If we’re not supposed to do it, why is it there?

The curious situation of Luke writing something that no one who reads it is expected to do.

Luke 9.59-62

He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Luke 18.29-30

Peter said, “Look, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Would a pastor counsel someone to leave his children to do the work of God? If the children were adults it would not be a concern, but if they were teens, probably not, and if they were young, certainly not.

What about leaving your wife? Would a pastor counsel you to do that? The bride symbolizes the union between Christ and the Church. Can a man claim to be following God if he abandons his wife?

In what way can this statement of Christ be true if it is never followed? Christ certainly could not have meant to not take a wife, or to wait until you are widowed. That would make no sense. And a man could not take his wife and at the same time leave her for the sake of the kingdom, so there is no answer there either.

So, you’re a pastor and a man comes to you and says he is planning to leave his wife, children, home, and parents to follow Christ. What do you say? That no one would ever expect that of him? That no one would ever want that of him? That he’s sinning?

Or, that Christ asks it only of those he has specifically called, like the Twelve, so unless you have received the personal call of Christ you cannot do this. It’s an easy way out. The word of Christ stands, for those Christ was speaking to. Of course then we need to ask why this was ever written down. Peter didn’t need it put on paper. He was there and heard Christ. He didn’t need it written as a reminded.

If we say that it applied only to the Twelve then we have the curious situation of Luke writing something that no one who reads it is expected to do. If all Scripture is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, but this Scripture is never to be done, then why would it have been written down? So we know how difficult Christ’s demands on the Twelve were? So that we can feel sorry for them?

If there is never a situation where the demand would apply to anyone after the original disciples, why would God give it to us? If this was never intended to be regarded seriously by anyone after Luke’s day, then why did he write it?

Here’s another possibility: Christ meant it. For the Twelve, for the twelve million, for the first century, for the twenty-first century...

You certainly can ask what proof I have that this applies this to all ages and churches of the Church. And my response is that I have none.

So stay home.

Please.

But, just by way of comparison: if you were a pastor and a man came to you to tell you he was joining the military, would you tell him he couldn’t because that would mean leaving his wife and children for a year or two at a time? Would you ask him if he had been drafted? Would it make a difference that he hadn’t been compelled to join? If he had been drafted, would you accuse the government of being responsible for the man’s family problems and lobby for a change in the draft laws that would exempt married Christians? Because the image of the church is so closely tied to marriage and that by drafting married people the government is hostile to the church and the family?

Or if a man already in the military said he was planning to marry, would you tell him he couldn’t because he would have to leave his wife so often? Would you counsel him to not have children because so much of the time they would be without a father?

My guess is that most people who join the military aren’t told they shouldn’t do it. In most cases people joining the military are encouraged, because we all understand that the sacrifices are part of the job, and that some people need to make those sacrifices.

So the question then is this: why is the military so much more important than the work of God?