Sojourners Devotion 3 23 2013
“Life on the Run” reminds me of when Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Both Matthew and Luke recorded these words of Jesus (Mt. 8:20 and Lk. 9:58). Jesus said this because he met “would-be” disciples who were unwilling to truly follow him. First, there was a scribe who was impressed over Jesus’ teachings but probably was unsure if he would give up his leisurely life to follow Jesus. Then there was the man who was already a disciple but he wanted to first go and bury his father implying that he was not yet ready to give his full sacrifices but maybe later. And then in the Luke passage, there was a third man who wanted to go home and say goodbye to his family first.
Jesus denied all of these requests. One is either 100% with Jesus or one is against him. Discipleship is not something to be taken lightly or entered into casually. At the beginning of these passages, when the great crowds came around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Perhaps it’s not that Jesus wanted to get away from the crowds for some quiet time as much as for those who would truly follow him, they would need to cross the sea and demonstrate their commitments through actions.
Tomorrow, we’ll witness 3 youth be baptized because they have proclaimed that they want to follow Jesus and even if that means that they have no place to lay their heads.
My cousins Melvin and Wende made sacrificial commitments serving in the US State Department and it literally meant for them that while foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, they also didn’t have a permanent place to lay their heads. Maybe “life on the run” is really for all of us. While we all like to set down roots and sometimes very deep ones, to follow Jesus means that we are ready with light bags to go wherever Christ takes us.
Let us pray.
Lord God, we do have busy lives that often feel like we are always on the run. But perhaps we can also affirm the truth that when we are running after you, running to keep up with your prophetic word of peace and justice, running along side of you to learn how to love our neighbors, and running to win that prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ, we will be your true disciples. Amen.