Crucified with Christ

Such renouncing is not turning from something to nothing, as if we are to empty ourselves of all desire, but to everything that Christ is for us. Let us not look back to what we have said goodbye, like Lot’s wife, but look to Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who 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). The shame, suffering, and death of the cross were not joy for Christ but looking through it, he focused on the joy to come, his resurrection, the salvation of his people, his eternal glory. And his joy is ours, as we have been crucified with Christ, we love him supremely, die to self daily, and live for him truly, serving as salt in a world that needs to “taste and see that the LORD is good!” (Ps. 34:8).

Fear Not, Fear God

Calling the Pharisees “fools” and the lawyers worse, Jesus did not endear himself to the leaders of the moral majority.[2] It was surely no shock that as a lot they sought “to catch him in something he might say” (Luke 11:54). Of course, they wouldn’t because they couldn’t, leading them eventually to fabricate testimony, illegally try, and falsely convict the sinless Son of God. But knowing what would come did not lead Jesus to dial back his criticism or concern, warning his disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.”

What Does Following Jesus Look Like?

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.