The self-recommending man

In this passage, three men appear as potential disciples of Jesus. The first was a man who volunteered, saying, “I will follow You wherever You go.” That in itself was not a bad thing, but he did not understand the magnitude of the sacrifice that a disciple of Jesus must pay. With zeal alone, without rational understanding, one will inevitably stumble along the way. Jesus answered, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” In this, we catch a glimpse of the great sacrifice paid by the Son of God in becoming human. By the way, in the Bible there is another person who said, “Lord, I am ready to go with You both to prison and to death!” (Luke 22:33). That was Peter. Peter did not fully understand his own weakness nor the depth of Jesus’ grace. However, through great failure, Peter was transformed into someone truly fit to be a disciple of Jesus. Are you in a state where you cannot rise again because of past failures? Receive the forgiveness of Jesus and rise again like Peter.

The men invited by Jesus

The next two men were invited by Jesus. One answered, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father,” and the other answered, “I will follow You, Lord, but first permit me to say goodbye to those at my home.” Both responses sound reasonable. However, Jesus was not pleased with them. What was the problem? In the case of the former, it is necessary to understand that his father had not yet died. In the idiom of that region, “to bury my father” meant to take care of him until his death. In other words, this man was saying that he might consider it after several years, once his father had passed away. And what about the request to say goodbye to those at home? That, too, might not in itself be a bad thing. The problem was that his commitment was mixed with impurities and was not whole. Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Have you, recently, been looking back? Now, let us meditate on the following words: “Looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith” (Heb. 12:2).