9:57 ¶ And it came to pass,
that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will
follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 58
And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have
nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he
said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their
dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow
thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
62 And Jesus said unto him, No man,
having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God.
Here, Christ responds
to a request with a metaphor. After one man promised to follow Him wherever He
went another man asked that he be permitted to bury his father. Jesus replies
with two meanings for being dead. He tells the man to let the spiritually dead
bury the physically dead and go preach
the kingdom of God. Keep in mind how the fisherman disciples left their
work immediately to follow Him. Another person wanted to go home and say
goodbye to his family and Jesus told him that a person who couldn’t just walk
away without looking back was not fit for the kingdom of God. We also have the
statement in Luke 14:26 that anyone who holds his family in higher regard than
Jesus can’t be His disciple.
These are important doctrinal
statements. But, are we, as Christians, to be like Buddha and abandon our
families? Is Christ giving us a warrant to refuse to honor familial
obligations, duties and affections that God gave us?
Or, is this strictly
for the time that Christ was walking on the earth, the day time in a spiritual
and very miraculous sense before the night would fall and He would not be
physically walking in the flesh with His disciples? Notice how Jesus and Paul
use day and night as metaphors for the periods of time before and after the
crucifixion and resurrection.
John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me,
while it is day: the night cometh, when no
man can work.
Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and
let us put on the armour of light.
There is another set of
verses that gives people today trouble like these in Luke.
Mark 3:28 Verily I say unto
you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith
soever they shall blaspheme: 29 But he
that shall blaspheme
against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of
eternal damnation:
30 Because they said, He
hath an unclean spirit.
Is this possible today,
after the resurrection? Can someone commit such a sin that they have no
possible chance to be forgiven by God?
Many preachers would
say yes. They would encourage you also to walk away from family obligations or
at least put them on the back burner so you can do what they require you to do.
They will say you aren’t fit for God’s kingdom if you place your family above
service to God, which really means you aren’t fit, in their words, if you don’t
place your devotion to the preacher’s will and whims above your family.
But, does that
represent the entirety of Christian teaching? When we look at the entire New
Testament and specifically the commands given to us by Paul we get a larger
perspective. First, remember that Jesus is talking to His Jewish followers and
would-be followers before His crucifixion and resurrection. He is announcing
Himself to the Jews and He is on the way to the Cross. Time is very short.
Let me start backwards
with the Mark, chapter 3, verses on blaspheming the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost,
the very mind of God as Christ is the very body of God and God the Father is
the very soul of God, the seat of will and self-identity, always points to
Christ and never to Himself. He is the spiritual counterpart to a John the
Baptist announcing Christ in the flesh. He points at the Saviour of mankind.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
What prompted Jesus’
statement in Mark 3 was that those speaking against had said about Him as He
walked the earth He hath an unclean
spirit. The idea that the very mind of God, the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Ghost, that is present moving in all creation from the beginning and does His
will in every cell function, heartbeat, wave of the sea, or fluttering of a
bird’s wings is an evil spirit and that was what was the operational entity
behind Christ’s work of salvation would not be overlooked. It was an
unpardonable sin.
Typically, when you
hear someone reject Christ today they will deny He exists or existed, claim He
was simply a remarkable teacher which propagandists created a whole deity
mythology around, or that they’re good people and they don’t need to be saved
by Him or anyone else. I have never heard anyone reject salvation through Christ
because they said that Christ was an evil person intent on creating havoc and
causing harm or that He was demon-possessed. They might say that about
Christians, though. No, that was something the people who opposed Him at the
time said.
We Baptists, for the
most part, do not believe you can lose your salvation because you did not save
yourself.
John 1:12 But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name: 13 Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Titus 3:4 But after that
the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,5 Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
And we are sealed until
the day of redemption, our resurrection.
2Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ,
and hath anointed us, is God;
22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye
also trusted, after that ye
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that
ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve
not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
So, since you cannot
lose your salvation the only way to interpret the Mark 3 verses for us is to
say that there are those who will never be saved as their will always be
against God’s work of redeeming mankind to Himself, or at least as much as will
accept His free gift of mercy. But, for those at that time walking on the earth
with Him it was an apparent danger. The time was filled with spiritual warfare
and the unseen world, which we are sometimes given a glimpse of, is very hard
at work.
It is true that Jesus
told His disciples in their time that to hold their own families in higher
regard than Himself and the gospel message made them unworthy of Him. By
cross-referencing the following verses we see that to hate can also mean to
love one less than another.
Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Matthew 10:37 He that
loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me.
And we see, in the context
of riches, Peter’s lament and Jesus’ promise in this verse.
Matthew 19:27 Then answered
Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what
shall we have therefore? 28 And Jesus
said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the
regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for
my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting
life.
But, Paul, the apostle
to the Gentiles, wrote about family relations. First, the responsibility of
taking care of one’s own family.
1Timothy 5:8 But if any
provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath
denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
2Corinthians 12:14 Behold,
the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you:
for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the
parents, but the parents for the children.
1Timothy 5:4 But if any
widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and
to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.
(nephew at one time
also meant grandson)
There is no general
warrant in Christianity for anyone to willingly abandon their family. The
message here in Luke was for the first century AD followers and would-be
followers of Christ in the flesh as He marched on His way to glory.
Still, much good
preaching can be made and has been done regarding walking away mentally and
spiritually from your past ways of looking at things, regarding sin, and on
what justifies you. And, of course, as Paul notes, your family may abandon you.
Add this to the difficulty of suffering as a Christian, and you can see many
parallels between Jesus’ statements and the decisions a new Christian is often
forced to make to stay true to their faith.
Jesus, with no home of
His own, whose own family He regards as those who obey His word, looking beyond
the grave where a mere carcass is deposited to eternity, is on His way to the
Cross and the Empty Tomb for the salvation of mankind. Those who will follow
must drop everything and follow Him now, not looking back, or longing for the
life they had.
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