Dear Christian friends:

When you are looking for a job you know that you must be qualified for that job or you will not have a chance to get it. What are the qualifications of the job you want? What training must you have? What are the age limits? Do you have to have a car? Are you free to travel? Various jobs have various qualifications.

So, also, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you must be qualified. In our text we read how several persons wanted to become a disciple of Jesus. Some of them were not qualified. Are you qualified to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? We Christians claim to be disciples of Jesus, but are we really His disciples? Are we qualified to be a disciple of Jesus?


The first qualification of a disciple of Jesus is that he have the same spirit as Jesus has.

In our text we see that James and John did not have Jesus' spirit one day. Jesus rebuked them and said to them, "You do not know what spirit you have." (verse 56) They did not have Jesus' spirit. They had man's spirit, the spirit of pride and revenge. Jesus had sent some of His disciples ahead of Him to a town in Samaria to prepare a place for Him to stay one evening. But the people of that town refused to welcome Jesus because He was a Jew and they hated the Jews. (verses 52-53)

When James and John saw that, they asked Jesus, “Lord, can we command fire from heaven to destroy these people?" (verse 54) They wanted to punish those people because they did not welcome Jesus into their village. Jesus scolded James and John and said to them, "You have a bad and wrong spirit. Because the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." (verse 56)

Jesus came from heaven to earth. He is the Son of Man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He, the Son of God, humbled Himself and became a man so that He could accept our sins and suffer the punishment of our sins Himself so that we and all men could have forgiveness of sins and not suffer God's anger and punishment against law-breakers. Jesus came to save men, not to destroy them.

That is the spirit of Jesus: love, mercy, patience, forgiveness to enemies.

That is the spirit a disciple of Jesus must have. That is the first qualification of a disciple of Jesus.

The second qualification of a disciple of Jesus is that he be able to follow Jesus no matter what the cost.

Often we Christians seem to think that it is easy to follow Jesus. True, God's love and mercy is a free gift: True, God forgives sins because of Jesus' death on the cross. True, salvation is a free gift of God. We can't earn it or buy it! But it nevertheless costs us much to follow Jesus.

In our text we see how one man was very excited and eager to follow Jesus. He said to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow You any place You go." Jesus could see that he was very enthusiastic, but Jesus realized that he did not count the cost of following Him. So Jesus said to the man, "Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to rest His head." (verses 57-58) Jesus means to say to us: "You want to follow Me? Do you realize what that will cost you? You may have no home if you follow Me. People have homes, animals have their holes or dens and birds have their nests, but I have no place to sleep."

Jesus owned few earthly things. He never owned a home. Jesus did not value earthly things like men do. He knew He would not stay here on earth very long. He valued spiritual things and longed to finish His work on earth and return to His home above.

Jesus was a Pilgrim. You should know what a pilgrim is because you have chosen that name for your church here, Pilgrim Lutheran Church of the Deaf. A pilgrim is someone who is traveling from one country to another.

A pilgrim travels lightly, with few possessions. So we should think of ourselves that we are pilgrims like Jesus was. We will be here on earth only a short time and then we will go on to our real home in heaven.

If we have that goal, we will not be greedy for earthly things and riches or comforts. We will be more interested in spending our time and energy in following Jesus, doing His work. We will not get too tied down to all these things that unbelievers value and love.

Jesus expects us to be like Him and be ready to suffer hard times in order to follow Him. This is the second qualification of a disciple of Jesus. We must be ready to follow Jesus no matter what that costs us: home, friends, comfort, honor among men, etc.

The third qualification of a disciple is realizing that Jesus' work is first.

In our text Jesus told another man to come and follow Him. The man said "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury the dead, but you go and tell about God's kingdom." (verses 59-60) This man had a good excuse to delay following Jesus and doing Jesus' work. He wanted to attend to his father's funeral. But even that good excuse Jesus did not accept. Jesus told him, "Let the dead (the spiritually dead) bury your father, but you go and preach about God's kingdom." Funerals are important but preaching the Good News of God's kingdom is more important. A disciple should not let even important earthly customs bother his doing the Lord's work.

Another man said to Jesus, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say, 'Goodbye', to my family at home." Jesus answered, "No man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." (verses 61-62) This, too, seems like a good excuse Jesus does not accept. Jesus says that such a man is not fit, not worthy to be a member of God's kingdom. He is like a man trying to plow while looking backwards. You know what will happen if you try plowing and looking backwards.

We must be firmly committed to Jesus and not looking back on the old life of this world. Lot's wife became a pillar of salt when she looked back. (Genesis 19:26)

Are you qualified to be a follower of Jesus? Do you have Jesus' spirit? Are you willing to pay the high cost of discipleship? May God show mercy to us and bless us with His grace so that we be qualified!

Amen.