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REJECTING JESUS IS EASY

(Luke 9:57-62)

Intro Last week we saw Lu 9:51 is a dividing point in the book. When the
days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Prior to this Luke tells about Jesus coming from heaven and the question is,
Who is J esus? Answer: He is God. From here on it is about His going back
to heaven. Key Question, Why did J esus come? Answer: To seek and to
save those who were lost. To accomplish that, He goes back to heaven by
way of J erusalem where He dies to pay the penalty for sin.

At this division, we also move from a theme of acceptance to one of rejection.
We see it immediately. Jesus comes to Samaria but v. 53, But the people did
not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. Because He was
a Jew going to Passover, they reject Him, and thus they miss the One who was
actually on His way to die for their sins. Bad theology kept them from Christ.

Now Luke introduces 3 vignettes of people ready to follow Christ, but each
encounters a hurdle. They demo 3 anchors that keep people from saving faith.
Many have misinterpreted this passage by saying that these 3 are believers,
debating whether to serve Christ. They teach we can receive J esus as Savior
now and as Lord later. Become a Christian now, a disciple later. This is a
grave mistake not taught by the Bible. Several reasons mitigate against it.

Person of Christ To split Jesus Saviorhood from His Lordship is like
saying, I accept Pres Obama as a basketball player, but not as pres. (I
know some would like to do that, but its not possible, is it?) You cant say,
Ill play basketball with him, but I dont accept any of his presidential
decisions. It just doesnt work that way. You have to accept someone for all
they are, not just part. The same is true with Jesus. You cant carve Him up
into Savior and Lord and decide to take part now, and maybe part later. You
dont become a Xn now and disciple later. Its all or nothing. (Rom 10:9)

Meaning of Follow Follow also indicates salvation is the issue. It
always speaks of saving faith. You cant be a follower of Christ without
being saved, and you cant be saved without being a follower of Jesus. There
is no such thing as a believer who is still on the fence about following J esus.
Jesus says in John 8:12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will
not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Those who follow Jesus
walk in light; those who dont are in darkness. Those who follow have life;
those who do not follow have not life.
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When Jesus says, Follow me, its an invitation to salvation, not to greater
service. Follow me is a present imperative which implies a lifelong
commitment. Its a one-time decision that leads to a lifetime change. There
will be failure sometimes dramatic. But to live in permanent apathy is to
show that one was never genuine in the first place.

Context One final reason to say this is talking about a salvation
commitment is v. 59 where Jesus says, No one who puts his hand to the plow
and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. To not follow is to not be fit
for the kingdom. To be a Xn and a disciple are one and the same thing. You
cant be one without the other. Francis Chan in Crazy Love summarizes the
issue clearly, Some people claim that we can be Christians without
necessarily becoming disciples. I wonder, then, why the last thing J esus told
us was to go to the world, making disciples of all nations, teaching them to
obey all that he commanded? You'll notice that he didn't add, "But hey, if
that's too much to ask, tell them to just become Christians you know, the
people who get to go to heaven without having to commit to anything."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer called that cheap grace because it doesnt exist in the
Bible. Paul says, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, not just
Savior, but Lord you will be saved. So 3 reasons people reject Jesus.

I. Personal Comfort

V. 57: As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow
you wherever you go. Mt 8:19 tells us this was a scribe an elite OT scholar.
Most were Pharisees and in opposition to Jesus. To have him as a follower
would have been a coup. Wed have said, You want to follow J esus? Well,
then pray this prayer, sign this card and youre in. Another notch on our
spiritual gun. But J esus is looking for genuine, not numbers.

When He looked into this mans heart He saw a comfort. V. 58, And Jesus
said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Man has nowhere to lay his head. Its almost like Jesus is trying to scare him
off. Strange way to do evangelism? To us this looks counterproductive, nave,
even a bit stupid. Wed be saying, Strike while the iron is hot. Dont scare
him away. Tell him about all that the hard stuff later, if at all! Thats what
wed say, isnt it? Promise anything just get him in. Thats why so many
start well, but drop out at the first sign of trouble. Theyve been duped.
Theyve been told, Come to Jesus and everything will be great. Theyre
committing to happy endings, not J esus!
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This man said the right things, but Jesus knew deep in his heart he was seeing
the crowds, the miracles, the enthusiasm, the excitement. Thats what he was
signing up for. Who wouldnt want that? He understood nothing of true
discipleship of self-denial, sacrifice, service and suffering. He was in for the
glory, not for the guts.

He was an early adopter of the prosperity gospel. I heard one televangelist
brag to another not long ago (names you would recognize) that he is not just a
millionaire, but a multi-millionaire. He said, I f He is my comforter, I live in
comfort. Thats not only spiritually thats physically too. Because when
youve got some stuff it brings comfort. Those who think otherwise know
nothing about the Bible. I think that shoes on the other foot. Jesus said
nothing about making this man a millionaire or giving him comfort through
stuff. Just the opposite, He challenged Him with this truth: Foxes have
holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay
his head. Follow me and thats where it leads.

Some preachers claim that Jesus was rich had a treasurer, had a home in
Capernaum, had designer clothes that the soldiers gambled for at the cross.
But thats a crock, Beloved. Jesus own testimony was that He had little of
this worlds goods. And He challenge us in Lu 14:27, Whoever does not bear
his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
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For which of you,
desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether
he has enough to complete it? This man had not counted the cost. He wanted
Jesus, but He wanted His comfort first and J esus wont be 2
nd
to anything.
So if Jesus asked you, would you give up your comfortable house and car and
job and air conditioning and TV? Is Jesus more important than those? Can you
be moved out of your easy chair to prepare a lesson for kids, or bring help to
the poor? We may think were a follower of Jesus; but is it real? Our mouth
is saying, Im a follower but our actions are saying we dont know the first
thing about following Jesus.

David Platt in Radical tells of guest preaching on missions only to have the
pastor close the service by saying, Brother David, we are so excited about
all that God is doing in New Orleans and in all the nations, and we are
excited about you serving there. And, brother, we promise that we will
continue to send you a check so we dont have to go ourselves. Wow but
he wasnt done. He went on, I remember a time when a missionary from
Japan came to speak. I told the church if they didnt give financial support
to him, I was going to pray that God would send their kids to J apan to serve
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with the missionary. Clever missions as a threat! Beloved, that man may
have been a pastor, but he was no follower of Jesus. He liked his comfort
better than Jesus. Hes like the CW soldiers who signed up in droves in a fury
of patriotic zeal when they saw the soldiers on parade, the fine uniforms and
the glitter and the glory at the beginning of the war only to run for cover
when the shooting started. Folks, if our focus is on comfort over J esus, we
may not be a true follower at all. Actions show where the heart really is.

II. Personal Obligations

V. 59, To another he said, Follow me.But he said, Lord, let me first go and
bury my father.
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And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own
dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. So what is the
problem here? Is Jesus against burying parents? Of course not! Jesus approves
burying parents. The problem was, this mans father was not dead yet. Had
he been, this guy would have been making arrangements, not in this crowd.
The Jews did not embalm; so burial often happened the same day. In John 11
Jesus is called because His friend Lazarus is very sick. He arrives 4 days later
and John 11: 17 tells us, Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had
already been in the tomb four days. That means Lazarus died the same day
Jesus was summoned and was buried that same day in typical fashion.

In commenting on this verse, G. Campbell Morgan tells how a friend, Sir
George Adam Smith, was traveling in Palestine in early 20
th
century. Needing
a guide, he was referred to a young Arab sheik who knew the area well, but he
steadfastly refused to go saying to Sir George, Sir, suffer me first to go and
bury my father." Meanwhile, there sat his father in the tent opening, elderly,
but hail and hearty certainly not dead. The man was saying he would not go
while his father lived. That is precisely the situation Jesus encountered.

This man is not asking a few hours; He is asking for an indeterminate amount
of time to wait for his fathers death so he can bury him and most probably
gather his inheritance. He wants to sort his life out, bury his father, assure his
financial future then he is ready to follow Jesus. Jesus is a distant second
place on his list of priorities. And Jesus wont take second place to anything.

Thats why He answers in v. 60, Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But
as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Obviously physically dead
people cant bury anyone. What Jesus is saying is, Let the spiritually dead
bury their own. Your excuse does not fly. You must choose between Me and
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your obligations. His own father needed to know Jesus was more important
to his son than he was. But this man wanted to wait.

You can see the mans basic problem. V. 59, Lord, let me first go and bury
my father. He calls Jesus, Lord. But he puts his will first! Thats not a
saving confession! Lord and me first cant go together. Me first could
be a lot of things the lust for money, a career, a hobby that consumes us.
Anything that comes before God. Francis Chan in The Forgotten God tells of
a couple in his church Thomas and J en. Jen worked in the church office;
Thomas was chef and co-owner of a fine steak restaurant in Simi Valley, just
north of LA. They gave a gift certificate to Chan to enjoy a meal and while
they were there, Thomas shared that the restaurant was doing great far
exceeding expectations. In 3 more years he would receive back his investment
with a huge bonus on top of that. The only problem was God was calling him
away from the restaurant right then, not in 3 years. Shortly afterward Thomas
surprised his partners by giving up the money to pursue the ministry God
called him to. He took a position at a local rescue mission, cooking for the
homeless and others seeking to rebuild their lives. He teaches the homeless
how to cook and finds them jobs at local restaurants. Thats a disciple,
Beloved. Not entangled. Not waiting to bury Dad or collect the money. Hes
part of Gods kingdom and knows that Lord and me first simply dont
mix. C. S. Lewis said it as well as it can be said, "Put first things first and we
get the second things thrown in: Put second things first then we lose both
first and second things."

III. Personal Relationships

V. 61: Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell
to those at my home. Anything wrong with saying Farewell? Of course not.
Elijah allowed Elisha to do that very thing when he called him while Elisha
was out plowing the family field. But look in I Kings 19:20, And he [Elisha]
returned from following him [Elijah] and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed
them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the
people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.
Elisha told Mom and Dad good-by, but he did more than that. He sacrificed
the oxen hed been using to plow indicating that he was making a clean break.
The old life was over; he was committed to the new. He never looked back.
The farewell was permanent. That is a kingdom mentality.

Jesus did not see that in this third man in Luke 9. Thats why He answers as he
does in v. 62: No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for
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the kingdom of God. Youre not committed to plow a straight line if you are
looking backward, right? In this heart, Jesus saw family ties that meant more
to him than J esus. His feet would be going in one direction but his heart
would be pointed in another. Hed be like Lots wife who was warned in Gen
19 not to look back as the family escaped the destruction of Sodom. But Gen
19:
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But Lots wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of
salt. The point is, you cant be saying to Jesus, Ill take you, but I must
have this thing or this someone as well. People reject Christ for fear of
losing relationships. Thats why Jesus says in Lu 14:26, If anyone comes to
me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and
brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Jesus doesnt hate families but relative to knowing Christ, all else must be
left aside. Otherwise, please note, he cannot be my disciple. We downplay
Jesus the seriousness of this level of commitment, but Jesus is dead serious
about what saving faith is all about.

Conc Heres the deal. Jesus is attacking the easy believism that dominates
our Christian culture. Thousands of people believe they are followers of Jesus
because they affirm that Jesus died and rose again. But J esus never defines
discipleship in those terms. True faith shows in actions. He goes out of His
way to tell people how hard it will be. Its easy to commit to Christ, just like
its easy to join the army. But after you join there is a price to be paid, and if
you are not paying that price, chances are you never actually joined. You just
responded to an emotional plea by saying, Lord, me first instead of Lord,
whatever you say.

Conc There is an old Chinese story about a king who was fond of music,
especially the Yu a wind instrument. So he convened an orchestra of 300
players who played for him every day at teatime. One of the players, Nan
Guo, actually knew nothing about the Yu, but life in the orchestra was good,
and he made a good pretense. All went well until the king died, and the prince
became king. Unfortunately, the new king did not like the orchestra he
preferred solo performances. So he called for each musician to play alone for
him. Nan Guo was soon found out. He had nowhere to hide.

Beloved, its easy to hide in our society even in church. But soon the
question will come from the King himself What did you put first Me or
your personal comfort, obligations or relationships? How will your life
answer that question? We cant hide that day. On that day it will be clear
was it Lord or was it me first? What joy there is in making sure its
Lord! Lets pray.
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