SCRIPTURE: Luke 9:51-62, Good News Translation, The Message, First Nations Version
51 When it came close to the time for his Ascension, Jesus gathered up his courage and steeled himself for the journey to Jerusalem. 52 He sent messengers ahead of him, who went into a village in Samaria to get everything ready for him. 53 But the people there would not receive him, because it was clear that he was on his way to Jerusalem and they wanted nothing to do with the people there.
54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Master, do you want us to call a bolt of lightning down out of the sky and incinerate them?” [We could] call down fire from the spirit-world above to burn them up, like the prophet Great Spirit Is Creator (Elijah) did?”
55 Jesus turned and rebuked them. “Of course not! You do not know what spirit you are listening to, for the True Human Being came to help people, not hurt them.”
56 After that, they walked silently with him toward another village.
57 As they went on their way, [someone] walked up to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus said…, “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know. Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man, the True Human Being, has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to [someone else], “Come, walk the road with me.”
But that [one] said, “Sir, first I have to make arrangements for my father’s funeral.”
60 Jesus answered, “Let the dead bury their own dead. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent: Announce God’s kingdom!”
61 Someone else said, “I will walk the road with you. I will follow you, sir; but first let me go and say good-bye to those in my house.”
62 Jesus said to him, “Anyone who starts to plow and then keeps looking back is of no use for the Kingdom of God. No procrastination. No backward looks. You can’t put God’s kingdom off till tomorrow. No one who begins a journey and then turns back is ready to walk Creator’s good road.”
0 Comments