Judgment. Even the word kinda gives me the creeps, you know? Just say the word aloud for me. Judgment. Something about it gives me pause. And I suppose it should.
Let’s push away the crap for a moment. We are all about snap judgments. Oh, don’t shake that head at me and say you are not. You and I are alone here. We compare and contrast. We compare all the time. We go on social media and feel bad. Or feel good. We walk around and look.
We have names for it. People watching. We do it all the time and put a cute little name on it. We remark on people’s hair, outfits, weight, whatever, why? BECAUSE we are watching all the time and notice.
My question for you is why? Why is that our first look? Why am I looking at neighbor’s Christmas lights? I enjoy the show or because dang it, I DON”T HAVE AS MANY LIGHTS AS THEY DO. (Actually I don’t care about that, although the Santa pulling his pants down and on his tush Happy Holidays blazes forth.) I WANT THAT SANTA. Why am I worried about where so and so went on vacation? Why am I concerned about: you fill in the blank.
We lose sight. We have lost sight of the most important. We have focused on the houses, the hair, the clothes, the weight and the heart has been forgotten. Or shuffled to the side more often than we care to realize. Or we have replaced it with our phones. Ouch. Jesus.
Following Jesus
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you ·any place [wherever] you go.”
58 Jesus said to them, “The foxes have ·holes [dens] to live in, and the ·birds [L birds of the sky] have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to ·rest [lay] his head.”
59 Jesus said to another man, “Follow me!”
But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 But Jesus said to him, “Let the people who are [C spiritually] dead bury their own dead. You must go and ·tell about [proclaim] the kingdom of God.”
61 Another man said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to my family.”
62 Jesus said, “Anyone who ·begins to plow a field [L puts a hand to the plow] but keeps looking back is ·of no use in [or not fit for] the kingdom of God.”
Now, these verses may seem completely to come out of nowhere, but I assure you they are not. They are here for a reason.
The first follower’s heart may seem genuine. He wants to follow Jesus. Here’s the thing about Jesus, He is love, He is kindness, He is beauty, but friends, He also has quite an ability to just cut through the crap. Jesus sees something we don’t see. And here’s the thing for us to grab onto! And remember, when we look at someone, our snap judgments kill, destroy and maim and we aren’t even aware of the carnage with our eyes, words and actions MOST OF THE TIME. I know, God help me, I have such a loud voice, Lord, forgive me, I have hurt. Jesus doesn’t do that. He just addresses the issue head on.
All of these animals have a place to rest, I don’t. I’m not sure you are ready to make that kind of commitment to follow Me. Boom.You know, how much better would our relationships be if we addressed issues head on. Sheesh.
Second follower, or one that Jesus DID call. FOLLOW ME! And he say, well, let me go and take care of my dad. See, commentators say about this guy. His dad wasn’t even dead. He wanted to be there until he died. He wasn’t ready for a commitment either. He was in the shadow of the Divine and was given the chance to follow the Divine. I wonder if he ever regretted this decision. We make daily decisions, don’t we? We make moment by moment decisions. Our words, our thoughts, our actions will they glorify Him?
Third follower, OKAY. I’m going to follow, just not yet. And don’t tell me that Jesus is being mean. Please. I love this quote from Barclay:
In plowing a field in that day, a farmer kept the rows straight by focusing on an object in front and in the distance (such as a tree). If the farmer started to plow and kept looking behind, he would never make straight rows and do a good job plowing. In following Jesus, we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, and never take our eyes off Him. “No ploughman ever ploughed a straight furrow looking back over his shoulder.” (Barclay)
When my focus, our focus is on all the superficial, we lose sight of Jesus. And we lose sight of the most important. And Jesus, He’s the most important. Choose. Choose to look beyond the superficial. Ask Jesus to help you see the hearts. Choose to be the remedy.
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