Encountering Jesus will challenge us to make following Jesus our first priority...

This week, we are looking at a series of encounters that people who were following Jesus as part of a crowd had with Jesus. We looked on as Jesus responded to a scribes request to follow Him by explaining that following Jesus was to take priority over the things of this world.

We looked on Jesus then sought out another person in the crowd and invited that person to follow Him as a disciple. Upon being asked by Jesus to follow Him, Luke tells us that this person in the crowd responded to Jesus request with a request of his own: "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." We looked on as Jesus wanted this man to clearly understand that following Jesus was to take priority over delaying for the sake of one’s family. Jesus wanted this man to clearly understand that following Jesus was to take priority over putting Jesus off until a time when Jesus would better fit into his family’s schedule.

Now if you find Jesus words hitting a little too close to home, today we are going to jump back in and look at what happened next, beginning in Luke 9:61:

 Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home."

Luke tells us that after approaching a man in the crowd and inviting him to follow Him, Jesus was approached by another man from the crowd. This man approached Jesus with a proposition when it came to following Jesus: "I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home."

Now this request, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, probably sounded like this: Lord, I want to follow You but first allow me to go home and say farewell to my family”. Now, once again, that sounds like a reasonable request doesn’t it? I mean, wouldn’t you want to say goodbye to your family before you left to follow Jesus? Luke reveals for us how Jesus responded to this man’s request in verse 62:

  But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

Luke tells us that Jesus responded to this man’s request by looking him in the eyes and saying "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." To which we say “huh? What?” Now can you imagine how the disciples responded to Jesus answer to this man? I mean, imagine yourself as a disciple at this point? The disciples were probably looking at each other and saying “why does He always have to talk like that? John, what is He talking about?”

Doesn’t Jesus response here seem weird? Doesn’t Jesus response leave you scratching your head? So what is going on here? To understand what Jesus is communicating here, I want you to imagine that you were given the responsibility to paint the yard lines on the football field at University of Phoenix stadium for the Super Bowl. If you were given that responsibility, how would you make sure that the yard lines that you painted were straight? How would you make sure that your yard lines remained on the right track?

In order to make sure that your yard lines were straight, you would first use a string that you would attach to two fixed points on each sideline that marked where the yard line should be. You would then place your paint machine at one sideline over the string. Then you would look forward at the string and follow the string across the field toward the other sideline as you painted the sideline.

You would never look back at where you had already painted. The reason why you would never look back at where you had already painted is because as soon as you looked back, you would lose sight of where you were supposed to be going. And as a result of losing sight of where you were supposed to be going, within five yards you would begin to get off track from where you would supposed to be going. And you would end up with a winding and wobbly yard line instead of a straight yard line.

In the same way, in order to a farmer to plow a straight furrow in the ground by which to plant seed, the farmer would have to look straight ahead. To look back while plowing would result in the farmer getting off track and produces a furrow that was winding and wobbly instead of straight. And a wobbly and winding furrow would make farming that piece of land much more difficult.

Jesus point to this man was that while he may want to follow Him initially, only to later long for the life that he had before they began to follow Jesus. However, to be effective and usable as a follower of Jesus is to follow Jesus and not look back and long for the past. You see, Jesus wanted this man to clearly understand that following Jesus was to take priority over his former life.

Jesus wanted this man to clearly understand that following Jesus was to take priority over a life that longed for the good old days before following Jesus. Jesus wanted this man to clearly understand that to live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus to others effectively and that did not get off track required that Jesus be his first priority. 

And in the same way, encountering Jesus calls us to understand that to follow Jesus is to take priority over our former life. And encountering Jesus calls us to understand that to live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus to others effectively and that does not get off track requires that Jesus be our first priority.  Jesus invites us to place Him first in our lives so that we are able to live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus to others effectively and that does not get off track.

And it here, in this series of encounters with Jesus, that we discover a timeless truth that occurs when we encounter Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Encountering Jesus will challenge us to make following Jesus our first priority. Just as it was with the scribe; just as it was with the man who requested to “bury his father”, just as it was for the man who requested to say farewell to his family, encountering Jesus will challenge us to make following Jesus our first priority.

Just as it was for the scribe, encountering Jesus calls us to understand that to follow Jesus results in us living as a stranger in a strange world that requires us to place our confident trust in Jesus instead of the things of this world. And encountering Jesus calls us to understand that following Jesus is to take priority over the things of this world.

Just as it was with the man who requested to “bury his father”, encountering Jesus calls us to understand that following Jesus is to take priority over following our family. And encountering Jesus calls us to understand that following Jesus is to take priority over putting Jesus off until a time when following Jesus fits better into our family schedule.

Just as it was for the man who requested to say farewell to his family, encountering Jesus calls us to understand that to follow Jesus is to take priority over our former life. And encountering Jesus calls us to understand that to live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus to others effectively and that does not get off track requires that Jesus be our first priority. 

So here is a question to consider: What is your first priority in your life? Is your first priority in your life the stability and security that comes from the things of this world? Is your first priority in life your family?

In other words, are you delaying dealing with Jesus to instead place your family before Jesus? Do you fit Jesus in, whether it is time at church or time with Jesus, when there is nothing better to do?

Is your first priority living in your former life? Do you find yourselves always looking back at the good old days? Are you finding that your life is consistently getting off track because you are living in the past?

Because, as we discovered here, encountering Jesus will challenge us to make following Jesus our first priority.