This is the second in a series of reflections around the cost of following Jesus.
As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Luke 9:57-58 NLT
But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
In Australia there is an obsession with acquiring real estate. “Owning your own home” seems to have become the purpose of life for many. Changing house prices and interest rates are like a spectator sport, occasioning either joy or despair, depending on your current circumstances. Once you have a home, of course, the focus changes to renovation and improvement, or the purchase of a second property, a holiday cottage or an investment. In Australia, we are obsessed with “a place to lay our heads.”
Jesus had no home, at least no earthly home. He was a carpenter – surely he could have built a house for himself, at minimal cost. Not something fancy or extravagant. Just somewhere to lay his head. He chose not to. His focus was on building not a house, but a kingdom. Real estate was simply not important to him. He called his followers to the same mindset.
An Australian friend recently visited Pakistan. He was there two weeks and travelled around with an evangelist stopping at villages where many had gathered to listen to the Christian gospel being preached. It was an exciting time for him, as he saw people’s hunger for the good news of the kingdom. What was the hardest thing, I asked him? Not having a decent bed, he said. At times he just had a string platform to lie on in the open air in the village centre. Wandering dogs scratched the ground beneath him. He had some covering and a mosquito net, but there were nights when he barely slept a wink and rose exhausted before dawn.
Is that what it means to follow Jesus? After two weeks my friend was back home in Australia, catching up on sleep. Jesus was still out there. How willing am I to adopt that kind of lifestyle? Just the thought stresses me out. Following Jesus can be hard.
Does that mean that a true follower of Jesus will be homeless? Sometimes, certainly, but I don’t think that was the point Jesus was trying to make. Absolutely we need to be ready to be homeless for his sake. We need to be willing to have nowhere to lay our heads. But I think that Jesus’ main point was simply that our focus should never be on real estate, or renovation or home decoration, or house prices, or the next property. Those things may or may not be there, in our lives, but if they are they should be on the blurred periphery. Our focus, the centre of our gaze, should always be on our Father God and his kingdom, whatever our current circumstances. We need to be ready to sacrifice all, give up everything, for him.
a doctor reads luke 