Luke And Oswald

I've had some interesting meditations today.

Let's start with the book of Luke, Chapter 9, verses 57 through 62. They say:

 ⁵⁷As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

 ⁵⁸Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

 ⁵⁹He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

 ⁶⁰Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

 ⁶¹ Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."

 ⁶²Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

This is what Luke wrote, in his Gospel, in Chapter 9.

It is very disturbing, to take in what it could really mean, and it also gives rise to some disturbing questions.

But before I get into that, let me share with you that I was pointed to this passage by today's devotional in the Oswald Chambers book, My Utmost For His Highest. If you like, you can read today's passage (September 27) by clicking here. (If you do, then you can use the back arrow, or Alt-Left Arrow to return to this page.)

In this passage, Chambers writes, "Jesus Christ has no tenderness whatever for toward anything that is going to ruin a man in the service of God."

This is borne out in verse 62 of Chapter 9, where Jesus essentially tells us that if you feel you are called to serve God, but feel you must first bury a beloved relative or even stop to say goodbye to your spouse and children, then you are letting worldly concerns come ahead of your dedication to God, and so are not fit to serve in His kingdom.

This brings me to the disturbing question: just what did Jesus mean in verse 62? What did He mean by "fit" to serve? And what did He mean by "service in the kingdom of God"?

And what did Chambers mean in his writing?

I will study more on this, and counsel with friends, and will post here (later) some of the results. Please, if you are reading this, feel free to post here your own thoughts in the COMMENTS section (I need to approve all comments - too many spammers out there - so it may take a day or so for your comments to appear), or send me an email with your comments (I'll post them here), and maybe together we can all learn something important.

I will start by speculating that when Jesus said that anyone who hesitates, even for supposedly valid reasons, in their walk to service, isn't fit for service, perhaps he meant that the person was not yet READY for such service.

As for "service in the Kingdom of God," that one has me perplexed a bit. I see such service as daily relatonships with people, daily ministerings to family, to friends, and to strangers.

However, the way I read Chambers, it seems he interprets this service as a total giving up of all self, perhaps even to the point of not worrying about where your next meal will come from, and simply go where the Spirit of God leads you.

This seems as though it is a very worthy goal, but only practical for a very few. For the majority of people, even for the majority of devout Christians, it seems the more mundane, everyday ministerings we do, things we do to bless family and friends and acquaintances and strangers, these things are "service in the kingdom of God," and I'd hate to think I was "not fit" to do them, simply because I have the human failing of wanting to bury my father first, or to have the consideration to say goodbye to my wife before I leave on even a short journey of service.

This is the reason these verses of Luke, and Chambers' meditations on them, have caused me a bit of disturbance, and will probably be something I will discuss and think about until I feel comfortable that I know what is really meant here.

What do you think is meant?

(To be continued...)