March 1, 2015 · Luke 9:57–62

Let The Dead Bury The Dead

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." And he replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

“Do you put your children before Jesus, or your parents before Jesus? Or do you put your friends, your circle of friends, as a ways in which you subtly love them more than Jesus? I think we all need to do this. Looking to our own lives. See the places where people we love might be pulling us away from discipleship. We'll not be on purpose, but it's there. Or I started thinking of this for myself. Like, am I doing this to others? These are ways in which our own selfishness makes us act in ways which demand the attention from the people that we love, just to kind of show. We secretly want them to show us how much they love us. Maybe even more than Jesus. We have to be willing to truly look into our hearts, count the cost of discipleship, to realize that if there's anything in the way of Jesus, it's got to be called out. We got to let them call it out. Even a modern disciple has to expect there's going to be some cost for following Jesus. Now there's a reward, of course. You get to serve the king of kings. You're given the Holy Spirit of life living within you. You receive eternal life. You receive the gifts of the Spirit. And now you can have a joy and a peace which transcends your understanding in the midst of all this discomfort. It's beautiful, but make no mistake. This Jesus life, it comes out of cost. You may lose popularity.”