Feb 14: Don’t Look Back! It’s not worth it.

Luke 9:62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Farmer plowing a field

I am not a farming expert, or even close to knowing how farming is done, but I do love watching farmers work especially all the preparations that go behind producing a good harvest. At the end of the day, a farmer is solely dependent on the success of his harvest for his livelihood, and even though technology might have made things easier, there’s still a lot of hard work behind the scenes.

Plowing is the process where the farmer tills or turns over the soil before sowing seeds. In this step the good soil and fresh nutrients from underneath comes above and the weeds and the dry soil goes below to decay. In modern day farming, there are smart tractors with heavy duty equipment that can plow large areas in no time, but in the olden days, it would be oxen or horses pulling the plow with the farmer guiding it from behind. Naturally, the direction of plowing is always in the forward direction.

That brings up to Jesus’ statement in today’s verse. Jesus compares following Him to plowing and reminds his followers to not look back. Using the analogy of plowing, you can say that if someone looks back during plowing they are not going to be able to guide the oxen or the cattle in the right direction. Either the plowing needs to be stopped, or you risk messing up the track being plowed. One is unproductive and the other is not desirable. In other words, Jesus commands us to stay focused on Him, and keep moving forward.

When or why does someone turn back? Looking back can signify the things of the past that you have left behind as a follower of Jesus. It can indicate a desire to return to the things of this world. Remember Lot’s wife? She was escaping God’s judgement on her hometown – Sodom and Gomorrah, and was told by the angels “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” (Gen 19:17) But unfortunately, she disregarded those instructions and looked back and turned into a pillar of salt! The irony is that God pulled her out from the impending fire, only for her to die on the way because she looked back. Why did she look back? May be she had thoughts of going back to her home hoping that her beautiful home was spared? Or maybe she just wanted to have one final look on her beautiful city before it got wiped out. One can only speculate, but the reason is irrelevant, the outcome is.

Every now and then, a follower of Jesus Christ will have the temptation to look back. A yearning to go back to that old lifestyle that was sin ridden. Maybe it was a drinking habit with friends. Or lusting after material things or people. Maybe it was the self-indulgent pleasures of dining and shopping. It could even be hobbies or sport or anything that you loved doing in your spare time.

Sounds a little extreme? Don’t shoot the messenger. Listen to the context of what Jesus was responding to in Luke 9:61 “And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” That does not sound like a bad thing to do, before following Jesus? Saying goodbye to your family? If you think about it deeply (trust me, I have preached an entire sermon on this), you will understand that going back to say goodbye most likely will result on you changing your mind to follow Jesus. The pressure, the emotions, the questions that arise will all be too much that you will defer or cancel your plans to follow Christ. Enough to say that someone who has decided to follow Jesus and ‘looks back’ will end up not following Jesus at all.

It’s one of the prices to pay. It will cost a lot of things in your life. But it is still so worth it. The price you pay is nothing compared the price that Jesus paid on the cross to redeem us from sin and eternal death. 

Jesus was able to do it because He didn’t look back. He could have looked back at where He came from – His heavenly home. He was the Son of God after all with the entire universe at His disposal. Paul the apostle explains Jesus’ position before incarnation better “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Col 1:16-17)

Yet Jesus left all of that and “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:7-8)

But because Jesus did not look back, not only did He end up saving all of humanity, but

“God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-10)

If you don’t give up and follow Christ till the end, this is one the rewards as promised by Jesus Himself “To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star.” (Rev 2:26-28) And that is just ONE of the rewards!! Read Revelation Chapter 2 and 3 for the full list.

So, you see following Jesus is not an empty pursuit. What lies on the other side of eternity is far more precious than all the pleasures and treasures of this world combined. Keep moving forward. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don’t look back. Don’t even think about the past. It’s not worth it.