Luke 9:59-62 - The cost of following

9:59,60

In the next example it is Jesus who issues the call to follow Him. The replies by asking that he first buries his father. Some say this means that his father had not yet died, but was well on in years. They argue that if his father had actually just died, then the man would have been actively involved in the burial arrangements, as these things happened quickly. Alternatively the father had actually died and the funeral was imminent. In either case Jesus’ words are harsh to our ears. The urgency of the words of Jesus actually make the imminent burial scenario the more likely. If the father was still alive, then although we must love Jesus more than family the Bible is full of instructions to take proper care of our parents, including in the ten commandments. However, if the father was dead there were plenty others who could take care of burying him, and there was nothing more the man could do for his father. We should also note that it was Jesus who sought out and called the man. The work of proclaiming the kingdom is of vital importance.

9:61,62

The final incident involves a man who wants to go and say goodbye to his family. The request seems reasonable enough, but it evidently demonstrated an underlying wrong attachment to his family. We must love our families as servants of Jesus. We do not follow Jesus as servants of our families. There is a subtle but important difference. There will be times when the call of Jesus on our lives involves us breaking some tie that we have. The tie will not be wrong in itself, but what is wrong is that it is more important to us than our attachment to Jesus.