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October 8, 2006
Pentecost 18
Luke 9:51, 57-62
Pastor Joel Zank

Disciple, Don't Look Back!

(Luke 9:51, 57-62) As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. {57} As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." {58} Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." {59} He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." {60} Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." {61} Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." {62} Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

In Christ Jesus who loves us and gave himself for us, dear fellow redeemed,

In the mid 1930's, a Wisconsin Synod pastor by the name of William Schweppe accepted the call to be part of our first missionary team to Nigeria. It's exciting to read the reports of his work in that far away place. From his notes it's obvious he considered it a great privilege to serve our Savior in the mission field. But for all the joy and excitement, there had to be hidden costs in that work, costs measured not in dollars and cents, but in great personal sacrifice.

For example, back then, Dr. Schweppe and his team would have made the long journey to Africa, not by air, but by sea. Can you picture them sorting through their belongings as they made preparations for their journey. Think of the comforts they would have to give up in order to spread the gospel of Jesus among a people and in a culture they knew so little about. Finally the time came for them to leave. Picture them on board that ship waving goodbye to the family members and dear friends they would not see for such a long, long time.

Now do me one more favor. Picture yourself in that scene. No, you're not one of the friends waving from shore. You're on the ship. It's already left port. There's no turning around. No, you're not headed to Nigeria or Japan, or some other far away land. But if you are a follower of Christ, you are his missionary and your field of service is wherever God places you. Now I won't kid you, this is going to impact your life, as it did Dr. Schweppe's, but not to worry, the Scripture offers you this advice: Disciple, Don't Look Back! Eyes forward, my friend-1) Beware of the obstacles you face; 2) Be aware of your purpose in life; and by all means, 3) Be focused on Christ at all times.

As a child did you ever play "follow the leader"? Remember how carefully you had to pay attention to the leader and then repeat his every move? One slip and you were out of the game. Today we meet three men who want to follow Jesus. This is no game. This is what it means to be a Christian. Take your eyes off the leader and you lose, you lose your place in the kingdom. Jesus says so: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:57). You can't plow straight rows in God's mission fields if you're always looking back. So what should you do? Keep your eyes on Jesus. It sounds easy enough! Given the stakes, who wouldn't? Who couldn't? Who? Sinners who are so easily distracted, distracted by the pull of relaxation as Jesus warns the first man we meet in our text.

This is the man who boldly promises Jesus, "I will follow you wherever you go" (Luke 9:57). We have no reason to doubt the man's enthusiasm or his sincerity. But Jesus, who reads the human heart like an open book, gives this man and all of us something to think about. I say all of us, for we too have promised to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. At our confirmation we promised to suffer every adversity, even death rather than fall away from Christ. But so often it isn't adversity at all that turns our thoughts from Jesus, rather it's the comforts of life that become our stumbling block. So Jesus reminds us, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). Jesus was not poor. He and the disciples had a treasury big enough for Judas to steal from without anyone noticing. No, Jesus wasn't poor, but he was more concerned about spiritual matters than he was about setting his roots deep within earthly, material things. Can the same be said of us? Does the undying allegiance we pledge to Jesus mean that we are willing to sacrifice personal comforts to advance his kingdom?

As you give that some thought, realize that creature comforts and relaxation are not the only forces that threaten to side track our walk with Jesus. We human beings have an awful time with responsibilities as well. They seem to pull us in every direction at once. So it was with the second man we meet in our text, the one to whom Jesus says, "Follow me." To his credit, the man seemed willing to do so, but first he felt he had another duty to carry out. He wanted to bury his father. Now that sound's pretty important. Yet Jesus let him know that in a world where souls were still dying, this wasn't his top priority. These hard words of Jesus give us reason to examine our own lives. How much of what we consider important, even urgent does Jesus regard in the same way? Which leads to an even better question: Are we letting every-day responsibilities crowd Christ and his eternal priorities right out of our lives?

And as long as were asking, what effect do our earthly relationships have on our walk with Jesus? Look at the third fellow in our text. Here's another person who told Jesus, "I will follow you, Lord" (Luke 9:61). Yet before he could even finish his sentence, he was already asking permission to do something else, first. He wanted to say goodby to his family. That sure sounds honorable and respectful. But again the Son of God saw something in this man's heart that is lost to us. He saw this man being tugged away from the kingdom. We know that Jesus wants us to honor and love our family, but here we learn that he wants that honor and love to flow first and foremost from our relationship to him. Christ doesn't want to compete for our attention, rather he wants to receive it by the way we draw friends and family to him and his Word.

From all these conversations, we learn that when Jesus says to us, "Follow me", he's talking about having a relationship with him that impacts every detail and sets every priority of our lives. So what is your response to his call? Does it remind you of those times you find yourself saying to the kids, "Come on! We have to get going or we'll be late"? How do you respond, when they answer, "I'm coming, but first let me finish my TV show"? Who's setting the priorities there? Every day Jesus says to you and me, "Come on, let's get going before it's too late to spread the gospel." How do we answer? "I'm coming, but first let me build a new house...but first let me get that promotion...but first let me take a vacation...but first let me live my life as fully as I can...then I will follow? None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but where is Jesus in all of this? Is it he or something else that drives the feelings and influences the decisions that fill up the seconds and hours and days of your life? Who or what drives the way your pennies and dollars are spent? About whom or what are you passionate?

When Jesus called his disciples and said "follow me," Peter and Andrew at once left their fishing nets and followed. James and John left their father in the boat and followed. Matthew left his position at the tax collector's booth and never went back. Why such an immediate and complete response? Why? There is something special about this man Jesus, isn't there? When asked if they too would leave Jesus like everyone else, the disciples responded: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). That sure puts things into perspective, doesn't it? Followers of Jesus don't sacrifice anything do they? We have all the relaxation we need - Jesus is our peace; his mission is our responsibility; and as for family-Jesus is our Brother and Savior.

Friends, don't spend your time looking back, thinking about what you might be missing because you're a Christian. Look, instead at what you have. Following Jesus is believing in what he has done as our Savior. It is having confidence that he lived in perfect obedience to God's will to make up for the times we've failed to obey his call. Being a Christian is depending on Christ's death on the cross as payment in full for the hell we deserve for our misplaced priorities in life. Following Jesus is watching his life to understand yours. It's knowing the eternal meaning his given your life. And last, but not least, following Jesus is being aware of your purpose in life.

Yes, you have a purpose in God's plan to save this world. You may doubt that. Maybe from the outside your life looks rather ordinary as you go to work or school and come home again. Maybe your house blends in with all the others. Maybe your grades or skills aren't impressing anyone at all. But I would guess that you are underestimating the extraordinary purpose of what seems to you to be an ordinary life. But you see, that's your first mistake. There's nothing ordinary about you at all. Because, thanks to Jesus, you my friend, are a saint in God's eyes, you are a son or daughter of the King of Kings who stands to inherit all the blessings of the kingdom. No, there's nothing ordinary about you at all. You are a extraordinary person with an extraordinary purpose, for you are a missionary of the gospel, placed by God right where you are to make a difference in the lives of those around you.

"So what am I suppose to do?" you ask. Jesus said to the second man in our text, "You go and proclaim the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60). By the grace of God we all have a message to proclaim, a story of victory to tell. It's the message that centers on Jesus and what he has done to take away the sins of all. This mission is personal because of its affect on us. We get to declare the "...praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

Now, don't think that being a missionary looks the same in everyone's life. God uses who you are, what you do, what you have, and what you say to impact the people of this world. He uses your contacts and your resources to make a difference in someone else's life, contacts and resources that I don't have. You become the channel for his saving activities, whether you're an adult or a child, a student or a retiree, an employee, or an executive, or a stay-at-home parent. God's using you to reach different people in different ways.

You do have an important purpose. But you're afraid-what if you mess everything up? Jesus takes care of that too. He doesn't simply warn us not to look back; he gives us faith to be focused on him at all times. Christ gives us faith to look forward with the same joy and confidence that are his. We find Jesus looking forward in the first verse of our text: "As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). Our Savior knew full well that a journey to Jerusalem meant pain and suffering on the cross and in hell. But his vision was not short-sighted. He saw beyond the grave to his resurrection and ours. For the joy set before him he marched on. Now he sets the same joy before us, promising that everything he has is ours, everything. Do you see how liberating that truth is? Now rather than hoarding things for ourselves, we have more than enough of everything to share with others - our time and energy, our money and possessions. Now we can afford to say, "I want to go out this evening, but first let me make sure we honor my worship and devotion time. "I want to buy a new car or boat, but first let me set aside proportionate gifts and offerings that honor the Lord." "I would like to build more comfort into my life, but first let me build the kingdom of God throughout the world."

Are you still feeling a bit overwhelmed with all this? I am too. I have to be honest and say that so far this is more than I've been able to do with all the details of my life. And the truth is, if all this depended on you and me, the task would prove impossible. But it doesn't depend on us. This isn't about our power, but the power of the Holy Spirit who works in us through Word and Sacrament. To this end the Apostl Paul encourages us by saying, "...it is God who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

As you and I spend more time with God in his gospel, he will have more opportunity to shape our attitudes and actions. Think of how he did that with Pastor Schweppe, the missionary I told you about earlier. Dr. Schweppe served in the mission fields of Africa from 1935 till he was killed in a car accident on the back roads of that land in 1968. Some might look at his life and say that he sacrificed so much, but he never thought so. Again and again he told his friends and family, "The greatest work in the world is mission work." Now you and I have the opportunity to test the truth of his words, for like him, God has put our hands to the plow. Why would we look back when we have such a bright future before us, serving the God of our salvation throughout our few days on earth, even as we anticipate the unending joys of heaven that await us all, for Jesus' sake. Amen.