Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 9.

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I am not sure I ever thought about the fact that Luke recounts Jesus as saying, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  This is not just put your life on the line for Jesus once.  He tells us to do it today, then do it again tomorrow, and the day after that.  That also makes me interpret the phrase differently.  I have always thought that “carrying your cross” meant doing work which leads to your death.  I still think that is the case, but I realized that Jesus was telling us to do the work that leads to our death, then, if we are still alive, pick it back up and do it again the next day.

Which leads me to the exchanges Jesus had about following Him which He had with three different men at the end of today’s passage.  I want to start by noting that we do not know the outcome of these exchanges; one, two, or all three, of these men may have ended up being disciples.  All too often, I see these men used as examples of people who failed the “test”.  Yes, all three men underestimated the cost of following Jesus, as many of us do, but nowhere does it say that they did not follow through after Jesus exposed the shallowness of their conviction.  Having said that, I want to take a look at the three points made here about following Jesus.  The first man wanted to follow Jesus, Jesus pointed out to him that he would have to give up his security.  If he followed Jesus he would not be sure where he would sleep that night.  I don’t think it is about just that.  It is the security of knowing where you will be living next week, next month, or next year that you give up when you follow Jesus.  Jesus called the second man, who said, “Sure, I’ll follow you, but not until after my father dies.”  Jesus’ answer was that we can’t wait until some indefinite day in the future.  We need to start serving God now.  Jesus also called the third man.  His response was similar, but with a little less delay.  I think his answer was, “Sure, I’ll follow you, but let me sleep on it.”  Jesus answer was that when the Spirit calls us we need to look towards the goal and focus on it.  My Dad, who grew up on a farm explained Jesus phrasing here from his experience.  He said that when you are plowing a field, you need to pick out a point on the other side of the field and keep your eye on it so that the furrow stays straight.  If you look back to see where you came from, you will cause the furrow you are plowing to wiggle.  So, keep your eyes on Jesus and follow Him without looking back.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.