Luke 9:51-62:  “Jesus Heads To Jerusalem / Commands Three men to follow, However Each Has An Excuse For Putting Off This Decision”

By

Jim Bomkamp

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1.     INTRO:

 

1.1.                     In our last study, we looked at verses 28-50 of chapter 9.

 

1.1.1.  Jesus was transfigured into glory.

 

1.1.2.  Jesus cast a demon out of a boy who had epilepsy.

 

1.1.3.  Jesus corrected His disciples when they were arguing about who among them might be the greatest.

 

1.2.                     In our study today, we are going to look at verses 51-62 of chapter 9.

 

1.2.1.  Jesus begins to head with His disciples to Jerusalem.

 

1.2.2.  The Samaritans will not receive Him on this trip and James and John come to Jesus asking His permission to command fire to come down out of heaven and consume the Samaritans.

 

1.2.3.  Jesus commands three different men to leave all and follow Him, however because of each man’s response Jesus explains to them that they are not fit for His kingdom and for following Him.

 

2.     VS 9:51  - “51 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;” -  Jesus “set His face” to go to Jerusalem

 

2.1.                     The phrase with this Greek word translated ‘determined’ here really means that Jesus “set his face” to go to Jerusalem, as some translations bring out.

 

2.2.                     This verse indicates that we are now in the final phase of Jesus’ ministry, the trip to Jerusalem for that last Passover before His crucifixion. 

 

2.3.                     This verse also indicates clearly that Jesus knew from the beginning what His mission on earth was to be.  Jesus did not come to be just a prophet, He did not come to be just a moral teacher, He did not come to be just a healer and miracle worker, though He is all of these par excellence.  Jesus mission was primarily to be the one who would come and take the debt of the world’s sin upon Himself.  He came to be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” as John the Baptist testified of Him.

 

2.4.                     Jesus knew that going to Jerusalem was a very perilous undertaking for the religious leaders there had long been plotting a way that they might be able to kill Him.  Going to Jerusalem would place Him right in their hands.  In spite of knowing all of this, Jesus, because of His incredible love for mankind, was undaunted in His mission to go straight into the eye of the hurricane and thereby take the brunt of the world’s fury of hate against God, becoming that sin sacrifice for mankind.

 

3.     VS 9:52-56  - “52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.” -  A Samaritan village refused to receive Jesus and His party and James and John asked Jesus if they should command fire to come down from heaven and destroy the city

 

3.1.                     Jesus had previously ministered to the people in Samaria.  In these verses, we see that as Jesus and His party were planning their journey from Capernaum in upper Galilee to Jerusalem, that they planned to go through the area of Samaria.  Jesus had spent some time with His disciples in Samaria, for instance, John records in chapter 4 of his gospel the ministry that Jesus had in the life of the woman of Samaria.  In that account, Jesus asked the woman of Samaria for a drink and then told her that everyone who drank of the water she got for Him would thirst again, but whoever received of the water that He had to give would never thirst again for that water would become a well springing up to eternal life.  Jesus then began to prophetically reveal to this woman things about her life and that she had done.  Jesus then told the woman directly that He was the promised Messiah.  This woman then left Jesus and began to proclaim to the people of Samaria far and wide about this man Jesus and the things that He had done in her life.  Many came to hear Jesus because of the testimony of this woman, and many who came ended up believing in Jesus for salvation.  However, in spite of this ministry by Jesus to the Samaritans they now reject Him.

 

3.2.                     As we read the John chapter 4 account mentioned above we find that Jesus disciples were shocked that Jesus would talk with a Samaritan because the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans (John 4:9).  There was prejudice throughout Israel against the Samaritans because to the Jews the Samaritans were half-breed Jews and therefore unclean.  In 2 Kings 17:24-35, we read the story of how this prejudice came about, for sometime around 925 B.C., after the northern kingdom was taken into captivity by the Assyrians, the Assyrian king brought in pagans to settle in the cities in Samaria, and they intermingled their religion with the religion of the Jews, “24 The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and Sephar-vaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 At the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. 26 So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Take there one of the priests whom you carried away into exile and let him go and live there; and let him teach them the custom of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. 29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places. 33 They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile. 34 To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel; 35 with whom the Lord made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them.”

 

3.3.                     So, we see here that the reason given for why the Samaritan’s did not receive Jesus and His disciples, allowing them lodging for a night, was because He was determined to go to Jerusalem.  In other words, because the Samaritans hated the Jews so much, when they found out that Jesus wanted to stay with them in His route to Jerusalem, they disallowed lodging for Him and His disciples.  The people rejected Jesus because of hatred of the Jews.

 

3.3.1.  It is sad what people sometimes do because of prejudice.  Many times people reject Jesus because of prejudicial attitudes towards those who are Christians or who bring them the good news.  Many reject Christianity in our day because they hate the Jews and Christianity and Jesus came about from the Jews.

 

3.4.                     In the gospels we see a mixed bag in regard to the Samaritans, for Jesus inferred both good and bad regarding them.  It was the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33) that Jesus commended as an example of loving others as you love yourself.  Yet, only one of the ten Samaritan lepers whom Jesus healed turned back to tell Him thank you (Luke 17:26). 

 

3.5.                     James and John in our story were given the name “Sons of Thunder” at some point, and many believe that it was because of the events of this story.  They received this name because of their approach to situations, including this one here.  When James and John realize that the Samaritans are unwilling to receive Jesus and their group, they come to Jesus in order to get permission to pray and command fire to come down out of heaven and destroy the Samaritans. 

 

3.6.                     We are shocked when we read James’ and John’s request of Jesus and yet when we consider the history of the church and the things that have been done in the Name of Jesus, this should not surprise us.  I wonder how many church board meetings have come up with a resolution that is just as chilling as this request by James and John.

 

3.7.                     James and John were genuinely interested in honoring the Name of Jesus, and this is a good motivation for the things that we do in our life.  However, their zeal on this day was “misguided zeal.”  Though part of the character of the Lord includes that He is a God of wrath and judgment, He is very patient with mankind and slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness.  Wrath and anger are the Lord’s last option for dealing with His creation that is in rebellion against Him, not His first.  Here, Jesus was coming to bring redemption to mankind by the sacrifice of Himself.  He was coming to save mankind not judge them.  Jesus tells James and John, ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are of.’  Their heart and their response did not at all match the Lord’s heart and response to rebellious mankind.  The Lord reaches out to the lost and rebellious, but these men wanted to destroy them.

4.     VS 9:57-58  - “57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”” -  A man tells Jesus that He will follow Jesus wherever He goes, and Jesus tells the man of the humble conditions that Jesus’ lives under

 

4.1.                     This is the first of three men who in succession are commanded by Jesus to follow Him yet who by their response to Jesus’ commission are rebuffed by Jesus as being unfit for being His disciple.  The story of these three men reveals the truth of “the urgency and importance of Jesus’ commission of His church” as well as “the importance of obedience to Jesus.”

 

4.2.                     From this man’s words we would think that he is fit to be a disciple of Jesus for he tells Jesus that he is willing to go with Jesus wherever the Lord wanted to go.  However, evidently this man is discouraged from following Jesus after Jesus tells the man what humble circumstances he would have to endure if he should become a follower of Jesus.

 

4.3.                     Jesus explains to this man that of all of the creatures on this earth, including foxes and birds, Jesus has no home and owns nothing to call His own.  Jesus is totally at the mercy of the Father to provide all of the necessities of life for Him, food, water, clothing, a place to sleep, etc.

 

4.4.                     When we consider Jesus’ life, we realize that this earth was not His home.  He was always homeless.  In fact, Jesus gave up all of His possessions as God the Son from all eternity to come and be born upon this earth.  This earth was never Jesus’ home, His home was heaven.  Jesus was just passing through this earth on a mission from the Father to redeem mankind.

 

4.5.                     In saying these things to this man, Jesus is also implying that the follower of His will likewise not have this earth as his home, thus he too will be homeless.  The true Christian will always be a pilgrim and a stranger upon the earth.  Just like Jesus, a follower of Jesus will likewise have to learn to depend upon the Lord to provide all of the necessities of life for him. 

 

4.6.                     Jesus spoke to the heart of this man, for from the man’s words there is nothing that we can see that would cause us to believe that he was not willing to humble himself and live in humble circumstances depending wholeheartedly upon the Lord to provide all for him.  Yet, evidently this man was not willing to deny himself and not willing to live under such humble circumstances where he would have to be totally dependent upon the Lord’s provision. 

 

4.6.1.  Oh Christian are you totally dependent upon the Lord to provide for you?  Are you content in whatever circumstances you find yourself in?  Have you lost control of your life o Jesus?  This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

 

5.     VS 9:59-60  - “59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”” -  Jesus commands a second man to follow him but this man asks permission to first go and bury his father, but Jesus tells the man to let the dead bury their own dead

 

5.1.                     This man who is commanded by Jesus to come and to follow Him appears to have a very legitimate excuse for putting off leaving all to follow Jesus.  He wants to go and to bury His father. 

 

5.2.                     Funerals are important events, especially for God’s people.  Funerals in Israel were performed on the same day that a person passed away.  Because it is hard to conceive how that Jesus would not allow someone to take his father who had just died and give him an honorable and proper funeral, many believe that this man’s father may not yet be dead and thus that the man is really putting off following Jesus until His father finally dies and the family’s inheritance is settled.

 

5.3.                     I believe that this man, as well as the next man whom Jesus commands to follow Him, have what we might consider legitimate excuses for not leaving all and following Jesus right away.  We can hardly fault them.  Why then was Jesus’ response so exacting or demanding?  

 

5.3.1.  I think the answer to this question probably involves the fact that more so than disallowing these two men from burying their father or saying good-bye to those at home, is that what He is really doing is warning them.  Jesus is trying to tell these two men the kinds of things that as His disciples they need to be careful of, the kind of things that cause a disciple to give up following Jesus.

 

5.3.2.  It is obvious that to the Lord discipleship is not something to be entered into lightly.  It is the commitment of one’s whole life to Jesus, and it is a commitment that is to last an entire lifetime.  It does not help a person if he/she follows Jesus for a period of time, even many years, if one day he/she just turns away from the Lord and ends up rejecting Christ. 

 

5.3.3.  It is obvious also that to the Lord there is a great importance and urgency to discipleship.  The Lord loved mankind to such a great extent that He laid everything down that we might be saved.  The Lord also purchased our lives at Calvary and He sends us out now to be His disciples and to preach the gospel to the lost all over the world.  Unsaved people are constantly dying to spend eternity in hell and yet each one’s loss is a tragic and needless loss because there is a cure, a remedy, for mankind’s sin, and that remedy is the message of the cross and the salvation that people can have in Christ.  Jesus tells this man in essence that he needs to get busy following Jesus because the gospel message needs to get out to a dying and needy world.

 

5.3.4.  Someone once said, “A Christian is a mind through which Christ thinks; a heart through which Christ loves; a voice through which Christ speaks; a hand through which Christ helps.”

 

5.3.5.  Annie Johnston Flint once wrote the following poem titled, “Christ Has No Hands” :

 

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today,

He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way

He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

We are the only Bible the careless world will read,

We are the sinner’s gospel; we are the scoffer’s creed;

We are the Lord’s last message, given in word and deed;

What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?

What if our hands are busy with other work than His?

What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?

What if our tongue is speaking of things His lips would spurn?

How can we hope to help Him or welcome His return?

 

5.3.6.  In Luke 14:28-30, Jesus taught the importance of counting the cost of discipleship before one decides to follow Him as His disciple, “8 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”  When preaching on these verses, Spurgeon, the great English preacher of a century and a half ago said, “The discourse before us reminds us of Gideon’s process of diminishing that vast but motley host of which the Lord said, “The people are too many for me.” After having bidden the faint-hearted go, he next brought down the remaining thousands to the river, and bade them drink; and then only kept for himself those who lapped in a certain peculiar manner, which indicated their zeal, their speed, their energy, and their experience. Our Lord tested his followers that he might have only those remaining who would be fit for the conquest of the world. To carry his precious treasure he would select vessels whom grace had made fit for his use, the rest he could dispense with.  Our Lord Jesus was far too wise to pride himself upon the number of his converts; he cared rather for quality than quantity. He rejoiced over one sinner that repented, but ten thousand sinners who merely professed to have repented would have given him no joy whatever. His heart longed after the real, he loathed the counterfeit; he panted after the substance, and the shadow could not content him. His fan was in his hand with which to thoroughly purge his floor, and his axe was laid to the root of the trees to hew down the fruitless. He was anxious to leave a living church like good seed-corn in the land, as free as possible from all admixture. Hence in this particular instance one might even think that he was repelling men rather than attracting them to his leadership; but, indeed, he was doing nothing of the kind. He understood right well that men to be truly won must be won by truth, that the truest love is ever honest, and that the best disciple is not he who joins the class of the great Master in a hurry, and then afterwards discovers that the learning is not such as he expected, but one who comes sighing after just such knowledge as the teacher is prepared to give. Moreover, our Lord knew what sometimes we may forget — that there is no heartbreak in the world to the godly worker like that which comes of disappointed hopes, when those who have said, “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,” turn back unto perdition, and when the hot breath which shouted “Hosanna!” turns into the cruel, cold-blooded cry, “Crucify him! crucify him! “Nothing is more injurious to a church than a large dilution with halfhearted members, and nothing more dangerous to the persons themselves than to allow them to put on an untrue profession.  Therefore did the Master take most care at the time when that care was most needed, that none should follow him under misapprehension, but should be made fully aware of what was meant by being his disciples, so that they should not say afterwards, “We have been misled; we have been beguiled into a service which disappoints us.” Unlike the enlisting sergeant, who sets forth all the glories of military service in glowing colors in order to gain a recruit, the great Captain of our salvation would have his followers take all things into consideration before they cast in their lot with him.”

 

5.4.                     This man was postponing following Jesus because of great concern, or rather undo regard, for his family.  There have been many people who would have followed Jesus but their father, mother, or some family member discouraged them from doing so.  Though the Lord does not want us to disrespect our family, we must never let our love of family get in the way of our following the Lord.  We must also never let our love for the Lord be eclipsed by our love for anything else, including even our own family, as Jesus taught in Luke 14:26, “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.”

 

5.5.                     What was Jesus referring to when He said here, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead’ ? 

 

5.5.1.  Some have said that Jesus is telling His disciples that if anyone comes to follow Him that he must disown his own mother, father, and family.   However, this is not what was meant, nor is it what was practiced by Jesus’ disciples.

 

5.5.2.  Obviously, this verse cannot be taken in a completely literal fashion because of the fact of the impossibility of a dead person burying another dead person.

 

5.5.3.  I believe that this verse teaches something that is a theme in the apostle Paul’s New Testament epistles.  I believe that Jesus is referring here to people who are “spiritually dead.”  In Eph. 2:1-3, Paul wrote of the fact that before any person has come to Christ he/she was formerly a spiritually dead person, “1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”  All of the unsaved on the earth are the walking dead.

 

6.     VS 9:61-62  - “61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”” -  A third man tells Jesus that he will follow Him but asks permission to first go back and to say goodbye to those at home, and Jesus tells the man that a person who looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven

 

6.1.                     In this passage, we see that this third man simply wants to be able to go and to say good-bye to his loved ones at home before leaving all behind to come and to follow Jesus.  What could be wrong with doing this?

 

6.1.1.  I believe that the danger in going back to say good-bye is that there will be a temptation to change his mind and turn back from leaving all to follow Jesus.  In our following of Jesus as His disciple, each of us as Christians must have the attitude that we are committing our entire life to Jesus and there is no turning back.  After all, Jesus tells us here that no one who looks back after putting his hand to the plow is ‘fit’ for His kingdom.

 

6.1.2.  As we look in the scriptures, we see that there were many who turned back from following the Lord.  For instance, after the Exodus Israel turned back from following the Lord (Exod. 16:3), and Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt for disobeying the Lord and looking back towards Sodom as the angels were driving Lot’s family out of Sodom so that the city might be destroyed (Gen. 19:26).

 

6.1.3.  Some people fall away from the Lord after initially professing a saving faith in Him because they simply really never made a clean break from sin and their old sinful life.  They tried to hold onto this sin or that habit when they knew it was wrong in God’s sight, and then, they eventually turned completely back from obedience and faith in the Lord as a result.  It is very dangerous and foolish to look back to our old B.C. life. 

 

6.1.4.  “When Cortez landed at Vera Cruz in 1519 to continue his conquest of Mexico, he had a small force of only 700 men. He purposely set fire to his fleet of 11 ships. His men on the shore watched their only means of retreat sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. With no means of retreat, there was only one direction to move, forward into the Mexican interior to meet whatever might come their way,” Walter Henricksen, Disciples Are Made - Not Born.  As Jesus’ disciple each of us should settle it in our minds that there shall be no retreat for we have burned the boats to our old B.C. life.

 

6.2.                     Preaching more about the importance of counting the cost of following Jesus, Spurgeon once said, False religion comes and goes; true regeneration is never repeated, and it is the commencement of a life which will loom no end, either in time or in eternity. Anything which is to last must be expensive. You shall get your glass coloured, if you will, cheaply, but the sun will soon remove all its beauty. If you would obtain a glass which shall retain its color for centuries every single step in the process of its manufacture will be costly, involving much labor and great care. So is it with true religion. You may get it cheap if you will, it will look quite as well as the real thing, and for a little while it will bring you almost all the comfort and respect which the genuine article would have brought you; but it will not last; soon will its color fly, and the beauty the excellence, which were there but in presence, will soon have gone. You want, dear friend, (I am sure you do), you want a godliness which will last you till you die: well, then, it must cost you something, be you sure of that…Is there any getting to heaven without this cost? No. But may we not be Christians without these sacrifices? You may be counterfeits, you may be hypocrites, you may be brethren of Judas, but you cannot be real Christians. This cost is unavoidable, it cannot be bated one solitary mite. God grant you may be enabled to submit to it.””

 

7.     CONCLUSIONS:

 

7.1.                     As we consider this message and what Jesus taught us, we need to remember to be careful in how we go about being Jesus’ disciple. 

 

7.1.1.  We must make a clean break with sin and the old life.

 

7.1.2.  We must never look back to the old life, the old way of looking at things, the old sinful attitudes and habits.

 

7.1.3.  We have a commission to go into all of the world and preach the gospel to all creation, and we must never lose sight of this.

 

7.2.                     We Christians need to take a serious look at how seriously the Lord considers becoming a disciple in Him.  For we who become disciples, there is a work to be done in our lives and in the world  Praying a prayer to receive salvation is just one step among thousands that a Christian will make throughout His life.  There is an urgency and a seriousness that we Christians need to have in our walk with the Lord.

 

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