Who said “go”?

Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
Luke 9:51

 But the man replied,

 “First let me bury my father.”

“I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say goodbye to my family.”

“I have just bought a field and must go see it.” 

“I have just bought five yoke of oxen”

“I just got married, so I can’t…”

 Luke 9:57-62, and 14:15-20

What would you do if Jesus walked up to you, in the flesh, and said, “Follow me.” If you and I were like the general religious population in Israel at the time of Christ, we might have followed, or we might have been tempted to use these familiar excuses. Jesus still calls us to follow him. While we have these excuses, and a few more, we must get back to the question, “Who told us to go?” Let’s unpack these statements, starting with one I have not listed here, but which I have noticed creeping around recently.

• I don’t have the money to go
  I have recently seen people use finances as a fleece to determine whether to go on a mission venture. I am wracking my brain to find a time in Scripture where Jesus, or Paul, or God said, ‘Go if the money comes through.’ What I see instead is Scripture saying, in effect, ‘Obey, and trust me for the provision.’ In Luke 22:53 we read, “Then Jesus asked them, ‘When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?’ ‘Nothing,’ they answered.” Gideon’s fleece approach is a pre-Holy Spirit, “did God really say” approach that should not, in my view, be used as a litmus test for whether God is calling us to go on a faith venture. If God tells us to go, then we have to stand in faith, trust, and obedience and ask him to provide what is needed for the journey. We have to model the miraculous if we are to impart it.
  
  

• Burying the dead
  Staying for a family (make that your father’s) funeral sounds like a plausible excuse. But Jesus told the man, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” The man had a genuine case, a family responsibility that was the accepted thing to do, but Jesus had a higher claim: the Father’s business.
  
  

• Delay of game
  “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” We aren’t doing God any favors when we sign up to do his will. He has the right to call us and to sift us. Those who are willing to delay obedience might well be pulled off course, and never obey again. So Jesus cautions him to not “look back” even for a short while. I remember when I had the opportunity to do a second rēp trip to Ukraine back in 1993, but I was in the midst of a job change, so I did not go. The opportunity has not returned. Perhaps rēp would have been a lot further along if I had not delayed the game. Are you delaying going to that which God has called you?
  
  

• Business opportunities
  The caution here is to not let a business opportunity get in the way of following Jesus. I know the command to “do business until I come.” But this was a new business venture, an add-on to income-producing capacity, a choice to get deeper into the business rather than follow Jesus. The man in Luke 14 just had to give that 5-pack ox yoke a spin. “Jesus, I can’t follow you because I just got a new toy!” “Jesus, I can’t follow you because I have just got a new tractor, a new factory, a new product, a new whatever.” Some man gave up the unique opportunity to walk with the Creator of the universe on a journey that would change him forever so that he could tromp around in the dust behind 10 smelly oxen that would make some short-term money, but potentially cost him his eternal purpose. The man made a margin choice: he gained financial margin, perhaps, but lost the time to follow Jesus. Sad.
  
  

• I just got married
  “And didn’t God ordain marriage, say it was not good to be alone, that a man shouldn’t leave his wife to go to war in the first year… come on, you wrote the book!” Yes, he did, and the book also says (in Joel 2:16) “Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.” We are talking about interrupting a honeymoon if God says, “Now is the time.” He gets to decide.

So the big question is, “Did God really say…” or, “Who said ‘Go’?” If it was just your idea to follow Jesus into some faith venture, then sort that out. But if he told you to go and you have leaned into any of these five excuses, then beware, because you don’t know when the window of opportunity will open again. We know God is gracious, but we must recognize that for some of these people, Jesus never passed by physically again, and they never heard him say again in person, “Follow me.” How much better to have it written of us; “We have left everything to follow you!”

Reflections 

• Are you even open to the proposition that “Go!” is the default path of guidance for your life?
  
• Have you used any of the five excuses listed above as reasons to not follow the gentle nudge of Jesus?