In addition to my daily devotions this morning, God pointed me to a few additional scriptures that I was asked to journal and ponder.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9.57-62 (NRSV). On three occasions in this short passage Jesus gives interesting replies to the men who are seeking to follow Him. To the first, Jesus tells him that, unlike the fox and birds, he has no home, no place to rest, and if this man were to follow Jesus, it would be the same for him. It seems like he is telling this guy that he just couldn't hack it. The final two men ask, respectively, to bury his father and to say farewell to his family. These seem like reasonable requests. However, Jesus is stern with both of them, and His reply convicting. For Jesus was able to see a problem with priorities, a problem with focus. These men had something that was holding them back, something they were looking back to. To the last man Jesus replied (and upon which I would like to focus), “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” In my travels I spent a good amount of time in Lancaster Pennsylvania, Amish country. Although perhaps slightly misguided, these people are to be admired (if for nothing else, their delicious smorgasbords). They work extremely hard, still most of them without the modern technologies available to ease their work. I learned a lot in my observations and discussions with these people, about God, about farming, about life, and about food. For them, this statement would seem as absurd as it must have when Jesus said it. Plowing a field is extremely strenuous work. The rows for planting seed needed to be straight and of the same depth, requiring strength, resolve, and focus. For farmers, this was their livelihood, and they took great pride in a field that was well plowed. To look back while plowing would have been a ridiculous thought. Three disastrous results come to the plowman who would look back while plowing his field. First, the plowman will lose power. He refrains from pushing with his full strength forward in order that he may turn around. For a plowman, the degree with which he looks back would be roughly proportional to the degree of strength he loses going forward. Second, the plowman will lose direction. Once he turns to look behind him, he is no longer steering the course of the plow. The oxen, which have no set course, now determine the plow’s direction. And third, the plowman will lose focus. In order to plow the straight lines necessary for a good harvest, the plowman must fix his eyes upon a point, look straight ahead, and not lose focus of that point. By looking behind rather than being fixed ahead, the plowman will be unsuccessful in plowing a field ready for planting.
We are called to be a people of vision, and Jesus will guide and direct us in the way we should go. See Psalm 32.8 (“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”) (KJV). When we have a personal relationship with Jesus, are in communication with Him, and he is at the center of our lives, he becomes our Vision, we see with His eyes, and we can discern the path that God wants us to take. The trick is to stay focused!
But still there are things that continually make us look back – shame, guilt, pride, fear, something we love, someone we love – and when we look back, we lose our focus. Whatever turns our eye away from Christ is but a hindrance to our running the race that is set before us. What makes you look back? Pride, fear, guilt, something you possess, someone you love (see Matthew 10.34-39)? Give it to Jesus, lay it down on the altar of sacrifice, live life for Him. Only then are you truly free, only then can you truly live.
If Christ has become the object of the soul, let us lay aside every weight. In looking unto Jesus we get a motive and an unfailing source of strength. We see in Jesus the love which led Him to take the place for us. See Romans 5.8 (“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”) (NRSV). So let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12.2 (KJV).
I want to walk with God’s Vision for my life because I know He wants what is best for me, because He loves me, because He is faithful, and because He is good. When I make Him my primary desire and place him first in my life, above all else, I can walk with the vision and hope He has for me. May Jesus always be at my center, and may I never have cause to look back and lose focus of Him.
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
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