When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, 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."
Here is the dilemma of following Jesus...truly following Jesus. It is uncomfortable. Many of us say with our mouths, "Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go." But when the reality of where Jesus is leading sets in, we tend to settle back into routine, back to normal life, back to comfortable.
And let's be honest, the exchange that Jesus offered to those who would follow Him -and the exchange He offers us today is "Leave everything. Put away your plans and dreams. Set aside your goals and agendas. Forget what you think you know and need. Leave everything and follow me." This not easy. But it is the only offer on the table. And where Jesus is leading is directly into the rubble of destroyed lives and abused people (and abusive people) and corruption and violence and pain.
The book of 1 John tells us that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Yes, that involved (for Him) dying on the cross and rising again from the dead so that we could be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with Father. But it also involved confronting evil and injustice. It involved comforting the afflicted -and often afflicting the comfortable. It involved touching the lepers and eating with the outcasts. The bottom line is that Jesus, in one way or another, stood against every way in which the devil has harmed and destroyed and corrupted. And Jesus called to those who would follow, "Leave everything and join me in this." The works of the devil cannot be destroyed from our easy chairs. The works of the devil cannot be destroyed comfortably. Jesus said to those who would follow Him: "Be aware of this -foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but I have no place even to lay my head. If you want to be comfortable, follow someone else."
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