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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

William Ernest Blomfield, President of the Baptist College, Rawdon, Leeds, 1904-1934; born Rayleigh, Essex, England, October 23, 1862; educated at the nonconformist grammar school, Regents Park College, London; graduated London University (BA.), 1883; assistant minister of Elm Road Baptist church, Beckenham; sole minister, 1885,6; minister of Turret Green church, Ipswich, 1886-95; graduated (B.D.) at St. Andrew’s University, 1892; minister of Queen ‘s Road church, Coventry, 1895-1904; received diploma, fellow of Senatus Academicus, 1898, for proficiency in knowledge of Hebrew and Greek Testaments.

“And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” - Luke 9:57-62.



We have a parallel to this narrative in Matthew’s Gospel. There are, however, two points of divergence from Luke’s version. There is no mention of the third would-be disciple, and what is still more worthy of observation, the historic setting of the narrative is absolutely different. In Matthew the incidents take place early in the Galilean ministry, in Luke they are found when that ministry had definitely closed. It is quite impossible to reconcile the two evangelists, and I think we may regard Luke’s setting of the story as likely to be the more accurate. To Matthew the question of chronological sequence was one of subordinate importance. His mind and heart were arrested by the sayings of Jesus, and they are everything to him. Accordingly, in the Sermon on the Mount, he groups together logia which may have been spoken on diverse occasions, and in the thirteenth chapter he gives us a string of seven parables which few intelligent readers can think were spoken at one and the same time. Luke was more of the historian, and tells us in the preface to his gospel that it was his purpose “to write in order.” We accept, then, the sequence of events as narrated in this chapter. And if we grasp the situation here revealed we shall understand more clearly the sternness and severity with which Jesus addrest these men about whom I want to speak.

Our Lord had ended His Galilean ministry. A definite crisis is marked by verse 51. He set His face stcdfastly to go to Jerusalem. Mark, according to his wont, gives us a still more striking picture. Jesus strode in front of His disciples, and as they followed they were amazed and afraid. A great fear and awe fell upon them as they looked upon the resolute Savior hastening to meet His cross. It was amid the feelings awakened by such a crisis that these three men met Christ. Will they become His disciples? Have they some good thing in their hearts toward Him? Then let them at once translate thought into decisive action. It was no time for temporizing and delay. Jesus needed men who understood the hour and its solemn call. Half¬hearted disciples, followers .who had a mere sentimental liking for Him but who gave the “first” place to any other interest, were of no use to His kingdom. He must have men who, for weal or wo, without reserve or hesitation, yet with knowledge and intelligence, would follow in His train. Decision firm and irrevocable must now be made. Never more would Christ pass this way. Thus bearing in mind the gravity of the crisis, we shall find some clue to the hard sayings in our text. Here are three men. The first brings Christ an unconditional offer of allegiance, and is repelled. The second is called by Christ to a great work and the. reluctance shown by the man is rebuked. The third is a volunteer, but a double-minded man who has to be sharply reminded that thoroughness is an essential requisite for service in the kingdom. And we may see here three permanent types of human character - the impulsive, the diffident, the irresolute.

“Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” It was a fine offer. There was no reserve or limit to it. Jesus had not many such, and we might suppose that He would have promptly accepted the allegiance of this generous heart. One feature of the heavenly life is that the Lamb’s servants follow “whithersoever he leadeth.” Here is a man who is ready to begin the heavenly life of perfect surrender on earth. Yet the volunteer is met with the chilling rejoinder, “Foxes have holes, the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of man has not where to lay his head.”

There is not a trace of insincerity in the man. Nor is there any sign that he was filled with self-complacency at the splendor of his own deed. All seems genuine and modest enough. But Christ’s answer reveals a man who was easily swayed by the feeling of the moment, who would be the victim of any sudden impulse, easily moved by superficial excitement to the utterance of tremendous words whose implications he had never realized. He was simply thoughtless, the kind of man who would begin to build without first considering if he had wherewith to complete the costly enterprise. And so Jesus flings him back upon himself and bids him reflect. The man had been attracted by our Lord as many amiable people are attracted today. He had sat perhaps among the mountain lilies and listened to those wonderful beatitudes, or he had stood by the lake with the summer sun gleaming upon its waters as Jesus taught the multitudes from the boat, or he had heard of the wondrous works of Him who rebuked the storm and the angrier passions which rage in human breasts. The rapt face of the young Prophet of Nazareth and His words of wisdom and grace had been an irresistible spell upon this open, ingenuous nature. He would fain follow Him and listen to the flow of golden speech every day, and so he cries, “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” But Christ knew the shallowness of this man ‘s religion. In effect He says, “Understandest thou what thou sayest? Wilt thou indeed follow me whithersoever I lead? My way is not always amongst flower-clad hills nor by the quiet lakeside; it leads sometimes into the wilderness and amidst stony paths where the feet ache and bleed. Even now the Master thou wouldst serve goes to meet a cruel doom at the hands of men. Wilt thou follow Him there and share His cup of pain? It is no light thing for a scribe accustomed to a life of cultured ease- to become the follower of One who is a homeless fugitive upon the face of the earth.” This was not the only time Jesus checked emotional excitability. Once when He was preaching, a woman, carried away by His personal charm, exclaimed, “Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked,” And He met this gush of sentiment with the quiet answer, “Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.” On another occasion He saw the multitudes fol¬lowing Him, and He turned and said, “If any man cometh to me and hateth not his father, mother, wife, brethren, sisters, yea, and his own life also, he can not be my disciple.”

Herein I see the kindness of Christ. lie would save a man from the pain and humiliation which ever come to him who begins a high enterprise whose difficulties and disap¬pointments he has neither gaged nor suspected. Is there any picture more pitiable in Bunyan’s allegory than that of Pliable, who had thoughtlessly set out on pilgrimage, and who at last is found sneaking among his former companions, his own self-respect gone, and himself the object of their mockery and contempt? It had been better for him not to have known the way of life than, having known it, to depart from the way of righteousness.

Not less clear is the wisdom of Christ’s candor. Much as He suffered when men went back and walked no more with Him, it were better so than that they should follow Him under illusions. Fair-weather disciples are out of place in a kingdom where patient endurance is an inexorable necessity. The failure of this type of character is graphically depicted in the parable of the sower. These are they who hear the word and - alas for the fatal word! - immediately with joy receive it. Yet have they no root in themselves, but are only temporary, and when tribulation or persecution arise because of the word, immediately - the declension is as swift as the profession - they are made to stumble. The reminder is not an untimely one for these days of revival. “A man who is touched only on the surface of his soul by a religious movement and has yielded to the current without understanding what it means, whither it tends, and what it involves, is doomed to apostasy in the season of trial. When the tide of enthusiasm subsides and he is left to himself to carry on single-handed the struggle with temptation, he has no heart for the work, and his religion withers like the corn growing on rocky places under the scorching heat of the summer sun” (Bruce). Therefore, count the cost before thou takest upon thy lips so great a pledge as this: “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest”

The diffident man is another type of char¬acter. He does not proffer his allegiance. He is timid and shy in the presence of great demands and heroic tasks. Jesus has looked into the soul of this man and seen the stuff of which apostles, missionaries, confessors and martyrs are made. And He summons him to the sublime work of preaching the gospel of the kingdom. The retiring man pleads home duties. Elsewhere we read of one who had married a wife, and therefore could not come. Here we have a man who pleads the claims of filial piety. “Suffer me first to go and bury my father.” The ordinary interpretation of these words is that this man ‘s father was dead, and that he simply sought permission to wait till the funeral was over. It may be so, or it may be that this was a proverbial way of sacrificing Christ to the claims of family affection. He shrinks from the high calling and excuses himself by saying that there are ordinary everyday duties to be done. It is an Eastern way of declaring that other claims take precedence of some great demand made upon him, and he says that he will obey when he has buried his father. Take it in either sense, the word of Christ is clear, and the principle on which it is based is indisputable. There are crises in life when the duty of burying one‘s father must be subordinated to a more imperious call. When in the hour of an empire’s peril, the summons comes to a soldier to fight his country’s battle, his oath to his king must be preferred before piety to parents, however right and beautiful that may be under ordinary circumstances. Christ always claims to stand first. Whoever loves father or mother more than Him is not worthy of Him. Not that He was indifferent to the sacred ties of home life. In His own mortal agony He commended Mary to the beloved disciple. In the chapter immediately before that from which my text is taken, He claimed the right to send a man home to be a missionary there when the man would fain have remained at His side. Christ claims the rights of absolute ownership over every one of us. And surely this fact leads to faith in His higher nature. No one man of a particular race and age can be the one absolute authority for all men of all ages and all races unless he is something more than mans however great and good. What think ye of Christ? Who is He that He may command us all as He wills and look for our unhesitating and unreserved obedience?

Consider, too, the principle of Christ’s answer to this man. “Let the dead bury their own dead.” Let those who have no spiritual life in them attend to the tasks which need no spiritual life for their discharge, but let the man who is fitted for high work which only a rare soul can accomplish devote himself to it as to his heaven-appointed mission. This has been called Christ’s law of economy in the service of the kingdom. Every man is bound to serve where he can be and do the most for his king. He must trade with his pound and make it yield all that is possible. If one has in him the capacity of a great statesman - ah, what would we not give for such an one at the present hour ! - he has no right to be following the plow. If a young man is gifted with the spiritual vision and power of expression which made the prophet of the Lord, he is guilty of unholy waste if he stands behind a counter measuring off calico. It is related of the late Dr. Parker that he said: “I came early to the conclusion that the Almighty did not intend me to carry bricks and mortar up a ladder.” He was right. Not that these tasks are common or unclean.
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws,

Makes that and the action fine. But myriads can attend to these duties, while the statesman, the missionary, the preacher, are few and far to seek. Do I speak to any man who has heard Christ‘s call to preach the gospel of the kingdom? It is not for us to run unless we are bidden. No man taketh this honor to himself but he that is called of God. If, however, thou hast heard the voice of Jesus, I would pray that thou mayest have no rest till thou hast yielded Him obedience. Listen to His own Word: “Let the dead bury their own dead, but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God.”

The irresolute man is he who said, “Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first bid them farewell who are at my house.” The natural request was met with what seems an unreasonable answer. A similar petition was made by Elisha to Elijah when he was called to the prophetic office. And Elijah granted it. Is Elijah more considerate and human than Jesus? We must look beneath the surface. Martin Luther says, in commenting upon this verse, “The New Testament was written for men with heads upon their shoulders.” Elijah granted the request because it was safe to grant it. Jesus saw here a man easily led away, to whom the farewell visit would be fatal. Once in the family circle all kinds of obstacles would be put in his way; tender reproaches and tearful pleadings would he leveled against his resolve; heart-moving pictures would be put before him of the perils which must attend the man who was wild enough to throw in his lot with Jesus of Nazareth. And under the warmth of home affection his little courage would melt away. To go home would be to say farewell to the kingdom forever. Therefore, in a graphic way, our Lord reminds this volunteer that half-hearted men are useless in the service of God. He who puts his hand to the plow must give eye and mind to his work or he will be the derision of the field when the furrow is complete. Even with our heavy instruments drawn by two horses (sometimes more intelligent than the man behind) attention to the business in hand is essential to success. But with the Hebrew plow of much lighter con¬struction, with only one stilt to guide it, leaving the other hand free to use the goad to the often untractable ox, undivided interest was indispensable.

Let us lay to heart the truth. The half¬hearted are not fit for the kingdom of God. Are they fit for any kingdom worth the having? No man can make a scholar who is not prepared to scorn delights and live laborious days. No young man will be successful in business if his chief thought all day is of the hour when he may escape from the office to his football or golf. Ay, no man can be a king in the sphere of athletics unless he is prepared to pay the price of self-control and severe training. How, then, should we be fit for the highest kingdom if, while we profess to be Christ’s, our hearts are not wholly His but with the world? Yes, it is hard to be a Christian. And the Lord in very kindness and truth tells us that nothing less than personal devotion to Himself will carry us through. There are hours in life when we have to learn with pain the’ lesson of forgetting the past. Bright and beautiful and not unholy as it was, we may not nurse and fondle it, for God has called us to a new work which demands all our strength, and there may not be a look behind. The Master here spoke out of the depth of His own experience. His face was now set to Jerusalem. Behind Him lay the happy home of Nazareth, and warm hearts and kindly friends were in the northern province. It was not easy to turn to the unloving city, and Peter sought to dissuade Him from the sorrow and suffering which lay in His God-appointed path. But the well-meant entreaty was rejected as a temptation from hell. It was a temptation to look back. He could not afford to palter with it, to give it lodgment for one moment. How much less may we? Has the world been gaining too much influence over us? Has its spell weakened our hold of the plow? Then let us look to Him who can reinforce our will and give us a single heart. The sorrow of looking back is this, that it never ends there. In the long run it means going back from the plow altogether. “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” It can not be otherwise. That love of the world is the backward look, which, persisted in, issues in apostasy. Consider Him who endured to the end lest ye be weary and faint in your mind. Pray to Him who giveth power to the faint. Then grip the plow more earnestly, and press on. Be not of them who draw back unto perdition and in whom God has no pleasure, rather aspire to be of that elect company who believe unto the saving of the soul.

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