One of the disciples reflects on Jesus’ apparently harsh behaviour:

So, you think we were harsh, do you, trying to call down fire on those villagers just for refusing us a bit of refreshment?  But have you never stopped to think about Jesus and what he said afterwards?  No, I don’t mean the telling off he gave us.  I think we can all agree that was well deserved. I mean his teaching that followed? 

Sometimes, as they say, Jesus ‘does not take any prisoners!’   His teaching is forthright and demanding. On occasions, to be honest, it is brutal.  It’s like a two-edged sword that cuts deep.  No one can listen without being cut and wounded.  Our friend, Dr Luke, tells us that Jesus talks like a surgeon operates… the pain is unavoidable, but when he draws blood, it is to bring healing, not harm.  You can’t be squeamish about that, he says, because sometimes healing does involve radical surgery; amputation even!

I am not sure I’m comfortable with that teaching method, myself!  I mean, some people deserve a simpler, more sensitive approach, don’t they?

Take, for instance, that lad who came promising to follow Jesus anywhere.  You’d think Jesus would have been happy with that, wouldn’t you?   I mean, I would have welcomed him with open arms… clapped him on the back and, with a big hug, led him along the way.  But not Jesus.  Instead, he stops dead in his tracks and eye-balls the fellow, saying something about foxes having their holes and birds their nests, but the son of man having no-where to rest his head.     Er… I mean, I’d be mystified by that response, wouldn’t you?!  It’s not surprising that the poor fellow stood there non-plussed, wondering just what that meant and what he should do!  I don’t think we have seen him around much since then, and who can blame him?

Now, when I told some of the others, who knew Jesus better, they smiled knowingly and jibed; “Haven’t you noticed that Jesus is not at all into grand gestures and gushing enthusiasm?   We’ve seen that burn out enough times already, haven’t we?  How many have joined us for a distance and then fallen by the way?  They’re like that seed sown on shallow stony soil, Jesus told us about. Weren’t you listening?  It grows up tall so quickly but soon withers in the heat because it’s not deep rooted.   Jesus does not want disciples like that.  He’d rather they know what they getting into than be swept along and follow on a whim.”

They were right, of course.  But even they could not quite get their heads round what Jesus told another fellow he invited to come and join us.

This guy was, no doubt, up for it. But he had a responsibility to deal with first. More than that; a sacred obligation.  His father was old and dying.  He needed to be with him.  “Let me go and care for my father now and when he is gone, I’ll be free to come and follow you!”

You’d think Jesus, of all people, would have been sympathetic!   Did he not, after all, teach us to honour our parents and to love and care one another?  How, then, could he come back, so callously, with “Let the dead bury their own dead.”?   Was Jesus so single-mindedly ‘task focussed’ and determined at the time, that he had momentarily forgot all compassion ?   It certainly sounded like it!  But, then, how heartless and out of character was that?

Actually, thinking about it, I’m sure it wasn’t that at all!  I know of no-one kinder and more compassionate than Jesus. He more than anyone, would understand the pressures of caring for others, and he was never one for encouraging us to shirk our responsibilities.  

And yet, I also know no-one who can read a person better than Jesus.  His insight is unequalled!  Taking this into account, it dawns on me that Jesus was not, actually, responding inappropriately to a man who was grieving.   He was right on the ball in responding to a man who was making excuses! 

Disingenuously, this man was drawing on the heart strings and making himself look like a good and caring son, while really employing the oldest delaying tactic in the book.  We can all do it: “When this happens… then I’ll be free to follow!”  “When the children leave home…. When I retire… when I get the house sorted out… If I didn’t have this responsibility or that… then I would be able to follow” Oh really?!  But what excuse would we be finding then?!    Sometimes it takes quite a slap to bring us back to our senses!   If we are always finding reasons for putting off until tomorrow what we should be doing today, then do we need a harsh word to prompt a deep and honest look at ourselves?  Maybe so!

There was another guy who asked far less than this last malingerer.  All this one wanted to do was to go and say goodbye to his friends and family, and Jesus came back hard on him! 

 “You’ll never make it in the world like that!” Jesus told him “You have to set your eyes forwards if you want to plough a straight furrow. Looking back all the time is only going to cause a mess!”

If you have ever seen a field ploughed by a distracted amateur, you’ll know exactly what Jesus means! The rows are all higgledy-piggledy and not much good for sowing at all!

A so it is, a life spent looking back at all the what-ifs and maybes is always going to be a dissatisfied and disjointed one.  Yes, we can all wear rose tinted spectacles, and the allure of ‘the Good-old-days’ may have us romanticising what might have been.  But all that is a deception, not just a distraction.  It’s like we are mistaking a sunset for a sunrise.  If we walk towards it, we will soon be lost in darkness.

So, in retrospect, Jesus was not being compassionless and uncaring at all.   Oh, he certainly does not pull his punches!  But, if he is harsh, at least he is honest.  And he calls for that same kind of honesty when dealing with ourselves. Discipleship and self-deceit do not go well together!

And one thing Jesus wants us to be sure about is this: following him is not the easy option.   It requires focus, commitment and determination.  There will be sacrifice.  We may well have to leave a lot that is precious behind.   

So, yes, there is a sense in which we have to be ruthless with ourselves. None of this is for the feint-  or half-hearted.  Yet it is not harshness, but love that drives him to tell us so.