Reading: Luke 9:57-62
For a year in my mid-twenties I didn’t have a proper address. I strung together house-sitting, dog-sitting and cat-sitting gigs. I backpacked in Europe for months. I lived with friends and friends’ parents.
I owned little. I lived richly.
During that time I learned some formative lessons…such as people’s pets shouldn’t eat better than you, even if they can; don’t take the Portuguese night train renown for drug deals, even if it is cheaper; be suspicious of Greek all-inclusive resorts for $19, even if they do have showers. Beyond those gems I discovered a couple of ideas about home…ones I’m still endeavoring to embrace.
However before I reflect on those, let’s look at Jesus’ days without a proper address. Jesus lived life on the move, sheltering with friends and strangers during his three years of public ministry.
In Luke 9:58 Jesus responds to someone interested in following him by saying, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
It’s so curious thinking about the Son of Man/Son of God being essentially homeless. Jesus not only left the splendor of heaven, he didn’t even have the comfort and security of a home on earth.
Jesus wasn’t on an anti-home-ownership crusade. However, he did challenge the notion of comfort and security usurping his plans for people.
In the next couple of verses in Luke we see Jesus invite two people to follow him; both request a rain-check due to reasonable reasons. One needs to bury his dad and the other wants to say goodbye to family.
Jesus’ response seems harsh, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Regret, distraction, lack of follow through—these aren’t helpful approaches when it comes to a mission to rescue the world.
Comfort and security can be gifts but not when they hold us back or entice us to look back and miss something greater.
Jesus was driven by a desire for people not to miss out on the best gifts God had–the gifts of relationship with him and service to others.
Anything that got in the way of that needed to wait…including a home.