Following JesusНамуна

Day 3 Devotional:

Distracted from Following Jesus

From verses 57 to 61, three short conversations that Jesus had with three nameless men show us the second common response to following Jesus. This is the response of being distracted from following Jesus by the things and concerns of this world.

The first conversation occurs in verse 57. Here, a man approached Jesus to eagerly express an interest in following Him. From the reply Jesus gave to this man, we get the impression that this man did not really mean what he was saying, and that he was just being rash and impulsive. There are many people like that in our churches today.

The second conversation takes place in verse 59. Christ initiated the conversation with this second nameless man, inviting the man to follow Him. The man replied by saying: Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

In this verse, the tenses used in the original Greek text indicates that this man’s father was not dead. His answer was therefore just a way of putting off the decision to follow Jesus. This man was saying, in effect, let me wait until my father has died and I have done my duty as a son by burying him. This might be many years away. This man was obviously using his family responsibilities as an excuse to procrastinate the decision to follow Jesus.

Again, there are many people today who will tell you, I’m too young now to follow Jesus. I want to live my life and have a good time. They say this as if they know how long God has given them to live in this world. Others, who may not be so young, but who are having a nice and comfortable life, also see no need at all for God in their lives.

The third conversation is in verse 61. Here, we see a third person also expressing an interest in following Jesus. This third person asks Jesus to first be allowed to go back and say good-bye to their family.

Jesus’ response to this person was based on His divine discernment of this person’s real motive of procrastination because we know that Jesus did not teach us that in order to follow Him, we must forsake our normal everyday responsibilities to our families and our daily lives.

These three people represent the excuses people make who allow themselves to be distracted from following Jesus by the things of this world.

So, we can summarise our second D from this passage by saying that, like these three nameless people in this passage, it is quite easy to be distracted from following Jesus by the things of this world.