DEVOTION
THE
GOSPEL OF LUKE
NO
Luke
9:59-60
59
He said to another man, "Follow me." But
the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus
said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead,
but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
NIV
At
first glance Jesus seems a little offensive in his response to this
disciple, but we need to understand exactly what was going on. First of all we
should note this man did not offer his services, but was called by Jesus to
follow him and proclaim the kingdom of God. Not all men, not every disciple of
Jesus might have been qualified to preach the kingdom, but this man was. Second
we should also note that it is highly unlikely this man’s father was actually a
corpse lying in wait of a burial, as it was the custom to bury a person the
very day they died, unlike today. There were no wakes, or viewings, when the
person died, they took the body to the grave. So we might expect his father was
about to breathe his last very soon and this man desired to be there to respect
his father, doing the right thing as a son. Jesus was most likely indicating to
this man that there were other family members who could care for his father,
but not many were as qualified as him to preach the kingdom. What we learn here
is a lesson about two kingdoms, the one of nature and the one of grace. The
kingdom of nature all the children of the world, even the ungodly are fully
alive, to the other it is only the children of light. It is not that we, the
children of light, the believer are so totally indifferent to the common
humanities of social life, but we are set more on the things of spiritual and
eternal. When we hear the call of Jesus to go into all the world and preach the
good news, we cannot say, but first let me take care of some of the physical needs
of this world I live in, then when I have earned enough, when I have enough to
live securely then I will take off and do your work. If not that kind of
excuse, we might find some other reason to procrastinate about doing the
will of God. Yes, we do live in this world and, yes it seems we should be
living in some kind of quarters, with all the trimmings, and it does require us
to work in order to afford all the required things of this life. But if we use
those things as a reason not to preach the good news, then Jesus is talking
directly to us in his response to this man. We have to be willing to do his
will first, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added
unto us as well for our Father knows we have need of them. No excuses, we need
to be doing whatever it is Jesus asks of us, when he asks it.
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