This week we’re reading Luke 9:57-62 and 14:16-24
What is the Way of Jesus going to cost you today?
Consider our lesson for discipleship this week:
A disciple’s number one priority in life must be following Jesus.
If following Jesus is priority #1, that means something else is not. And that something else is probably something you wish was priority #1.
Look at these three characters Jesus encounters at the end of Luke 9. The first one doesn’t even wait for the invitation. Perhaps this is not a journey we initiate. And Jesus doesn’t say “no.” He doesn’t exactly say “yes,” either. “I don’t even have a home,” Jesus seems to say. Is home, that comfortable place of identity and privacy, one of your rivals to Jesus?
Jesus extends the invitation to the second one. The same invitation given to Andrew and Peter, James and John. The same invitation given to Matthew, and they all dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. This one hesitates. “Let me first…” A good Jew was duty-bound to settle the family affairs of a dead parent. It was a high honor, but Jesus says not even that is as urgent as Kingdom business. Are the expectations of your parents, those people who have formed you into the person you are today, one of your rivals to Jesus?
The third has the naive eagerness of the first (“I will follow you”) along with the condition of the second (“but let me first…”). There is no “But let me first” when it comes to following Jesus. This is not on your terms. This is not the call of Elijah. This is not for tomorrow. This is for today. Is nostalgia for friends and home–how you express who you are–one of your rivals to Jesus?
A disciple’s number one priority in life must be following Jesus.
No “let me first graduate and start my career.” No “let me first get married and start a family.” No “let me first see the world.” No “let me first have a little fun before I have to grow up.”
What is the Way of Jesus going to cost you today?
Fiftyeight 