I Will Follow Thee
In Lk 9:57-62, two men came to Jesus and said, “I will follow thee”. To a third man, Jesus said, “Follow me”. And the conversations he had with these three men tell us much about our decision to follow Jesus. When we say to Jesus, “I will follow thee”, there will be:
No certain dwelling place – Lk 9:57-58. This man said to Jesus, “I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest”. Jesus didn’t have a place to lay his head. So, this fellow was going to have to sleep wherever the Lord took him. In other words, if you’re going to truly follow Jesus, you don’t know where you might end up, even from day to day. This is why Paul said, “having food and raiment let us therewith be content”, 1 Tim 6:8. He didn’t say anything about having a place to dwell.
Paul had no certain dwelling place, 1 Cor 4:11. According to his testimony in 2 Cor 11:23-29, he spent many nights in prison and even one night treading water in the sea. Many of the faithful men and women in Heb 11, “wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth”, v.38.
No doubt, this condition of following Jesus made it easier for the early disciples to part with land and houses, like Barnabas did, Acts 4:34-37. Barnabas was sent out with Paul in Acts 13. It’s easier to go when you’re sent if you’re not tied down to a certain place.
No other priority – Lk 9:59-60. When Jesus commanded this fellow to follow him, the man replied, “Suffer me first to go and bury my father”. The words “me first” stand in stark contrast to “follow me”. If you’re following Jesus, he must be first.
Notice, in Matt 4:18-22, when Jesus called Andrew and Peter, “they straightway left their nets, and followed him”. And when he called James and John, “they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him”. They were not tied down to their businesses or families. Jesus was first and they followed him.
When Jesus said “Let the dead bury their dead”, he described the spiritual condition of those who don’t believe, Eph 2:1. Furthermore, he described the priority of preaching the kingdom of God to the living over performing a funeral for the dead. The dead can bury the dead, but only the living can go and preach the kingdom of God. Don’t let temporal matters supersede eternal matters.
It wasn’t too much for Jesus to ask this man to skip his father’s burial. The high priest in the Old Testament, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, couldn’t defile himself even for his dead parents, Lev 21:10-11. At times, you may have to make hard choices like this.
No looking back – Lk 9:61-62. This man said to Jesus, “I will follow thee”. He volunteered like the first man, but he added a condition like the second man. He said, “me first”. He wanted to “go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house”.
Jesus didn’t deny him, just like Elijah didn’t deny Elisha this opportunity, 1 Ki 19:20.
But Jesus did say, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”. In Elisha’s case, he slew the oxen and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and fed everybody. There was going to be no looking back for him. He “burnt the bridge”, so to speak.
By contrast, it appears that John Mark got home sick on the first missionary journey and returned to Jerusalem before the journey was complete, Acts 13:13. Jesus doesn’t want any quitters. Fortunately, Mark got back on track and became profitable to Paul for the ministry, 2 Tim 4:11.
Conclusion: Jesus is our best example of a man who would not let not having a place to live down here, any other priority besides the kingdom of God, and looking back to what he had before stop him.
He became a servant, humbled himself, and became obedient unto the death of the cross, Phil 2:5-8. He became poor that we might be rich, 2 Cor 8:9. And he didn’t look back until he had “finished the work” God gave him to do, Jn 17:4-5. This is the attitude we need.
Therefore, we should, like these men we’ve studied today, say to Jesus, “I will follow thee”. And then follow Jesus the way he instructed these men to follow him.