Follow Me | Luke 9:59-60
This was originally a sermon given at Sherwood Community Friends Church on August 28, 2022. Watch the video by clicking below.
This is a clip from the 1994 movie Forrest Gump. One day, right after Jenny had vanished from his life again, Forrest gets up and starts running. As he said, he ran to the end of the road, then the town, then Greenbow county. He continued to run across Alabama and onward until he reached the ocean. Then he turned around and ran to the other ocean.
He kept running for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours.
Along the way, he garnered news attention, and there was speculation as to why he was running - world peace, the homeless, women’s rights, giving hope so on.
And he gathered company along the way. Followers. They were dedicated to follow him anywhere!
As he came to the end of his run, he turned and looked at his followers in the middle of the desert and said “I’m pretty tired. Think I’ll go home now.” The followers were upset and directionless.
Why were they upset?
They didn’t know what to do next. They had an idea in their head of what were acceptable reasons for such irrational behavior. It had to be big right? Even though Forrest kept telling everyone he just felt like running and that’s why he was doing this, others kept putting their agendas and expectations on him.
Putting Our Hopes in Jesus
Long before we saw Forrest run across the big screen, Jesus walked the earth and gathered his followers. And similarly, others put their agendas and hopes and dreams on Jesus.
The context of our story starts at the end of Luke 9. Jesus and his disciples have just been turned away from staying in a Samaritan town on their travels to Jerusalem. They are continuing along their travels and, along the road, they are gathering more people to join them with a simple invitation.
“Follow me”
This was always the simple call of Jesus. He invites us into where he is, his mission, his teaching, and his heart. And he didn’t hide his objective. It was never to overthrow the government or be their magic fairy to grant them their wishes, although that’s what others put on him.
What are some reasons why Jesus said he was here:
To do the will of the Father
To be a light in the world
To bear witness to the truth
To seek and save the lost
To give his life
Even in all of what Jesus told us about why he came to earth, not everyone was on board. Not everyone was ready to follow him.
Some might have seen this call to follow him as an audacious call of action. Who is this Jesus character to tell me to let go of everything and follow him?
Others, desperate for deeper meaning, might have over-eagerly voiced their dedication, only to realize the sacrifice that must follow. I think of the rich, young ruler in Luke 18 who just couldn’t sacrifice his riches to be all in for Jesus.
And, as we know, there were many who did follow.
August 7, 2020
August 7, 2020, was a quiet morning. I prepared my coffee and oatmeal, the Holy Spirit brought to my mind the story of Jesus and the man who had to bury his father.
This man that Jesus called out to follow him replies to Jesus’s invitation of “Follow me” with “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
His heart appears to be right. Admirable. Understandable. Noble. Of course, this seems like the right thing to do, right? Yet Jesus’ response seems uncomfortable in a good light and could even be seen as downright callus in the worst of light.
“Let the dead bury their own dead.”
Can I be candid with you? Honestly, I have struggled with this passage. Jesus was known for his compassion. Why couldn’t he have gone and healed the man’s father? We know he could have! Or at the very least, with understanding, told the man to bury his father and then meet up with them. How could his response seem to be so lacking? How could he respond in such a manner to the death of a loved one? If there was ever a valid reason to stay back, this was it.
So there I was making coffee and getting ready for my day. The day before me wasn’t just any day. The day before me was scheduled to be a day of bereavement. My dad passed away a week before shelter-at-home orders were put into place. Nearly five months after his death, we had not yet laid him to rest or had a proper service.
This day before me was to remember my dad. I was to go through old photos and belongings of his with my sister. This day wasn’t just any day that God brought this story to my mind. It was a day of laying to rest in some ways. It was also three weeks before we were to depart across the country for a move God called us into - a call to follow him - to a small town in a faraway land called… Sherwood.
I could have insisted that we stay back. I could have listed all the reasons why this wasn’t a good idea:
We haven’t buried my father yet
We are in the middle of a pandemic
We don’t know anyone there
I love my job!
All our family and friends are here
Our son only had 3 years of high school left
I know the culture, the people, and our community here
Would you agree that at least some of those could have been valid reasons to stay back? Not only were they valid reasons, but some were good reasons, GREAT reasons! But they were not GOD reasons.
Jesus’ Challenge
Jesus was cutting deep into my soul, looking past the valid excuses I had put up as a wall around my heart. He challenged me.
A cross-country move or the death of a loved one is a really big thing and can feel out of touch from our day-to-day, but God asks us to follow him every day.
To say hi to your neighbor or have them over for dinner
To bite our tongue when our spouse or parent or child nags us
To sacrifice our lattes so we can contribute to a missionary through Evangelical Friends Mission
To flip the radio to KLove instead of the Top 40s
To seek out a way to serve here at Sherwood Friends, like hosting an Alpha table or volunteering at youth group or being on our welcoming team.
To offer to pray for someone - and then actually remember to pray for them!
To set your alarm a few minutes earlier so you can say yes to a few extra minutes in prayer and in relationship with God.
What are some typical or common reasons someone might give to stay put and not follow God’s call?
I’m too busy
Others like it when I do things this way
I’m too old
I’m comfortable
It’s easier this way
I don’t like change
Does your Word really say that?
I’ve done my time
If we aren’t intentionally giving pause in our busy day-to-day lives, in our routines, in our struggles and limitations, it is easy to look up and say NO to a new opportunity when maybe God is asking us to say YES, even when it doesn’t make sense.
Good reasons are not God reasons.
Mary Fisher
In 1657, Mary Fisher was convicted to bring a message to Mahomet IV, the Sultan of Turkey. Now you might be asking, why should I care about Mary Fisher? Well, it’s partially because of Mary that you are sitting here in a Friends church in the Americas today as she was one of the earliest Quaker traveling missionaries.
Mary had many reasons to oppose this trip to the Sultan.
She had already experienced persecution for her faith, being whipped till it drew blood in England
On a trip to Boston from Barbados, where she had gone to bring the message of the Gospel and Friends, she was arrested as a blasphemer, stripped down, imprisoned in solitary confinement and starved for 5 weeks
On her trip to Turkey, the British government stopped the trip and told them to go back to England
She didn’t know the language of the Sultan
Mary was not discouraged. She went out on foot, walking 600 miles over 6 weeks …yes you heard that right - 600 miles over 6 weeks to reach the Sultan to deliver the message, where she did so. Without a translator, the Sultan understood her message!
Because of Mary’s choosing to follow Jesus, Friends made its way from England to the Americas, she delivered God’s message to the Sultan, and she was physically protected as she returned to England unharmed.
When Jesus says Follow Me, from the calls that feel big to the calls that feel small, we have a responsibility to say yes. Next week, we are going to dive into the story of Abram and how there were many GOOD reasons why he could have said no to God, how he said YES to God, and what we can learn from his story today.
As for our man today, we don’t know the outcome of his story. We don’t know if he left behind his father’s burial and followed Jesus at that moment or if he did stay back. We don’t know what becomes of his spiritual journey.
I know from my own story when we faced the choice of saying yes to coming to Oregon or saying no and staying in Illinois, admittedly, it was difficult. But by saying yes, I see how God is continuing to stretch me into the person he’s designed me to be for the sake of bringing glory to his name. By saying yes,
I have met new friends from our church, Sherwood, and yearly meeting who have changed me and challenged me
I get to explore new adventures outside in the beautiful creation God made here in the Pacific Northwest
I have a clearer path for my education, to pursue mission and outreach to make His name known
I now have the privilege of calling myself one of your pastors
And countless other things too
And many of these yeses aren’t just true for me. They are true for Bob and for Brayden too.
Letting Go of Grief to Say YES to Jesus
And even though I had struggled with this passage previously, I do understand Jesus just a little bit more now. I understand Jesus looking into the depths of this man. Jesus’ call pierced into what this man valued in his life, a good and right and noble thing like honoring his father in his death and challenging it. I can’t help but wonder...
Was the man grieving? Was he in such deep anguish and blinding grief that he couldn’t bear it?
Was he holding onto ceremony or tradition? Was he concerned about the obligation to others and how they would perceive him?
Was he looking for that viable excuse he could give so he could stay back and not follow?
No matter the motive, Jesus challenged it to move the man out of himself into God’s world, into something greater, to bring others into eternal, redemptive, resurrecting life.
“you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”
We don’t know the outcome of this man, but the passage which follows immediately in Luke 10 is Jesus sending out the 72. Jesus didn’t only invite these people into a relationship with him, to be taught by him, to pray with him, to eat with him.
He invited them in to send them out immediately with nothing into the ripe harvest field to receive hospitality, heal the sick, and proclaim the kingdom of God.
Once we are in with God, he sends us right back out.
When we say yes to Jesus will we put our own agendas on him? “I’ll follow you if…” Our choice to follow Jesus must be free of our personal agenda or expectations.
By choosing to follow Jesus, we must address the reasons we’ve been staying behind and ask ourselves - are these good reasons or God reasons?
You might find yourself in a situation where your circumstances are difficult. You aren’t in a place to walk 6 miles, let alone 6 or move across the country. But God… He can use everything in our life for his glory. Ask him how he can use you right where you are. You have access in your life and circumstances to people you may have never crossed paths with before. You have an opportunity to be the light of Jesus, in presence and word, every day.
Close your eyes and imagine Jesus is saying to you today, “Follow me. Let others be worried and consumed with the image to others, the sadness, the obligations, the difficulties. Follow me. You have a call to make an eternal impact in the here and now. You go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Follow me.”
What reasons have you been holding onto that God is asking you to set aside? How is he calling you out of your comfort zone to follow him?
