“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.
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, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet 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 his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:51–62 ESV)
“The journey, Not the destination matters…” T.S. Eliot
“It’s the not the destination, it’s the journey.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
This line of thinking would shift our attention, focus and energy on the present, away from where we might be headed in life. If that is to be the case, where then do we find and maintain our resolve when faced with challenges? How can we not waver?
The Christian walk is one where resolve is essential; if we are to follow Jesus, then we must walk as he did, with our faces set toward our destination. In the life of the Christian, the destination matters more than the journey; it is knowing the destination that gives us the resolve for our journey.
It is being assured of our destination that helps us able to follow Christ with steadfastness, and without wavering under the challenges we will experience during our journey.
These challenges can be external in the form of persecution, but they could come in the form of financial hardship, or illness, loss or rejection. They can also come from within, as areas of our lives that hinder our walk with Christ become known to us.
Let ‘s take a closer look at today’s text:
Note the emphasis here at the beginning of the verse is not on Jesus dying, but being taken up, which covers not only his resurrection but his ascension to heaven, where he would sit at the right hand of God (Mk. 16:19; Jn. 7:33; Heb. 10:12).
Jesus was determined; he was resolute in his trek to Jerusalem. He knew what awaited him there – suffering, rejection and death – but he was looking to his final destination: his resurrection and ascension to his Father; Jerusalem was a stop on the way to that destination (Jn. 13:1).
Jesus was looking ahead to his victory over sin and death; he was looking ahead, as the writer of Hebrews tells us to: “the joy set before him” (Heb. 12:2). Because he was looking ahead to his ultimate victory, he was able to “set his face to go to Jerusalem;” he was able to proceed with resolve.
If we are to follow Christ, we must look also look to our final destination and the glory that awaits us with Christ. We must remember that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Rom. 8:18). We must remember this if we are to run the race that is set before us with resolve.
Knowing our destination gives us our resolve for the journey. It is being assured of the destination that makes us able follow Christ with steadfastness, without wavering under the challenges we will experience.
The apostle Paul knew challenges; he knew afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger (2 Cor. 6:5). He said this in that same letter:
“…we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8–10)
Paul’s resolve was fixed on Christ. If we are to follow Christ, we must look to the deliverance that awaits us, for that is where we will find our resolve.
External challenges
Why the disciples sought to make preparation for lodging in a Samaritan village is a mystery, given the tension between Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans did not accept Jerusalem as the place where God should be worshiped; they worshiped at Mount Gerazim, which was about 30 miles north of Jerusalem. Perhaps the disciples’ expectations were shaped by what happened after Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman in the village of Sychar (Jn. 4:42). At any rate, because Jesus was fixed on getting to Jerusalem, they were met with rejection.
In reaction to the Samaritan refusal to receive Jesus, James and John were ready to call down fire from heaven; all they needed was an OK from Jesus and these folks would get what they deserved. They needed to learn that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (Ja. 1:20)
When we are rejected because of our faith, we must remember that it is Christ that is being rejected. If we make the rejection about us, then we will act accordingly, with wrath and vengeance disguised as righteous indignation.
Jesus dealt with his disciples and moved on – and that’s how we are to deal with rejection, by 1) checking the state of our own hearts (Ps. 139:23-24 is a good prayer in this situation), and 2) moving on.
Internal challenges come from trying to follow Jesus on our terms, according to our expectations.
In Matthew’s account (8:19-20), the person approaching Jesus is a scribe who addresses Jesus as “Teacher.” The inference here is that the scribe was expecting a Rabbi-student relationship, where the student lives with the Rabbi and learns from him.
Jesus’ situation is such that he is always on the move, completely dependent on his Father to meet his material needs (Mt. 6:33).
Following Jesus means going where he goes, when he goes (recall how Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed Jesus (Mt. 4:20); it requires seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness and trusting God for all else. We cannot follow Jesus from a place of material comfort.
The next person wanted to delay for a present or future circumstance; we don’t know if the man’s father was still alive or already dead. Either way, Jesus tells him that being a disciple takes first priority – even over family.
To follow Jesus means to place him first, in all things and over all relationships.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Mt. 10:37)
The next person, like the previous person, answers Jesus with “Let me first…,” but his request was backwards facing. Like Lot’s wife who was warned to not look back (Gen. 19:17), he wanted a last look at what he would leave behind before moving on with God.
During the Exodus, the Israelites constantly looked back and complained about what they left behind: “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic (Num. 11:5).
When we look back, we incur the discipline of the Lord.
That’s why Jesus’ response to this last person is sobering: “no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
To plow a field while looking back meant that the rows in that field would not be straight. The farmer kept the rows straight by focusing on an object in front and in the distance (such as a tree).
To follow Jesus is to fix our eyes on him (Heb. 12:2) to ensure that we walk the straight and narrow way, without looking back to what we leave behind. To follow Jesus is to “count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus…and count them as rubbish, in order [to] gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8).
To follow Jesus is to focus on our destination, “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
To follow Jesus is to “Set [our] minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
To follow Jesus is to remember that we “have died, and [our] life is hidden with Christ in God.
To follow Jesus is to remember “When Christ who is [our] life appears, then [we] also will appear with him in glory.”
The Saints of old saw their destination from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They were seeking a homeland. A better country – a heavenly one. Because of their faith – faith that looked to their final destination, they “quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Heb. 11:13-16; 34-38)
How do we do this? By being prayerfully in the Word of God, for that is where the promises, the covenants, the statutes and precepts that will keep us on course for our final destination are all found. The Word of God is where we go to allow the Holy Spirit to search us, to know our hearts and try our thoughts, to see if there be any grievous way in us, and to lead us in that everlasting way (Ps. 139:23-24)
“…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:1-2).
Let us fix our eyes on Christ, for he is our destination.
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