(This blog post is adapted from a baccalaureate sermon addressed to the Oscoda High School graduating class of 2015)

Those at my church who read this know that I am now in my last week as Associate Pastor at Oscoda Baptist Church. A few people have asked me the last few weeks what I’m headed off to do, and there are three answers to this question, one of which sounds surprising and strange to those I’ve given it to. The first answer is that we have to relocate for my wife’s health. The second answer is that I’m planning to paint, work security, or any other “normal” work I can do. The third answer is my response to the question, “So you’re not staying in the ministry?” The response is this: Of course I’m staying in the ministry. I’m leaving ministry to go into ministry.

For many years we have had a perception problem in the church, and it’s a perception in the divide between so-called clergy and so-called laity. The perception lends itself to tensions such as this example: a pastor who believes his job is not evangelism but equipping the congregation to go do evangelism, but most of the congregation is not active in evangelism because they aren’t pastors. The pastor has a role, the congregation has their role, but their mission is the same. Who is supposed to be doing evangelism? Both. Which one is the minister? Both. I am leaving ministry to go into ministry. That said, I still fully believe in the necessity and importance of the biblical role of the pastor, and the differing roles of deacons, elders, etc., but the divide between vocational ministers and lay ministers, clergy and laity, is primarily in perception and it lends itself to many problems.

In the last two weeks as I was preparing the message for the baccalaureate, I was taken aback by how I believe we have missed some of the plain meaning on the page of one of Jesus’ most striking teachings on the call to discipleship, the call to follow Jesus. Most frequently understood as a call to an intense, deep, extreme commitment to following Jesus, it seems we’ve missed something in plain sight…a call, not to extreme, deep commitment, but a call to a non-compartmentalized life…a call to “proclaim the kingdom” in everything we do, a call that totally obliterates the perception divide between pastors and congregants, clergy and laity.

As Luke records Jesus’ ministry, the section of that Gospel from 9:51-19:27 records Jesus’ travel to Jerusalem where He will be handed over to Jewish and Roman authorities and crucified as a criminal in the place of mankind to pay their sin debt and satisfy the justice of God. While on the way there Jesus begins inviting and taking on more followers to join Him. The most striking single phrase Jesus utters in this invitation section is found in Luke 9:62. “No one, after putting their hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (NASB)

When the Bible tells us a negative, we have to figure out what the implied positive is. So when Jesus describes who is NOT fit for the kingdom, we have to figure out who IS fit for the kingdom. In the verses before verse 62 we see three implied descriptions of the person who is fit for the kingdom. Rejecting the world as home, making God known in the world takes precedence over family, and single-minded commitment to the kingdom in place.

1. Rejecting the world as home.

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:57-58, NASB)

Is Jesus suggesting that in order to be a follower of Him you must be homeless? Quite frankly, yes and no. Many people over the years have said that it’s literally yes…that Jesus literally meant we must be homeless to follow Him. Many people, particularly a few centuries ago, left society to live a solitary monastic life after the example of Jesus who “had nowhere to lay his head.” But I think that misses the guts of what Jesus is really saying, and to see it we have to pay close attention to the exchange, the words of both people in the conversation. It’s not a hidden meaning; it’s there in plain sight…we just have to pay attention to the details. There are no unimportant details in the words of Scripture

This first would-be follower expressing commitment to Jesus expresses this commitment as a geographically-unlimited determination. Wherever Jesus goes is where he says he will go as well. Anywhere Jesus is, he says he will be as well. But Jesus says he has no place to lay his head wherever he goes. Jesus says he has fewer creature comforts than the creatures. So this would-be follower says that he will go wherever Jesus goes, and Jesus says that in that place, the place of geographically wherever, He has not even a pillow. It is curious that Jesus says He has no home because Jesus did have a home. He most likely had a house in Capernaum (“Lake of Nahum” in Hebrew), which is a shore town on the northwest edge of Galilee. Matthew 4:13 says “leaving Nazareth (his childhood hometown), He came and settled in Capernaum.” A few places, such as Mark 2:15 and Matthew 17:25 may likely (especially the latter) refer to the house in which Jesus lived in Capernaum.

Jesus was not actually homeless. Still, Jesus says, “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He refers to rest, to sleep, saying He has no place where he rests and recharges. Jesus is giving a geographically-unlimited claim that he has no place to rest. He’s saying there is no place on this planet (geographically-unlimited) where He can rest. We assume Jesus literally slept, so we have to say that Jesus had written off this world as His home.

Ok, careful reader, you may be thinking now, “Ok, but even if Jesus had a home in Capernaum, he is on a journey to Jerusalem so he literally had no home in this period of His life.” And that is true. The picture is actually quite beautiful; Jesus left his home in Capernaum to go to Jerusalem to die, just as pre-incarnate Jesus left the side of the Father at perfect rest to enter into this world to come and rescue us.

So the picture is actually both; Jesus’ traveling away from his home provides a picture of spiritual homelessness. This world could not provide Him rest and relaxation. Jesus could relate to lyrics of the Caedman’s Call song, “This world has nothing for me, and this world has everything.” Everything we associate with being home was totally foreign to Jesus. Rest, relaxation, belonging….none of those come from anywhere in this world to the person who is a follower of Jesus. Jesus is not saying “Go be homeless.” Jesus is saying what people have really been saying for years, that “home is where the heart is.” Jesus is saying “Be homeless while you’re at home, because it’s not your home.” He’s saying if you’re going to be a follower of Him, you must write off this world completely as a source of rest, relaxation or belonging…there is nothing this world has to offer in terms of careers, adventure, entertainment, or rest/relaxation that will do for your soul. Those things aren’t wrong, but they aren’t home. Rest, relaxation, belonging are not wrong; they’re just not here.

3.Making God known in the world takes precedence over family

59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60 But He said to him, allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for You, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”

Can you imagine intentionally missing a parent’s funeral? When we get an announcement like the death of a parent, our response will be “I will not miss that for the world.” Jesus is asking what you would miss it for. Jesus says a description of the person who is fit for the Kingdom is the precedence of making God known over family. Now, Jesus isn’t saying that if you attend a parent’s funeral you’re in sin…but we have to say that it could be wrong to do so if that has taken precedence over the mission of making God known.

How could it possibly be wrong to do this? If I was a pastor of a church and one of my parents died, would I leave to go be at the funeral instead of preaching at my own church that weekend? Yes. Absolutely, I would. So am I in rebellion against Jesus’ teaching here? No. Here’s why… There is a lot of debate about what this second would-be follower is trying to put the mission on hold for. Has his father already died and he’s going home to bury him? This is not likely because it would be highly unusual to find someone out and about and not at home during this painful time. Likely he would be with his family and would never have had this conversation with Jesus. A second theory is that he is trying to put the mission on hold indefinitely until his father passes… “Hey, once my dad isn’t around anymore, I’ll be available.” Most scholars think this is also unlikely, and most seem to opt for a middle ground…his father is likely sick and dying soon, and he is willing to follow Jesus once his father is gone, which should be soon.

When Jesus says “Allow the dead to bury their own dead,” there’s a lot of conjecture we can make about who the dead are that he’s referring to…the dead already in the ground (his father’s soon-to-be company), the spiritually dead (i.e., unregenerate family members)? (Jesus apparently knew all his family were unbelievers, if that’s the case, which sounds weird)…we don’t really know what exactly he means…but what we can say is that the second would-be follower misunderstood the geography of “Follow Me.”

Jesus says “Follow me” and the guy wants to put that on hold for family business…and Jesus is saying “As if you can’t go be with your family and still be my follower.” Jesus says “As for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”  It’s like He’s saying, “You think you need to not be around your family to proclaim the kingdom. Where do you think you ought first to live as follower of me? Doesn’t your family need to hear the proclamation of the good news?” The mission of making God known must take precedence over family, which in Jesus’ view does not necessitate avoidance of family business. Those two are not compartmentalized into different spheres. The calling to proclaim the Kingdom of God, to make known God and His Gospel, is a calling on all followers, not just some….it is a calling on all followers of Jesus, and it means applying that proclamation in every sphere of influence we already have. Our family, our workplace, our friendships.

3. Single-minded commitment to the kingdom in place

61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

I wonder if this third would-be follower heard the last guy’s conversation with Jesus. “Jesus says don’t even bother with the most important family business, so I’m going to be so committed I’m just going to leave my family altogether!” I can almost see Jesus taking a face-palm….this guy didn’t get it either. “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

When I was in high school I spent my summers with my grandpa, and I helped him plant a vineyard (Durso Hills Winery and Bistro in Marquand, MO. It’s no longer owned by my grandpa, but our family name is still on it).The summer he planted the grapes I plowed a few rows with his tractor, and in order to do that I had to pick a spot on the opposite end of the field with my eyes, and keep my eyes on that spot, steering the tractor to move only in that direction. If I were to take my eyes off that mark my rows would have gone crooked and Papa would have had to take over and fix it. It was a single-minded, undistracted, total, complete dedication to the task at hand. This is the call to follow Jesus. It is not like reading a book that we can pick up and put down when we have the time…it is like breathing: a constant, necessary continuation without rest. This is a single-minded dedication. The Kingdom never sleeps…the mission is not over…the clock is ticking and masses of people are dying and going to hell without someone so much as trying to take them the gospel. To be sure, some are…the vast majority are not.

This third exchange is really just a reiteration of the first two. He’s not saying to be literally homeless; He’s not saying leave your family…he’s saying be without home while at home, and be without family while with family, keep your eyes on that spot while doing everything else. The third description of who is fit for the Kingdom is a single-minded commitment to the kingdom in place. The last two words of that are the most important. The commitment to following Jesus and proclaiming the Kingdom/the Gospel is an in-place commitment that is not compartmentalized from our life’s work and responsibilities. It is not another item on the to-do list; it is not another box to check, it is not another sphere of influence we add on, it is not a program or a club, it is not something else to fit into our already-busy schedules. It’s not an item on the schedule, but the title of the schedule. It is the blanket that covers all of those things, a blanket of Jesus’ ownership, the blanket that says “This is all Jesus’ and dedicated to His service of proclaiming the Gospel and making the glory of Christ known to the world.”

Following Jesus is not about rejecting normal friendships, but a realization that the point of those friendships is to proclaim the Gospel and make God known. It’s not about leaving “secular” work and going into the ministry. It’s realizing you already are in the ministry! It’s realizing that your “secular work” is sacred worship. There is no divide between secular and sacred. God is not concerned with your occupation, but your preoccupation. It’s not what you do, but who you do it for that determines whether or not you are following Jesus.

And so, yes… I am leaving the ministry to go into ministry. My calling as a pastor is not about getting paid by a church to lead it, but about how God designed me. God calls people to service by giving them gifts and abilities, spiritually awakened, in order to minister in the church and outside the church as followers of Jesus. God’s calling is related to your gifts and abilities and your personality and temperament…it’s not about occupations. It’s about preoccupations. Every moment of your life is a sacred worship moment. If your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3) then you are a minister, put on this planet for the proclamation of the Gospel, to make known the glory of God to the nations.

 

Who can do this?

There is something else going on this passage that I have never heard anyone talk about. What I have just laid out is pretty close to what most teachers and commentators have laid out. But I think if you take these words of Jesus seriously and literally you’re left with more than an uphill battle…taking these words literally is like trying to climb an ice hill in bowling shoes. Who can really do all that he says here? Utterly rejecting the world as a source of any comfort, strength, belonging or rest; the precedence of the proclamation of the Gospel over the most important family matters; perfect, single-minded devotion to the Kingdom. I doubt any of us really thinks that’s realistic. Probably what we’ll do with this teaching is the same thing the lawyer does in Luke 10:29 when, “Wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

We look at a teaching like this and we say, “I can do this…just tell me what it looks like. Just give me the specifics. Tell me what the minimum requirement is to fulfill this so I know when I’ve done it. I can do this.” But like the lawyer, that totally misses the point that the only one who is “fit for the kingdom of God” is Jesus Himself. He alone can say with abandon and clear conscience that his home is not in the world, because He left the Father’s side to become human to rescue us. He alone can say “Allow the dead to bury their own dead,” “proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God,” because his mission came first even from his childhood. When he was left behind at the temple when he was a kid and His family pulled a u-turn to come back and get him, didn’t He say, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” When Jesus was told that his mother and brothers were waiting for Him outside His house, didn’t He ask, “Who are my mother and brothers?” He then turned to point at His disciples and said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

The point is that Jesus came into this world, not to make us do stuff, but to give us His life. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He is calling us to take up His life. Why do we become without home? Because we inherit the kingdom of God as our home! Why do we put family second? Because we are inheriting Jesus’ family and inheriting Jesus’ mission. Jesus came and died and rose from the dead to give us His life. Jesus is not calling us to a life of misery, but a life of rest having taken up His life offered freely to us. He gives us His inheritance as a Son of God and citizen of the Kingdom, and we inherit Him as brother and His Father as our Father. The call to follow Jesus is a call to lay down our life to take up His life lived in us. And “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” (Col. 3:4, NASB)

This is how it is possible to live a life that is not compartmentalized. Jesus already did it, and by the Holy Spirit His life is put inside of us, and if we submit to the love and will of God the Spirit empowers us and Jesus’ life animates ours and He is expressed through us. Righteousness is not something you do, but Jesus in you. Picture yourself as a shirt, and God as the shirt-owner…you need ironed, and it takes painful heat to iron those wrinkles out, but once the ironing is done God’s desire is to put you on Himself and walk around so you make Him look good. (shirt illustration credit: Pastor James Ford Jr).