A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on July 27, 2025.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “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.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:57–62).[1]
Jesus traveled from region to region, from town to town primarily on foot. And he didn’t travel alone. At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus had a large following, made up not only of his chosen twelve but many more, some of whom he would commission into vocational ministry, as we will see in the next chapter. And as he traveled, he conversed with those who followed him as well as those who would, such as the three types we find our passage today, whom I call the naive, the preoccupied, and the half-hearted.
The naive follower wants to be known and understood through a zealous, vocal expression of devotion, but his zeal exceeds his knowledge. The preoccupied follower is invited to follow Jesus but is distracted by his familial sense of duty. And the half-hearted follower wants to follow, but his allegiance is divided, confusing faithfulness to what is given with faith in the Giver. To each of these three Jesus gives a different response, but in essence they are the same, summed up in the one word repeated three times in this passage: follow.[2]
Elsewhere, Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:24-25). His overt reference to the cross would take on more meaning after he had been raised upon the cross, but in referencing the cross before Calvary, the hearer heard death. To take up one’s cross and follow Christ means to die to self but also live through faith in Christ.
Of this life lived, the apostle Paul confessed, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Paul saw his life in Christ as a crucified life, yet a life lived out in the gracious love of God. Jesus never promised Paul, or any of his followers, a life of ease but sacrifice, and yet, perhaps paradoxically, a life lived fully alive with the promise of forever, which begins with, “Follow me.” And that’s what I want us to consider today. According to these three encounters, what does following Jesus look like?
Living as a Sojourner
When Jesus responded to his naive follower’s zeal, he clarified the call to follow with the perspective of a sojourner: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Had this follower counted the cost of discipleship? Did he know what Jesus had given up to come to earth? Did he know that a follower of Jesus lives life differently than unbelievers? Did he realize that this world is not our eternal home; we are like sojourners.
In the Bible, a sojourner is someone who is just passing through; where he abides is not his permanent home. In Jesus’ case, he left his home in heaven to come to earth, where he was born in a barn in Bethlehem, was raised in Nazareth, and never had a home to call his own, because this world was not his home. Nor is it ours.
The writer of Hebrews says that when Abraham left his home and “went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob,” he was looking beyond the land and “forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:9-10). While he enjoyed God’s promised blessings on earth, he knew that where he lived was not his heavenly home.
Likewise, Moses, who with the children of Israel, never had a home once he left Egypt, confessed, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations” (Ps. 90:1). Though he would never step foot in the Promised Land, Hebrews says, “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (Heb. 11:26). He was a humble man without an address and yet supremely satisfied in the promise of the Lord’s provision, looking forward to the day, when it will be declared in heaven and earth, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3). For followers of Christ, our dwelling place is not an earthly address but with God.
Our eternal citizenship then is not of this world but heaven,[3] as we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). This means that our lives are not characterized by the cares and customs of this world but instead the values and standards of our permanent home in heaven.[4] This does not mean that Jesus forbids homeownership or promotes homelessness, nor does our sojourning promote a lack of care or concern for creation. He who providentially placed us of where we are did so that we may be faithful stewards of all that he has entrusted. But such stewardship also includes holding the things of this life loosely, and concerning ourselves primarily with, what the apostle Paul calls “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,” looking “not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18). And so, just as Jesus had nowhere to lay his head, we are sojourners here, awaiting our home in heaven.
Obeying without Excuses
In the case of the second would-be follower, Jesus took the initiative, saying, “Follow me.” It was an invitation from the Lord and clearly considered but for this response: “Lord, let me first go and bury my father” (Luke 9:59). Unlike the naive follower, this man was willing but not ready. Why? Another priority prevailed. He had a duty to do first.
Was he simply asking for a brief time away? Was he headed then and there to the grave side service? Probably not. His father was likely very much alive. Given the necessarily short time between death and burial, according to Jewish custom, he was likely referring to the need to care for his aged father until death, after which he would follow Jesus.
But Jesus responded, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Using the same word twice but with different meanings, Jesus distinguished between the spiritually dead and physically dead. In other words, Jesus was telling him to leave burying the dead to the spiritually dead, to unbelievers. Why? Because they see no need of, nor enjoy the privilege and priority of, following Jesus nor proclaiming the gospel. They may concern themselves with the cares and concerns of this earthly life, because they have no care or concern for eternal life.
To be clear, Jesus was not advocating that his followers disregard their parents at the end of life or ignore what is needed at their death. Afterall, God’s moral law commands us to honor father and mother,[5] and caring for them in old age is one way we do this. Likewise, burials, funerals, memorials all have their place of respect for our loved ones, especially in Christ’s church. The point is not to disrespect the aged or the dead, but to make sure we don’t become so preoccupied with our duties, whether family, work, or other worldly concerns, that following Jesus becomes one choice out of many rather than the priority of our life. Sometimes what keeps us from following Jesus is not something sinful; but something noble and good but not Christ.
Pressing on by Faith
The third would-be follower was both willing and ready but for this request: “let me first say farewell to those at my home” (Luke 9:61). No delay for the life of his father or mother, no funeral, no burial, just a simple goodbye…first. But “first” was the problem; he was half-hearted. When Jesus calls us to follow him, he demands not some but all of us, heart, soul, mind, and strength. As we sing,
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.[6]
In contrast, the half-hearted follower was never all-in.
Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62), meaning looking back when plowing leads to furrows not fit for planting. The farmer must look straight ahead, fixing his eyes on a point, as must the follower of Jesus, fixing his eyes fully on him. J.C. Ryle says, “If we are looking back to any thing in this world we are not fit to be disciples. Those who look back, like Lot’s wife, want to go back. Jesus will not share this throne with any one, –no, not with our dearest relatives. He must have all our heart, or none.”[7] As with the preoccupied, the half-hearted follower desired something noble, good, even kind. But whatever we put before Jesus becomes our priority, and that is not the way of Christ. He must be first.
The English word priority dates back to at least the 1400s. It was and continued a singular word for approximately 400 years, until the 1900s when the plural was introduced: priorities. What led to the use of the plural is conjecture, but whatever the case, its use is illogical. Many things cannot be a priority, and to have priorities means there is no priority at all.[8] Jesus applied the same reasoning when he said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. . . .” (Matt. 6:24). To follow Jesus means he is the priority, not one of many.
Jesus said to the preoccupied, “Follow me,” to which the man replied, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father” (Luke 9:59). Likewise, the half-hearted replied, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home” (9:61). In both cases, the word “first” is used, connoting priority. There was another priority that came before following Jesus. For one follower, duty came first. For the other, family came first. Even the naive follower is suspect, perhaps not even knowing what it meant to put Jesus first.
So, what happened to each of them? Did one, or two, or all three become part of the seventy-two, sent out unto the harvest?[9] Were they part of the 120 gathered after Jesus’ ascension? Were they part of the 3,000 baptized at Pentecost? What does Luke tell us? Nothing. But what we do know is that we have received God’s Word, and in it this passage, and through it the need to examine ourselves. We don’t know if the three followed Jesus, but we know if we do.
And we also know what Jesus did, advancing onward to Jerusalem. He had already given up the comforts of home. He had already given up the claims of family. He had put his “hand to the plow” with no intention of looking back, for he had “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51), “who,” Hebrews tells us, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). He joyfully gave up “the glories of heaven to suffer the indignities of earth”[10] that he might deliver us from death to life and so be glorified through our salvation. And he calls his followers likewise, to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him, not save ourselves but because our Savior calls us to the joy of following him. Yes, it means living like a sojourner, obeying without excuses, and pressing on by faith, but we do so for the joy that is set before us, glorifying God and enjoying him forever.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Luke 9:57, 59, 61.
[3] Phil. 3:20
[4] Rom. 12:1-2
[5] Ex. 20:12
[6] Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” Trinity Hymnal, Revised Ed. (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, 1990), 252.
[7] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 260.
[8] Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (New York: Currency, 2014), 16.
[9] Luke 10:1-2
[10] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 508.
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