In Luke 9:57–62, three believers have an opportunity to follow Christ. Following Christ is a picture of discipleship. There is a difference between being a believer and being a disciple. These men have the opportunity to walk in Christ’s footsteps, to learn from Him, and to be great in His kingdom.
The Lord is on His way to Jerusalem to suffer and die. None of these men understands what it would mean to follow Him. They don’t realize the difficulties involved in being a disciple of the Lord.
Each man is different. The third man tells the Lord that he will follow Him. But he has something he needs to do first. He must first go and bid “farewell” to everybody in his house (v 61).
This involves more than simply saying good-bye. He is talking about getting his affairs in order. Maybe he has a house to sell. Perhaps he needs to appoint someone to oversee his business. He will need to have a going-away party with his friends. That would be a lot of fun.
He doesn’t understand the urgency of following Christ. The Lord is headed to the capital to meet His fate. By the time this man said farewell to those he knew, Christ would probably have died, risen, and ascended to His Father.
A summary of this man’s attitude is that he had divided loyalty. He wanted to follow the King and be great in His kingdom. But he also wanted to make sure the things he had worked for were in good order. He had his heart partly in the kingdom, but he also had part of his heart on the things of this world.
The Lord lets us know that this was the man’s problem. He tells him that one cannot work for the kingdom and look back. He couldn’t look for the kingdom and also look back at his house. That would be like a person who plows a field and keeps looking back (v 62).
Such a person, the Lord says, is not fit for the kingdom. It is difficult for me to determine precisely what the Lord means. He could mean usable. In that case, the Lord was telling the man that the message of the kingdom was going out to the nation at that time. If he went back home to get his affairs in order, the Lord couldn’t use him.
But the word could also mean suitable. The kingdom will be ruled by disciples who faithfully serve the Lord. Their obedience will make them suited for those roles. If that man wanted to be great in Christ’s kingdom, he couldn’t be worried about the things of earth.
When the Lord gave the Parable of the Four Soils, He spoke of the believer whose heart is like thorny soil. This is a believer who has heard about the kingdom, but goes out and is “choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life.” Such a believer will be in the kingdom but does not bring forth mature fruit (Luke 8:14).
This man is an example of the believer represented by the seed that falls into thorny soil. He wanted to be rich in both the kingdom and this world. He loved both. This man was being challenged to follow the Lord to Jerusalem and to suffer with Him. He was to place his heart in the world to come. He was told not to love this present world.
The Lord says the same thing to us.
