget calling your family, forget saying good-bye, and forget packing, there is no time. Jesus is standing in front of you now saying, "Come follow me". Would you go?
Well this is what Jesus did to His disciples. He met them where they were at and offered them the opportunity to come and follow Him. In Luke 9, He sends them out and says, "take nothing for the journey - no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic". That is right nothing.
Jesus wanted His disciples to be completely dependent on Him, and He wants the same for us. He wants us to be completely dependent on Him. He wants us to trust Him. You see God would have to take care of His disciples and followers, because they had nothing else to cling to.
We have to faith, like the disciples, that Jesus will come through. We have to trust in the Lord. The disciples did not have anything to cling to for comfort or safety, except for God. They had to put all their trust in Him.
"This place of trust isn't a comfortable place to be; in fact, it flies against everything we've been taught about proper planning. We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than in what we hope God will provide. But when Christ says to count the cost of following Him, it means we must surrender everything. It means being willing..."to go without an extra pair of shoes, without money, without a place to sleep, and sometimes without knowing where we are going. (Crazy Love, p. 123)
We need to trust God completely with everything. This will not make sense to an unbeliever, but to the one who loves the Lord, there is no other way than to trust and obey.
