Please explain Luke 9:59-62. "And He said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead; but go and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow You; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home in my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking book, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:59-62)
I dare say you think that this is almost heartless language, and that Jesus showed very little sympathy for human ties and human affection. How ready people are to misjudge the Lord! Always doubting, always questioning. In spite of His great goodness, of which the earth is full; in spite of His mercies reaching to the clouds, (Psalm 36:5) new every morning, (Lamentations 3:22-23) and enduring for ever, (Psalm 106:1) men meet every word of His they do not understand with a challenge. Now, as of old, He is misunderstood; and men are ready to believe any evil suggestion against Him.
I know that it is not so with you who are asking this question, but I am speaking of men in general. Let the Lord say anything that seems obscure, and many even of His disciples are ready to put the worst construction on it.
Here is where faith has an opportunity to manifest its power as a revealer of secrets. True faith in Christ will not only keep us loyal to Him, preventing as from cherishing the faintest shadow of a thought of distrust, but it will also open the way to an explanation of all difficulties. "Through faith we understand." (Hebrews 11:3)
Thus: we know that God is good, and that Christ is the embodiment of His goodness. The life of Jesus is an exhibition of Divine compassion. He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, (Hebrews 4:15) and whenever on this earth He saw want or suffering, He was moved with compassion. (Matthew 9:36; 14:14) Therefore we know that He could not say or do anything that would tend in the slightest degree to wound the feelings of anybody. His mission was and is "to bind up the brokenhearted." (Isaiah 61:1)
We are accustomed to speak of human ties and human affections; but there is no real tie, no tender affection, that is not Divine. "Love is of God." (1 John 4:7)
It is He who instituted the family relation; and that which He has joined together He will not separate or treat lightly. (Matthew 19:6) There is not in any person a single feeling of sorrow or sympathy for the suffering that is not a manifestation of the Divine compassion; no "natural affection" that is not the impulse from the heart of Him who is love.
Do not for a moment entertain the thought that He who at the grave of Lazarus wept in sympathy with the sorrow that He was in a moment to turn to joy, would say a word to wound the sensibilities of any mourner. You say, "Nevertheless He did in this case; for the words, 'Let the dead bury their dead,' would not fail to wound the heart of any mourner."
I say, no; He certainly did not; for the young man to whom He spoke was not a mourner. If the father had been lying dead at home, the son would not have been away. In Eastern countries, and especially in warm climates, burial takes place almost immediately after death. A dead body is not kept in the house for days, as with us. If the man's father had been dead, he would have been at home burying him.
The known custom of the people, together with the fact that Jesus could not say an unkind or rude thing, makes it plain that the man's request was to go home and remain until his father should die, and he could settle the affairs of the family. He knew the Gospel, else Jesus would not have called him and told him to go and preach it, and it was therefore not for him to entangle himself with the affairs of the world; the spiritually dead could attend to all that.
It is plain that if everybody who knows the Lord, and who is therefore called to preach the kingdom of God, should wait until he has settled up all worldly business, the Gospel would not be proclaimed. If the man waited until his father was dead, he would receive the property, and nothing is more natural than for a person to think that he could be much more free to preach the Gospel, if he had a good income assured to him, and ample provision were made to meet all his wants; but such is not usually the case. The preachers who have stirred the world with a message from God have invariably been poor in this world's goods. There was nothing to hide the fact of their absolute dependence on God; they had no uncertain riches in which to trust; and being obliged continually to recognize the direct hand of God in their support, they could with force teach others to have faith in God.
The lesson to be learned from the text as a whole is that God must have complete and undivided service. It is not an arbitrary demand on His part, but an absolute necessity. "You cannot serve God and Mammon." (Matthew 6:24)
It is impossible for a man to plow if he is looking backward; the plow will not stay in the ground. Whoever would plow must look straight ahead at his work, paying no attention to what is behind him. So the man who puts his hand to the Gospel work, and looks back, is not fit for the kingdom of God, because he is not doing the work of the kingdom.
Those disciples who followed Jesus to the last, and who laid down their lives for His sake, left all their possessions as soon as He called them. Peter and Andrew were casting a net into the sea when Jesus said, "Follow me, ... And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him." (Matthew 4:19-20)
They did not say, ""Wait until we have finished this catch."
They left their business to take care of itself, for they had a call which they could not resist. James and John, in the boat with their father, mending their nets, did not stay to complete the task, but "They immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him." (Matthew 4:22)
It is such prompt, unquestioning service that Jesus loves. It is not that He would have any necessary thing neglected, or that He would have anybody insufficiently provided for; but He would have everybody prove and enjoy His blessed power to supply all need.
I have in my mind at this moment a young man who, called when far away from home to go to a far more distant land to proclaim the kingdom of God, did not return home to take leave of his friends, but went at once. Others have not stayed to dispose of property, but have left their affairs for somebody else to attend to, while they gave themselves to the work to which God had called them. Such cases are not uncommon, and in no instance is the trust of such ones disappointed.
Do you say that it is "not business-like" to leave affairs unsettled? Well, the Lord knows fully as much about business as anybody, and we may be assured that no legitimate business would suffer if He had the complete management of it. All we need is to be sure of His call. If He has certainly called us to His work, then we may depend upon it that He himself will pick up any valuable thing which we have in our hands, and which we must drop in order to obey Him.
If He hasn't yet given us a definite call to engage in the public proclamation of the Gospel, then we must not run; for God will have "all things ... done decently and in order;" (1 Corinthians 14:40) but we must allow Him to be the judge of what is right and fitting. "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:6)
For, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." (2 Corinthians 9:8)
God looks at what a man is, and not at what he seems to be. What he seems to be is what men estimate him to be, and depends largely on the eyes of those who look at him; what he is, is the measure of the power and wisdom of God that is in him.
It is not position that gives authority, but authority that gives the real position. Many a humble, poor man, on earth, with never an official title to his name, has occupied a position really higher and of greater authority than that of all the kings of the earth. Authority is the unfettered presence of God in the soul.--Present Truth, June 6, 1901.