Jesus said the same as me.
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 9:62 KJV)
Exposition:-
Jesus stressed to this man the commitment necessary to follow Him. One must have a similar determination as a farmer plowing a field, who must do it with all his strength and always looking forward.
i. In plowing a field in that day, a farmer kept the rows straight by focusing on an object in front and in the distance (such as a tree). If the farmer started to plow and kept looking behind, he would never make straight rows and do a good job plowing. In following Jesus, we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, and never take our eyes off Him. “No ploughman ever ploughed a straight furrow looking back over his shoulder.” (Barclay)
ii. Plowmen also do something else of great importance: they hold on. A plowman who lets go is no plowman at all. “Ploughmen are not usually learned persons, nor are they often poets in disguise. But there is one virtue they possess pre-eminently, and that is the virtue of quietly holding to it.” (Morrison)
ii. More than anyone else, Jesus lived this; He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luk_9:51).
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2 KJV)
Well, which is it..."rest" or "
plow?"
You said, "give it a rest", He said "
plow."
The problem with your Exposition, is you have presented it not as "
My burden is light", but as "
works."
Jesus did not contradict Himself to say "
plow" and also "
My burden is light." But rather that His light burden is rest to those
who are weary and heavy laden, but requires an "all in" commitment. Which,
if done fully, leaves nothing to be done-- not requiring that we give all in a laborsome life, but rather, that He gave all.
Again,
this whole idea of those who have been set free and given rest, needing to go back into captivity and works to workout their own salvation, comes from not "rightly dividing the word of truth"--which is the gospel of Jesus given to two different "folds" (two different groups) by two different narratives.
It was to Israel that Jesus preached "
But he who endures to the end shall be saved", because they would not receive salvation until after death in the flesh. But those "
who are alive and remain", who are born again of the spirit of God before death in the flesh, He did not preach to them--not to that "
other fold", for He had only come for the house of Israel. However, He did explain how He would come to that other fold, which is by the Helper, and by Him knocking at the door, that He would
come in to them...not by works or endurance, but by hearing and answering. All of which must be rightly divided in the word of truth, or you grieve the Holy Spirit who was to come when Jesus went to the Father--not when death comes to all flesh.
But none of this will be understandable if one does not understand that Jesus spoke to "
the first" ("
the dead in Christ", which was Israel, who died in the flesh) and also to "
the last" ("
the living in Christ" who receive life everlasting while "
alive and remaining" in the world), saying, "
But many who are first will be last, and the last first." It is these two groups which make for two different narratives, that require the word of truth be "
rightly divided."
These things Jesus, the apostles, and Paul preached two thousand years ago. Yet,
sadly, most still "turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage."
