Exalting God

Luke 9:57-58

“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, ‘Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.’ 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.’”

Surely Dorothy was on to something when she repeated, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”.  We have all gone on business trips or vacations and thought to ourselves at some point, “I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed.”  There is nothing wrong with such thoughts; there is a certain amount of comfort and security in having a home.  But do we put too much stock in our earthly homes?

Jesus is teaching us here that personal comfort is not necessarily a comfort that accompanies following Christ.  The immediate context of this passage places Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.  More specifically, he is physically walking from Northern Israel to the city of Jerusalem, where he will be rejected and executed as a common criminal.

Too many Christians today come to Jesus the same way this man did.  It seems obvious based on Jesus’ response that this man had not counted the cost of being a disciple of Christ.  Christ’s call to discipleship is not a flippant one. He rightly demands that we forsake the things of this world and place Him first.  This man apparently did not realize what following Christ would entail.

As a Christian some days will be wonderful; think of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-40).  Jesus entered the city to the praise of a great multitude.  “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9-10).  Now think of Christ’s crucifixion (Luke 23).  Days later the voices of praise turned to voices of insult and lies.  “Crucify, crucify him!” (Luke 23:21).  And still other days will be a mixture of both triumph and trials.  That is the pilgrimage that Jesus is calling us to embark upon.  He never said it would be easy or comfortable.  In fact, if we are truly following Christ we should be saying along with Dorothy, “there is no place like home, there is no place like home”.  However, the notable difference is this, we should be longing for our Heavenly home, not our earthly one.