I was in seminary for ten years. In that time I saw the same, recurring scene almost every semester. Trucks and cars and moving vans came carrying the possessions of men and women to seminary. Some of them had rather meager possessions. Others came with an incredible collection of things. Many were young families but some were older. Most came out of college but some came out of successful business and careers. All of them came with a sense of call. Yet, at the end of every semester, many of those same people backed up their things and left. They were often broken, occasionally their wife had left them. Some missed their family and friends. Others missed their nice homes and the things they gave up. Some missed the prestige of the job they gave up. They understood the call but they did not understand discipleship.

For whatever reason we don’t really want to understand discipleship. Discipleship intrudes on us. We want the benefits of salvation but we don’t want the demands. However, we can’t have one without the other. And if we don’t have the discipleship, I am in doubt that we have the salvation.

Our lifestyles betray us. We are far too busy for our own good. We allow anything and everything, even good things to keep us from living the life of a disciple. We enrich our lives with material things and the opportunities that money can buy and somewhere along the way, they become a substitute for Christian living.

The 19^th century Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkagaard once said; "I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, "If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me." "And I looked around and nobody was laughing."

We may not understand Kierkagaard because we too are so compromised by our culture. We think we serve God. We don’t see what our materialism has done to us. We think we can have our cake and eat it too. So, let me ask you this important question. Are you really following Jesus?

Jesus had set his face toward Jerusalem. Jesus had his game face on. It was time for the battle and nothing was going to distract him from his destination. He was going to Jerusalem to die on the cross where he would defeat, sin, Satan and the grave. It was also a time when the would-be follower discovered what it really meant to follow Jesus. Jesus had a single-minded purpose and all of those who would follow him will have the same mind.

Along the way, one person stopped Jesus and volunteered to join him. "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus said that a fox has his den and the birds have their nests but I have nothing. The implication is, if you want to follow me, you have to do the same. Do you really follow Jesus? Or, do you have so much that you are distracted? Have you ever noticed that God is good to us and gives things to enjoy and we almost always allow those things to get in our way of following Jesus? Have any of the blessings that God gave you caused you to put the things of God on hold?

Another person came by and Jesus issued a call to him, "Follow Me." The response was favorable, but it was conditional, "Permit me to go and bury my father." In that culture, there was nothing more important than burying your father. This would require a man to stay close to home until the end of his father’s life. It superceded everything and it was a scandal if this practice was not heeded. So, it sounds like this man is being a good citizen of his culture.

But, notice the terse, rude response of Jesus; "Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." Jesus is not telling us to hate our parents or be irresponsible. What He is saying is that following him takes priority even over culture. Cultural demands cannot take precedent. Historical memory cannot bog us down. No matter what culture thinks you or the Church should do, we must follow Christ. To follow Jesus means to say no to culture.

Another man came to him and said, "I will follow you." But it too was a conditional statement. "I will follow you but first let me say good-bye to my family." This one may be the hardest for us to understand. We understand that we should deny ourselves. We can see the point of denying culture. Are we to understand that Jesus takes priority even over our families? Jesus never said that the choice was between him and the Devil. But on more than one occasion, Jesus said we must choose him over family. Family is the most basic of all units. Without family, we would be no where. But, when it comes to following Jesus and pursuing the Kingdom of God, not even family can come first. Everything must be distant second if we are to follow Christ. To follow Christ means to say no even to our family.

Following Jesus is costly isn’t it. But we often treat salvation as if it were free for the taking, free without cost. It is a kind of cheap grace that we want. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said:

I am afraid that we have cheapened grace by allowing things, culture and even family to have precedent over following Jesus. Let me tell you what scares me about this. We cheapen grace by abusing the material gifts that God gives us. But what I have discovered is that our sovereign God will not let us abuse him forever. I am afraid that God will take away his blessings, his material blessings, his spiritual blessings and even our physical blessings. We cannot cheapen God’s grace for long, it is too precious to God.

Jesus used the idea of plowing a field to sum up the seriousness of discipleship. "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Your plow a straight furrow, not by looking back and watching the plow, but by looking forward at a landmark. Jesus is our landmark. We can’t look back, there is nothing behind us that is worth the look. Jesus is the prize that we seek.

Our focus must be on Jesus. We cannot forget our history, we need to remember where we have been. But, we cannot spend our time looking back. We should not be the same people we were twenty years ago, 10 years ago or even two years ago. We are in the process of being made holy and conformed into the likeness of Christ. If we are following Christ with all of hearts, minds, souls and strength, then we should be closer to God than we were in the past. We cannot look back longingly to our past for our relationship with God. It is always in the present. To look back and longing for the past is to miss the mark, to plow a crooked row.

Have you been asked to use your home to the glory of God and you said no? Have you let the camp keep you from serving God? Have you let family issues take precedent over God issues? Have you refused to teach or serve because you did not want to yield your time to God? Have you spent more time enjoying the glory of your favorite sport rather than sharing the glory of your Lord? Have you been looking back?

When God calls us to salvation, he calls us to die. We die to ourselves, to our things, to our culture and even to our family. Following Jesus is all demanding. We have put our hands to the plow, there is no looking back. Looking back only messes us up. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.