I’ve never ploughed a field but I imagine it’s like driving a lawn mower or paddling a canoe. If you look back to where you’ve been instead of forward to where you’re going, you will probably just make a big mess of things—just as Jesus said.

I find this a very poignant piece of scripture. Think about it.

Jesus knows that his time on earth is ending. He knows he must prepare his disciples for his coming death. He knows that, as committed as they are, they have still not fully grasped his message sacrifice he is about to make. He must have been heavy of heart as he turned his face to Jerusalem.

And what happens as he journeys towards this place?

• The people in a Samaritan village refuse him hospitality
• His disciples are still fuzzy about Jesus’ message. Instead of compassion and forgiveness towards the villagers, they want to rain fire down on them, destroying the people
• When he calls people to follow him, they hesitate. "I’ll come later. I have other things to do first." They don’t understand the importance of what he is asking of them.

Let’s put ourselves into this story. We don’t have to go back in time 2000 years. We can stay right where we are.

Like the people in that Samaritan village, we, too, are asked to prepare for Christ’s coming – because we know he will come again. We have been promised that.

How will we receive him? Will we greet Christ with open arms? Will we do what the people in last week’s Gospel reading did and drive him away? Will we be frightened? Indifferent? In urgent need of doing other things first?

This is probably the most important thing we do – prepare to meet Christ.

And we prepare with our lives – in everything we do, everything we say.

It is not easy and Jesus does not make that promise. He reminds us that while the common animals have a place to lay their head, he does not. Like him, Jesus’ followers will meet hardship, perhaps even rejection.

Following Jesus cannot be a part-time or hit-and-miss endeavour. It’s a full-time commitment. We can’t be like those people on the road to Jerusalem. We can’t say, "I’ll come later." That’s not good enough for Jesus.

And why isn’t it good enough? We turn to Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia for an answer. If you live in the Spirit, you will receive the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the gifts of God, the gifts that bring us freedom and abundance of life.

If we hold back from commitment, if we focus primarily on self, we will not enjoy the fruits of the Spirit. Instead, we will fall victim – and slave – to all the things Paul mentions, including idolatry, strife, jealousy, anger, dissension and envy.

Which would you rather have in your life – joy and peace or strife and anger? We’ve all experienced this range of feelings and behaviour and we know that one brings life and the other destruction and pain.

And so we turn to Christ. We may even think that we are doing a good job of committing, but there’s often a part of us that holds back. It’s hard to let go of everything. We look for loopholes. Surely, Jesus doesn’t mean for us to give up everything.

We look at those people that Jesus called to on the road and we think their hesitations might have been valid. Their reasons for not dropping everything (as those first disciples did), don’t seem all that wrong.

One wants to go home to say goodbye. Sounds reasonable, but is it? Committing to Christ IS saying goodbye to our former life. Yesterday is definitely gone. Those who were a part of our living without Christ are gone. Turning back even to say goodbye will only cause us to stumble and fall.

The other man wants to bury his father before he goes with Jesus. That sounds noble – a fulfillment of the commandment to "honour your father and your mother". However, some biblical scholars have argued that the man’s father was still alive, and that what he was saying was, "Sometime, I will follow you but first my family obligations must be fulfilled. It may be years from now, but someday I will come."

He wasn’t quite ready to commit.

Jesus says, in effect, "You’re either with me or you’re not – and if you’re with me, then let’s go – NOW!"

We don’t know when Jesus will come again, when he will call to us. We don’t know how much time is left. Tomorrow may never come, so we’d better make our commitment now.

And with that commitment must come the willingness to sacrifice whatever is necessary, whatever gets in the way.

There is an ancient Chinese story. It goes like this.

Once there was a Chinese farmer who had an only daughter. His daughter was going to be married. The farmer loved his daughter very much, and wanted to give her a feast on her wedding day. But the farmer was not very rich, and he could not afford to pay for a feast. So, he decided that he would have to prepare the feast from what he had on his farm.

One day he called all of the animals in the barnyard together, and he said to them, "My daughter is going to be married." All the animals cheered and congratulated him.

Then he said, "I thought we should have a feast." They cheered even louder, and said what a wonderful idea it was to have a feast.

Then the farmer said, "I thought that for the feast we would kill the goose."

The goose did not think too much of that idea, and she said, "But you can't kill me! If you do, who will lay all those fresh eggs for you? How about the sheep?"

And the sheep replied, "Baah. If you kill me, you will have no one to give you all that wool to make warm clothing for the cold winter. How about the rooster?"

And the rooster replied, "But without me you will have no one to wake you up at dawn in the morning. How about that useless dog over there?"

And the dog replied, "You ungrateful wretch! Who is it that saves you from the wily fox when he comes to attack you? What about the ox?"

And the ox replied, "But without me, you will have no one to pull your plough. How about the horse?"

And the horse replied, "Without me, you will have no one to pull your cart when you take your vegetables to market."

The farmer listened to all this and became very upset. "But what about the feast?" And all the animals replied, "Oh yes. The feast is a wonderful idea. Let’s have the feast."

They all want a feast but not at their own expense. They don’t understand – or don’t want to believe – that the feast won’t happen unless one of them is willing to sacrifice.

We all want to be a part of God’s kingdom, but are we truly willing to make the sacrifices necessary for that to happen? Are we willing to give up our personal biases, our little hobby horses of prejudice and righteousness?

Can we put away the idols of wealth, power and influence? Can we suppress our feelings of jealousy when we see that others have more, that others are more physically attractive or seem to always know the right thing to say and do? Can we put our resentments aside and learn to love those who irritate or anger us, who evoke feelings of envy? Can we let go of those who influence our lives in negative ways?

These are the sacrifices Jesus asks of us – giving up everything that prevents relationship with Christ?

Following Jesus doesn’t mean having it all. It means leaving it all behind.

And the wonder and the mystery is that when we leave it all behind, when we put our worldly desires aside and focus completely on living a Christ-like life, we will discover that our lives are lived in love, joy and peace. We will learn patience, kindness and generosity. We will be faithful and gentle.

We will also discover that we have sacrificed nothing of real value and have gained the most precious thing of all – the gifts of the Spirit.

We will put our hand to the plough and never look back.

Amen.