Word of the Day (2-8-12)

Good Morning Everyone

Today is Wednesday February 8^th, 2012,

The word of the day comes from

Luke 9:57-62

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Cost of Discipleship

⁵⁷ Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” ⁵⁹ Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” ⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

My Interpretation

The word will be coming from what I am learning in my bible school class this semester, The Cost of Discipleship. The book in which we are studying is entitled “The Call to Discipleship.” The chapter in which this word is taken is entitled “Grace and Discipleship” in chapter 2. The author of the book is Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The first disciple offers to follow Jesus without waiting to be called. Jesus damps his ardour by warning him that he does not know what he is doing. In fact he is quite incapable of knowing. That is the meaning of Jesus’ answer- he shows the would be disciple what life with him involves. We hear the words of One who is on his way to the cross, whose life is summed up in the Apostles’ Creed by the word “suffered.” No man can choose such a life for himself. No man can call himself to such a destiny, says Jesus, and his word stays unanswered. The gulf between a voluntary offer to follow and genuine discipleship is clear.

But where Jesus calls, he bridges the widest gulf. The second would be disciple wants to bury his father before he starts to follow. He is held bound the trammels of the law. He knows what he wants and what he must do. Let him first fulfill the law, and then let him follow. A definite legal ordinance acts as a barrier between Jesus and the man he has called. But the call of Jesus is stronger than the barrier. At this critical moment nothing on earth, however sacred, must be allowed to come between Jesus and the man he has called- not even the law itself. Now, if ever before, the law must be broken for the sake of Jesus; it forfeits all its rights if it acts as a barrier to discipleship. Therefore Jesus emerges at this point as the opponent of the law, and commands a man to follow him. Only the Christ can speak in this fashion. He alone has the last word. He would be follower cannot kick against the pricks. This call, this grace, is irresistible.

The third would be disciple, like the first, thinks that following Christ means that he must make the offer on his own initiative, as if it were a career he had mapped out of himself. There is, however, a difference between the first would be disciple and the third, for the third is bold enough to stipulate his own terms. Unfortunately, however, he lands himself in a hopeless inconsistency, for although he is ready enough to throw his lot with Jesus, he succeeds in putting up a barrier between himself and the Master. “Suffer me first.” He wants to follow, but feels obliged to insist on his own terms. Discipleship to him is a possibility which can only be realized when certain conditions have been fulfilled. This is to reduce discipleship to the level of the human understanding. First you must do this and then you must do that. There is a right time for everything. The disciple places himself at the Master’s disposal, but at the same time retains the rights to dictate his own terms. But then discipleship is no longer discipleship, but a programme of our own to be arranged to suit ourselves, and to be judged in accordance with the standards of a rational ethic. The trouble about this third would be disciple is that at the very moment he expresses his willingness to follow, he ceases to follow at all. By making his offer on his own terms, he alters the whole position, for discipleship can tolerate no conditions which might come between Jesus and our obedience to him. Hence the third disciple finds himself at loggerheads not only with Jesus, but also with himself. His desires conflict not only with what Jesus wants, but also what with what He wants himself. He judges himself, and decides against himself, and all this by saying, “Suffer me first.” The answer of Jesus graphically proves to him that he is at variance with himself and that excludes discipleship. “No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

If we would follow Jesus we must take certain definite steps. The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. The call to follow at once produces a new situation. To stay in the old situation makes discipleship impossible.

The call to follow implies that there is only one way of believing on Jesus Christ, and that is by leaving all and going with the incarnate Son of God.

The first step places the disciple in the situation where faith is possible. If he refuses to follow and stays behind, he does not learn how to believe. He who is called must go out of his situation in which he cannot believe, into the situation in which, first and foremost, faith is possible…

Have a wonderful, blessed, productive, stress free day!