Driving for the kingdom
Been thinking through the whole "fit for the kingdom" thing since this – so just about got the time now to write them up. I'm not sure whether it's good practice to be thinking theology on my day off but I've had a lazy morning in bed and don't really have much else to do so I thought I'd fit it in around the TV and lunch.
I was looking at Luke 9:57-62, especially verse 62.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
Luke places an emphasis in his writings on the community that Jesus came to build – his gospel is part one of the story completed in Acts. Right at the start of Luke 9, Jesus sends out the first twelve disciples – where they make this transition from disciples to apostles: they move from being followers or students to ambassadors. They become teachers in their own right, with the authority to give their own teaching based on what Jesus has taught them – to bind and loose. Then right after this passage in Luke 10, Jesus appoints and sends out another 72 disciples – that's a big mission team.
So into the actual passage itself. As they are journeying along, one of Jesus' followers - Matthew calls him a "teacher of the law" or a scribe, probably making him one of the Pharisees. He's probably a man used to extravagant living, a man who brings judgement on the other Jews – seeing himself as a champion for their righteousness.
He's possibly expecting Jesus to come riding into Jerusalem on a war horse to retake His father's kingdom.
So Jesus' reply is to challenge him – to rid any possible preconceptions of what was to come. If this man was looking for a place in the court of the new king of Israel, a kushy job as an adviser to the King, then he's mistaken – he's missed the point.
And so once it's been made obvious the hardship which following Jesus will entail, the other disciples who are asked surprisingly manage to find all kinds of excuses to avoid following Jesus. Maybe they were planning to excuse themselves and then go AWOL, or maybe they just wanted to sort things out with their families before they head off with Jesus – that seems pretty reasonable to me.
Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
The King James says "is fit for the kingdom…" but I think that the NIV gets the point much better.
To really understand Jesus' response I think we need to get two meanings – what does it mean to be "fit for" something; and what does Jesus mean when he talks about the "kingdom"?
Often we take the "kingdom of God" to mean heaven – I guess because of the strange way that Matthew refers to the "kingdom of heaven", although scholars can be pretty certain that the two phrases meant the same thing in the Greek.
The first century Jews lived under the rule of the biggest world superpower at the time – the Romans. Throughout their history, they'd been exiled, occupied, invaded – not since Solomon had they had control of their own nation, so for Jesus to refer to the "kingdom" had huge amounts of meaning to them. They were hungry for a kingdom of their own, to be rid of the Romans, but Jesus makes it clear that if they think that's why he's here then they're wrong.
Jesus is talking about a new kingdom, beyond earthly kingdoms.
He's talking about a way of living.
Brian McLaren suggests that maybe for us in the 21st century the phrase "the revolution of God" would be more fitting than the kingdom. Today, we take for granted our religious, political and social freedom – maybe that's why the church the world always thrives under persecution. Our realisation of the kingdom becomes much clearer.
The kingdom is now – it's near. It isn't some magical realm that we will one day be zapped up into.
So what does it mean to be "fit for the kingdom"?
The greek word translated "fit" is the word
euthetos. It's literal meaning is "well placed". We have this modern saying "You're fit for nothing" and so the word "fit" tends to mean to us to be about absolutes. It's like in football – a player is either "fit to play", in which case he's well enough to play in a match, or he isn't.
But Jesus is talking about something different. He wants us to be "well placed" for service in the kingdom. To be useful.
He uses the metaphor of the plow to illustrate this. If you are ploughing a field, but you are looking behind at the furrow you've already ploughing then your furrow will be wonky if you are too busy looking behind you. I guess a modern-day metaphor would be driving a car (although you can understand why this is a sore one for me ;-).
When I started learning, I used to be easily distracted by the dials on the dashboard, or by watching the car behind me in the rear view mirror – and so the car would begin to swerve, prompting much anxiousness from either my mother or my driving instructor. I had to learn to focus on the road ahead, right on the middle of the road so that the line I was driving was straight.
We need to learn to look ahead if we are to follow Jesus – not to become distracted by what's behind us, or by other inconsequential things that are going on. If we are following Jesus, our eyes can't wonder onto the surrounding scenery or what's behind us – they need to be fixed on his back as we follow him.
Otherwise, if we are distracted, then we will not be useful for the kingdom – we will not be well placed to serve unless our eyes are on what God is doing.
Phew… went on a while… hopefully that all makes sense. Be thinking about the practical ways you can keep your eyes fixed on Jesus' back as you follow him.
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