Prayer
Before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 119:73,
Heavenly Father, Your hands made me and formed me;
Please help me to learn your commands, to understand them and to live by them. Amen.
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your awareness to the voice of God, coming to you through His Word.
Reading
In today’s passage we meet two men who had been so impacted by Jesus’ recent healing miracles (v.1-17) that they wanted to become His disciples. But Jesus did not want to gain followers who thought following Him was a matter of constant miracles and wonders. He wanted them to have an accurate picture and to count the cost before “signing up”.
So, to the first man, the teacher of the law, Jesus explained that “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He wanted this man to realize that He, Jesus, had prioritised the Father’s mission above His own physical comfort and security. To be His disciple would mean following Him even when it led to physical discomfort and material loss.
To the second man, Jesus made what can feel at first glance like a very uncaring response. The man asked to be allowed first to go and bury his father. And Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’
William Barclay very helpfully points out in his commentary that this young disciple wasn’t actually saying that his father had just died. He was essentially asking for permission to delay his discipleship until after his father had died and was buried.
Barclay writes:
That is undoubtedly what the man in this gospel incident meant. He meant, “I will follow you some day, when my father is dead, and when I am free to go.” He was in fact putting off his following of Jesus for many years to come.
But Jesus knows that delaying something often leads to us never doing it at all. The longer we “kick the can down the road”, the less likely we are to get the thing done. As we say in Afrikaans, “Van uitstel kom afstel“. One of the greatest tragedies of life is the tragedy of a great opportunity not taken, because of procrastination, fear or indecision.
And so, in love for the man, Jesus confronted him with the demand to make a decision about his priorities, immediately.
A disciple cannot have a higher priority than Jesus – neither the beautiful priority of family care, nor the important priorities of physical comfort and security. Unless Jesus is our highest priority, following Him faithfully is going to be impossible. Jesus must be every disciple’s highest priority of all. And it is crucial to obey Him swiftly when He calls us to follow Him.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will make Him my top priority,
- I will choose obedience to Him over physical comfort and security,
- I will follow Him and obey Him without delay when I sense Him calling.
Lord, please grant me the courage to follow You without delay, on every path You call me down today. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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