The Cost Of Following JESUS

Hello! and happy last day of the month to all of us; and it's just 86 days to go before Christmas, GUYS.  Today's "daily bread":

 

THE GOOD NEWS (30 September 2015)

"As they went on their way, a man said to HIM, 'I will follow you wherever you go.'  JESUS said to him, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay HIS head.'

To another JESUS said, 'Follow me.'  But he answered, 'Let me go back now, for first I want to bury my father.'  And JESUS  said to him, 'Let the dead bury their dead; as for you, leave them and proclaim the kingdom of GOD.'

Another said to HIM, 'I will follow you, LORD, but first let me say goodbye to my family.'  And JESUS said to him, 'Whoever has put his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of GOD'." - Luke 9:57-62

 

(In contrast with JESUS customary understanding attitude about human nature, here we see JESUS very demanding with the disciple who wants to follow HIM:  JESUS cannot waste HIS time in forming those who are not ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Gospel.

 

The third of these would-be disciples, perhaps, was secretly hoping that at the time of saying good-bye, his family would beg him not to do such a foolish thing, and so he could remain with his good intentions:  I would like to, but...

 

The second case is different:  Let the dead bury their dead.  Faced with these abrupt words that we occasionally meet in the Gospel,  there are two attitudes to be avoided.  The first would be to take these words as a general rule, a precept addressed to everyone without nuance, the second, more frequent, would be to say:  "That must not be taken literally, it's an oriental way of speaking.  'For JESUS there is no entry into the Kingdom without an experience of liberty'."

 

First I want to bury my father.  This means perhaps that he should bury his father who has died.  Most probably it means that he wanted to look after his aging father up to the time of his burial. It is difficult to think one is truly free if he had not had the opportunity to prove it by acting differently from what is understood and accepted around him.  Think of Francis of Assisi begging for bread in his own town after having lived there as the son of a rich family.

 

 

Leave them and proclaim the kingdom of GOD.  When a call from JESUS reaches you, it is the complete will of GOD for you in this precise moment.  Leave there your excuses, your duties:  perhaps these would-be duties only in a world of the dead.  GOD has provided that others, perhaps HIS angels, will  see to them.)