LUKE 9:57-62

Context:

Luke 9 is a major turning point in the Gospel. Up to this point, Jesus has been ministering around Galilee — teaching, healing, casting out demons, feeding the five thousand, and revealing who he is. Peter has just confessed that Jesus is “the Christ of God” (9:20). Immediately after that confession, Jesus begins to explain that he must suffer, be rejected, killed, and raised (9:22). Then in verse 51, we’re told that he “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” From here on, Jesus is deliberately walking toward the cross. Luke 9:57–62 happens on that road.

Pray
Before reading, pause and pray. Ask God to give you open eyes and an honest heart. This is not a comfortable passage, and it’s easy to keep it at arm’s length. So pray that the Spirit would gently but clearly show you where Jesus might want to challenge or encourage you today.

Read Luke 9:57-62

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “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 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus[a] said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

  1. What aspects of this passage do you initially fine Interesting, surprising or challenging?

  2. In each interaction, what are the costs that Jesus says will be associated in following him?

  3. How does Jesus challenge people’s ideas of what is most urgent or important

  4. What would be the danger or risk in starting to follow Jesus without knowing what it might entail?


Read This quote from John Piper

There is a mind-set in the prosperous West that we deserve painfree, trouble-free existence. When life deals us the opposite, we have a right not only to blame somebody or some system and to feel sorry for ourselves, but also to devote most of our time to coping, so that we have no time or energy left over for serving others. This mind-set gives a trajectory to life that is almost universal—namely, away from stress and toward comfort and safety and relief. Then within that very natural trajectory some people begin to think of ministry in these terms and find ways of serving God inside the boundaries set by the aims of self-protection. Then churches grow up in this mind-set, and it never occurs to anyone in such a community of believers that choosing discomfort, stress, and danger might be the right thing—even the normal, biblical thing—to do.

  1. How is our default trajectory different from the road Jesus is walking?

  2. In what ways do we define obedience inside the boundaries of self-protection?

  3. Where might a desire for comfort be limiting your obedience to Jesus?

Read Luke 9:21-24

21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

  1. How do these verse’s provide clarity on how following Jesus is not merely ‘costly’ but also ‘worth it’?

  2. How does Jesus own willingness to do hard things encourage us in our Journeys?

  3. Are there any areas of life at the moment where you are struggling with the cost of following Jesus?

    PRAY AND CONSIDER EASTER INVITES

    In addition to praying for areas of life that people are currently struggling, conclude your time by sharing the names of any people in your life that you might have an oppurtunity to Invite to church this Easter, whether it be family members, friends, neighbours or co-workers.
    We would love to see 100 non-members receive invites to an Easter Service this year.

    Have someone record these names so you can continue to pray for them over coming weeks.