Fri.’s Devo - Three Encounters

Read Luke 9: 57-62 Along their way to Jerusalem Jesus and his disciples met many types of people. Today we read about 3 of them which stand for 3 type of people and their responses to Jesus. The first one wanted to follow Jesus no matter where he went. Jesus explained to him that even though it is natural to have a home, his was not here. If that man wanted to follow him he would have to gain eternal life and dwell with him in heaven because that was his home. I’m sure the man didn’t know what he was talking about and we don’t know what became of him. Jesus approached the second man and told him to follow him. The man told Jesus that he needed to bury his father first. Jesus replied that he needed to let the dead bury the dead; his job was to preach the kingdom of God. What he was trying to get across was to let people who aren’t interested in salvation - the spiritually dead - tend to the funeral and things pertaining to life and death, but he needed to follow him and learn of spiritual life so he wouldn’t die without eternal life. Then he could spread life to others so they wouldn’t die without eternal life. The last man said that he wanted to serve Jesus but first he wanted to say goodbye to those in his household. Jesus saw that this was just an excuse and told him if he was wanting to give up this soon he was not appropriate for the kingdom of God. Sometimes Jesus seemed a little abrupt but he could read hearts and he got straight to the point because this subject of life and death was so important. Lord, teach us to number our days that we see how important every day is.