Last week we looked at the importance of hospitality in the mission of Jesus. This week we look at how Jesus calls us to radical minimum standard of being on mission with him.
57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And 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.”59To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”61Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
These are tough words. Jesus truly doesn’t understand the way to win friends and influence people. We most likely won’t be inviting him to be the greeter at the worship center.
What it comes down to is this: When we get serious about being members of the Kingdom of God there is no looking back. We move forward on mission for God’s glory. These are the radical minimum standards.
Being the church and being members of a service organization really ought to look different. Too often they don’t. A friend of mine once said that if you took the down the crosses from most worship centers nobody would be able to tell it was a place the church gathers.
We are called to be on a mission by the King.
When you are called by the King you don’t look back, you don’t say “Wait!”, you jump in and follow.
The radical minimum standards of Jesus call us to live life on mission, all the time. It is our life.
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”