Don’t Look Back
Luke 9:51-62
July 11, 2004
The poor country pastor was livid when he confronted his wife with the receipt for a $250 dress she had bought. “How could you do this!" he asked. “You know we don’t have that kind of money.” “I don’t know,”she moaned, “I was standing in the store looking at the dress. Then I found myself trying it on. It was like the Devil was whispering to me, ‘Gee, you look great in that dress. You should buy it.’” “Well,” the pastor said, “You know how to deal with him! Just tell him, ‘Get behind me, Satan!’” “I did,” his wife replied. “He said ‘You look great from here too.’”
That poor woman! Apparently she didn’t have much will-power, not much dedication or commitment to the family budget. Unfortunately, the same problem is often true with our Christian discipleship. Too often we don’t exhibit the kind of dedication and commitment to Jesus that God’s Word calls for. That’s what our Lord was talking about in our Gospel lesson for today, when He said: “NO ONE WHO PUTS HIS HAND TO THE PLOW AND LOOKS BACK IS FIT FOR SERVICE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”
The metaphor Jesus uses there is obviously taken from farming. And what He’s saying is: “Don’t look back!” After all, if you’re plowing a field and you keep looking behind you instead of keeping your eyes focused on a spot ahead of you, you’ll wind up messing up the row. A modern day metaphor from sports might be: “If you don’t keep your eye on the ball, you’ll miss the shot.” Either way, Jesus was saying that we need to keep our spiritual eyes focused on Him. And the way that we do that is by being constantly in the Word, reading and studying the Scriptures, coming regularly to Bible Class so that we can share our insights with one another and grow in our faith. Otherwise we will drift away from Him and not be adequately equipped to serve Him in His kingdom.
Sadly, though, there are many things in our world today that tempt us to look back, rather than keeping our eyes focused on Jesus. And we see several examples in our text. For instance, the prejudice of the Samaritans. Because Jesus was a Jew, they refused to taken Him in and offer their hospitality. How often don’t we exhibit the same kind of thing in our dealings with others. We look down on someone, because of their skin color, their age or sex, their culture or heritage. And we don’t always offer hospitality freely to those in need, because we’re afraid it might cost us too much. Instead of seeing them as Jesus sees them, we look back or look away.
Then, too, there was the vengeance of the disciples. James and John wanted to call down fire upon them. And we’re not so different from that. When someone hurts our feelings or wounds our pride, our natural sinful reaction is to retaliate. We want to hurt them right back, rather than forgiving them and letting go of our grudges. Instead of loving them like Jesus does, we look back with anger and revenge.
But perhaps the chief way that we look back in our daily walk is by getting caught up in the cares of the world, like the man in our text who wanted to bury his father, or the guy who wanted to say goodbye to his family. Now at first glance, those seem like completely legitimate pursuits. Obviously we should value and honor the family, especially on this Protect Marriage Sunday, when we emphasize the importance of marriage and the family. But Jesus’ point is that nothing should come between us and our relationship with Him. No endeavor, no matter how worthwhile, deserves to be put above God. God’s Word and His kingdom should always be our first priority.
Incidentally, that was Jesus’ thought behind His cryptic saying: “LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR OWN DEAD.” He meant that the spiritually dead can bury the physically dead. But we who are spiritually alive ought be involved in bringing that life to others by proclaiming the kingdom of God. If we’re not, then we’re taking our eyes off of Jesus, looking back at the things of the world and wandering away in our faith. And as the example of Lot’s wife reminds us – that is a very dangerous thing. She was turned into a pillar of salt. But if we lose our faith something far worse could happen – we could become pillars of unbelief, headed straight for eternal death in hell. For as someone once said: “Sin always takes you farther than you wanted to go. It will always keep you longer than you wanted to stay. It will always cost you more than you are willing to pay.” Indeed, if left unconfessed and unforgiven it can cost us our very soul.
In a way, it reminds me of the distraught woman, who phoned her doctor’s office and asked: “Is it true that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?” “Yes, I’m afraid so,” the doctor replied. There was a moment of dead silence before the woman continued. Then why does it say, “No refills.”
Evidently the woman was worried that there was something the doctor wasn’t telling her – that perhaps her time was up. Thankfully for us, that’s not the way it is with Jesus. He never withholds any good gift from His children. And He always tells us what we need to know. For in His Holy Word He not only warns us of the dangers of our sin, our uncommitted discipleship, our turning back, but He also comforts us with the Good News of the Gospel; namely, that He has rescued us from all that by His saving death on the cross.
You see, Jesus never asks His disciples to do something that He Himself has not already done for us. So, when He tells us not to look back, it’s because He never once looked back. As our text says: “JESUS RESOLUTELY SET OUT FOR JERUSALEM.” As a matter of fact, what it actually says is: “HE SET HIS FACE TOWARDS JERUSALEM,” meaning that He was steadfastly determined to walk the road to the cross to redeem you and me. It is reminiscent of Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah, where he says: “I HAVE SET MY FACE LIKE FLINT.”
As you may know, flint was one of the first types of stone that men used for tools. That’s because it’s harder than steel. It’s very durable and lasting. For that reason, it’s a symbol of unyielding determination, the firm willpower not to give up. And that’s exactly what Jesus had. He had the firm willpower not to give up on you and me, but to keep on loving us even unto death. He is like a hard flint hammer, who smashed through the chains of our guilt and sin and set us free. And because Jesus did that, God the Father no longer looks away from us in disgust. Instead, He looks at us lovingly with eyes full of forgiveness and grace, for Jesus’ sake.
A terrible fire once broke out in a large building. A mother rushed into the flames and saved her child, but the mother was terribly burned. Her face remained disfigured the rest of her life. After her daughter had grown up, she returned from college. Young people who were at the depot when the disfigured mother came to meet her said, “Oh, Belle, who is that horrid-looking woman? She seems to be looking at you.” Belle could have said, “I don’t know her,” denying the mother who had risked her life for her. But instead Belle smiled, raised her hand, and waved, telling her friends, “That’s my mother; I owe my life to her twice over!”
In the same way, dear friends, we owe Jesus our life twice over. Through Him we were made and by Him we are redeemed. And in His precious Word and Sacraments we receive the greeting of His welcoming love and pardon. For He too was disfigured on the cross – disfigured with our guilt and shame, so that we in turn might be made beautiful and holy in God’s sight. That is what we freely receive by faith in Him. And the way that we express that faith is by keeping our eyes focused on Him and not looking back. May God help us by His Spirit to do that each and every day, for His name’s sake. Amen.
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