Devotion: Hand to the Plow (Luke 9:51-62)

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51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." 

Most of us have never touched a hand plow, let alone used one for plowing. So most of us have no idea of just how hard it is to plow a row using a plow that is being pulled along by an animal. Not only is the work physically demanding, it takes a lot of concentration and skill to plow the rows straight enough to make good use of the available land. The key to plowing straight rows is to pick a fixed object at the end of the row and to keep looking forward as you plow. Looking around at the scenery will make for wavy, troubling rows. Looking back will make for crooked, useless rows.

When Jesus said that whoever puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62), He was making use of an activity that was part of everyday life for the people listening to Him. They knew that someone who kept looking back while plowing was not fit for the job. The same is true for those who commit to following Jesus but keep looking back at what they have given up in order to follow Him. The Christian life is a calling to a radically different way of living, one which requires us to leave behind the ways of this world that we previously followed in order to be faithful and effective servants of Jesus. He is telling us that anyone who looks back to what he has left behind for the sake of the Kingdom is not fit for working in that Kingdom.

Is the call to follow Jesus really so radical? Many people who consider themselves followers of Jesus follow Him in a way that is more aptly described as a willingness to accommodate Him to some degree into their existing lives. In other words, they are open to imitating Jesus by incorporating His teachings and His examples into the way that they live, at least to the point that it is practical and reasonable to do so. But the word "follow" goes far beyond this understanding. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament describes the Greek word that is translated "follow" as “not in any sense an imitation of the example of Jesus, … but exclusively a fellowship of life and suffering with the Messiah which arises only in the fellowship of His salvation.” Jesus' interactions with those who would follow Him on their terms show us that His call to follow is a radical calling. Following Jesus includes the willingness to leave one's home, family, and possessions, if necessary. It may involve breaking off friendships and ending associations. It could even mean terminating our employment and seeking a new occupation. There is no one answer to what it means to follow Jesus. His call comes to each of us in different contexts and varying circumstances. But we can be sure that it is always a radical call.

Elisha's story demonstrates the radical nature of the call to follow Jesus. Called by Elijah to be his successor while he literally had his hands to the plow, Elisha understood that he would have to leave his current life behind in order to be faithful to his new calling. After saying good-bye to his parents, Elisha cut himself off from his old life by slaughtering his oxen and burning his plow to cook their meat. He had committed himself to putting his hand to the plow of God's kingdom in a way that kept him from looking back. Is it possible that Jesus wants us to put our hands to the plow in the same way that Elisha did? Does He really expect us to radically change our lives in order to follow Him? In a word, yes. All who would follow Jesus are called to abandon those things that tie them to the world in order to be effective servants in His Kingdom — and to look forward in faith without looking back. And all who look back are unfit to follow Jesus. But look back we do.

The truth is that we are unfit for service in the Kingdom of God. We are too tied to the world and its ways, too weak in faith, too addicted to comfort and material security to follow Jesus without looking back. But that's Jesus' point. For all who would follow Him on their terms, confident of their worthiness to be His disciples, there is no place in the Kingdom. But for those who would despair of their weaknesses, confess the ways in which they look back, seek the righteousness that Christ alone can provide, and cling to the grace of God as their only source of hope, the Kingdom is flung wide open. By that grace we are included in "a fellowship of life and suffering with the Messiah" who resolutely set His face toward Jerusalem and the Cross for our salvation -- and never looked back.