What's in your spirit?

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

WHAT’S IN YOUR SPIRIT?

Luke 9:57-58

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 

NIV

Although this is not a direct teaching from our lord, it is a teaching nevertheless. Matthew records this conversation, but at a different place within the timeframe of the ministry of Jesus. This matters not as it is still a conversation that took place and it shows us several truths. First we see this man, who Matthew tells us is a teacher of the law who would be a learned man. Also we should note that many scholars or teachers of the Law had disciples who followed them so as to be able to have discussions about the Law and thus increase their knowledge of it. We do not know that this teacher of the law had acknowledge Jesus as the Christ or that he simply wanted to learn more. But we know by the response of Jesus this man may have had other motives for wanting to follow after Jesus. Maybe he did think Jesus was the Messiah and being a teacher of the Law he understood, even if it was incorrect, that Jesus would be setting up his kingdom to rule over and if this man would become a follower he would be among the inner circle and gain either status or perhaps even a room of his own within the palace of the Messiah. But Jesus tells him he has nothing, he has no palace, he has but the clothes on his back.  We might also gather that this man was making his claim based on what he thought he could do himself. We are not told that he was inspired by the Spirit, or that Jesus choose him, knowing his heart. So here is our lessons. We should not make a promise to the Lord we cannot keep. That is to say we should not depend on our flesh to follow Jesus. The corruptible cannot inherit the kingdom of God, which is why some day, this corruptible will put on incorruptible. We cannot follow Jesus in our human efforts, it requires the presence of the Spirit, first to convict us of our sin, and second to lead us into all truth. We need the power of the Spirit to follow Jesus, we cannot do it alone in our human condition. The other truth is in the words of Jesus saying he has no place to lay his head. If we think that becoming a follower of Jesus is going to gain us material wealth, as it seems some have from time to time, we are sadly mistaken. That is not to say God will not provide all our needs. He surely will. But what we set our heart towards is the test. Do we seek first his kingdom or do we seek it so that all these things will be added onto us as well? Do we follow Jesus because we want, or do we follow Jesus because he is Jesus, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord and Master? Do we want a special place in his kingdom? Do we want recognition, fame and fortune because we are his followers? Do we think or say, “Look what I am doing for the Kingdom”? Jesus was being humble both in his humanity and his divinity declaring he had nothing. Should that serve as a lesson for us? Certainly seems it should. Instead of looking to see “What’s in your wallet or safe” we should be looking to see what’s in our spirit.