No Looking Back...

The Expulsion by George Segal 1978

No Looking back...

What does it mean to commit to a course of action, to a course of belief...to put our hands to the plow and not look back?

In our lectionary passages from the gospel of Luke 9:51-62 for the 27th June, we see the admonition of Jesus to his followers to not look back.

As humans, how does this relate to our spiritual and relational development? From our very early stories we have often been told not to look back. As if once you have attained a certain level of maturity and experience you are to remain so, to use that awareness to both the benefit of one's self and others.  

What does it mean to be human and follow God? Where is God in these passages? Where is the human?

Luke 9:51-62



9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.


9:52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him;


9:53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.


9:54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"


9:55 But he turned and rebuked them.


9:56 Then they went on to another village.


9:57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."


9:58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."


9:59 To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."


9:60 But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."


9:61 Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home."


9:62 Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."


Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line