ルカによる福音書9:57-62 Luke 9:57-62,

イエスはその人に、「鋤に手をかけてから後ろを顧みる者は、神の国にふさわしくない」と言われた。（ルカ9:62）

ある人が「主よ、あなたに従います。しかし、まず家族にいとまごいに行かせてください」（61節）と言いました。旧約聖書の列王記には、預言者エリヤが弟子のエリシャに家族への別れのあいさつを許す場面があります。列王記上の19章20節です。畑仕事をしていたエリシャは、預言者エリヤから弟子になるようにとの招きを受けたときに、「わたしの父、わたしの母に別れの接吻をさせてください。それからあなたに従います」と言いました。すると、エリヤは「行ってきなさい」と言って、エリシャに別れの挨拶に行くことを許可します。ですから、私たちはキリストに「まず家族にいとまごいに行かせてください」と言った人を非難することはできないでしょう。この人の言っていることは、常識的に考えて無理のないことであります。

ところが、キリストはその人に向かって「鋤に手をかけてから後ろを顧みる者は、神の国にふさわしくない」とおっしゃいました。つまり「キリストの弟子となることを志願しながら、家族にいとまごいに行くような者は神の国にふさわしくない」とお叱りになったのであります。これは大変厳しい御言葉です。「すき」というのは動物に引かせて畑を耕す道具ですが、後ろを見ながらではまっすぐに畑を耕すことができません。細かいことを申しますと、私たちの用いている新共同訳聖書では、金へんに助けると書く「鋤」という字を当てています。これは、人間の手と足の力で畑を耕す道具を表します。しかし、この箇所で用いられているギリシャ語のアロトロンという言葉は、牛や馬に引かせて畑を耕す道具のことです。英語の聖書でも牛や馬に引かせて畑を耕す道具を表すplowという言葉に翻訳されています。日本語でも読み方は同じ「すき」ですが、牛という字を使う「犂」という字があります。そちらを使う方が正確でしょう。つまり、キリストは「すき」を牛や馬に引かせながら後ろを振り向いていては畑をまっすぐに耕すことができないように、過去の生活に未練を残していてはまっすぐにキリストに従っていくことはできないということおっしゃっているのであります。（9月10日の説教より）

There is a saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” which is also true of the path of Christian faith. In other words, a sincere Christian life is developed through the accumulation of daily prayer and weekly worship. By devoting a specific time each day to God in prayer, and by worshipping in church on Sunday, the first day of the week, we develop a right attitude towards God and our neighbour. It would be reckless to try to achieve anything significant on the path of faith without such discreet and humble efforts, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that in most cases they will fail without them.

After the Second World War, there was a Christian boom in Japan and churches attracted large numbers of young men and women. Among them, there were some who did not live a solid life of faith, but only had big ambitions. According to Rev. TAKEDA Eishiro, the pastor of Osaka Nishi Church, who has already passed away, there were young people who followed missionaries to and from church around 1950. He once had the following exchange with one of them. “Pastor, I’ve decided to enter the seminary. Please write me a letter of recommendation.” “You don’t look familiar, are you a member of this church?” “No, I’m not a member of any church. I was saved by a missionary.” “How can I write a letter of recommendation for someone who is not a member of this church, who does not attend services or give offerings, in other words, who has not fulfilled his duties as a member of the church? What are you going to do when you get into the seminary?” “After I graduate from the seminary, I’m going to International Christian University.” “What will you do after that?” “I’m going to study in America.” “And what will you do there?” “I’m going to save Japan.” When Pastor TAKEDA heard this, he got angry and shouted, “Don’t be ridiculous. Seminary is not a place for a lazy person like you.” It is not good to shout, but it is certainly wrong for those who do not know how to follow Christ step by step to say big things.

However, this step-by-step following of Christ is something that seems easy but is very difficult. For example, it is not easy to continue to offer weekly services in the same church for 10 years. And it is even more difficult when it is 20 years. This is because as the years go by, 10 or 20 years, it is normal that there are many times when you want to stop going to worship. We need to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Christ in heaven and decide that since he has invited me to worship, I should respond to his invitation and offer worship. In order to do this, a firm faith must be nourished in the depths of our hearts. In other words, in order to put first the first thing, which is Jesus Christ, we must be prepared to do so.

In today’s Bible passages, three people are mentioned besides Christ. These three persons were those who had volunteered to become Christ’s disciples. The first person was a very active person. This was because, as it is written in v. 57, he offered himself to Christ, “I will follow you wherever you go.” However, Christ’s reply to this aggressive applicant was harsh, as if Christ were throwing cold water on him, as in verse 58. Namely, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The meaning of these words should be clear. The fox, the beast of the field, has a hole, a place to lie down, and the birds of the air have a nest, a place to return to, but the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, has no safe place to rest. And he was constantly persecuted in this world. Jesus asked, “Are you aware of this and saying, ‘I will follow you wherever you go’?” In the passages immediately preceding this one, it is recorded that Christ was persecuted in the Samaritan village, so perhaps he was saying this in the light of that as well.

Of course, it is not that Christ had literally “nowhere to lay his head,” because wherever he went, his collaborators appeared to him, offering him a place to stay and food to eat. However, these were all temporary places of sojourn, and it is true that Christ did not have a place of rest on earth. In other words, does the question “Do you know how hard it is not to have a place of rest on earth?” Christ asked. But when you think about it, the fact that an earthly dwelling is a temporary place of sojourn is not new. It is also common to the Old Testament patriarch Abraham, the father of faith, who lived his earthly life as a sojourner.

The second person was invited by Christ to “follow me” and replied, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” This man’s answer was a very common sense answer, since it is the duty of a child to bury his father. In the Old Testament, patriarch Joseph who became a minister in Egypt, held a large funeral for his father Jacob, as recorded in Genesis chapter 50. Christ, however, responded to this common-sense answer, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” In other words, “You have more to do first than to bury your dead. That is to spread the gospel of the kingdom of God, which you can enter by believing in Christ.” Then, who is going to do the father’s funeral? It is going to be done by someone else. The interpretation of the verse 60 “Leave the dead to bury their own dead” is a very difficult one. Perhaps “the dead” does not refer to those who are physically dead, but to those who are spiritually dead, i.e., those who do not believe in Christ. Therefore, Christ may have been teaching that the funeral should be left to those who did not follow him, and that you should follow him in preaching the gospel.

Biblical teaching does not in any way make light of honouring the father and mother. Nevertheless, it is taught in this way, perhaps to show how serious it is to follow Christ. Indeed, it is only the wife, children or immediate family who can give a father’s funeral. However, receiving the invitation to be a disciple of Christ is even more special than that. The death of an immediate family member is something that many people experience. However, an encounter with Christ is something that only a very limited number of people experience. Moreover, even in the lifetime of these limited people, there are not so many opportunities to make the big decision to believe in and follow Christ. If they miss the opportunity to follow Christ for any reason, they may never be able to experience his grace again. Therefore, if the voice of Christ’s invitation is heard in the soul, it is important to believe and obey at that time, rather than saying, “Another time later.” The twelve disciples of Christ were people who became disciples in this way. For example, Peter and his brother Andrew were fishermen who caught fish in the lake with nets, but when they heard the voice of Christ’s invitation, they left their nets and immediately followed him. James and his brother John were tending their nets when they heard Christ’s invitation. They left their father and hired hands in the boat to follow Christ. Matthew, a tax collector, received Christ’s invitation while sitting in a tax-collection office collecting taxes and became a disciple straight away.

The third person seems to be even more reluctant than the second person. According to verse 61, the person said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” While the second person had the cause of burying his father, this third person only had the reason of wanting to see his family again and say goodbye. However, this reason is also understandable when considered from a humanistic point of view. In the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, there is a scene in which the prophet Elijah allowed his disciple Elisha to say goodbye to his family (1 Kings 19:20). When Elisha, who was working in the fields, received an invitation from the prophet Elijah to become a disciple, he said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Elijah then said, “Go back again,” and allowed Elisha to go to say goodbye. So we can hardly blame the person who said to Christ, “Let me first say farewell to those at my home.” What he was saying was not unreasonable from a common sense point of view.

However, Christ said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” In other words, He rebuked him, saying, “Anyone who volunteers to be a disciple of Christ and then goes to his family to say goodbye is not fit for the kingdom of God.” These are very harsh words. A plough is a tool that is pulled by animals to plough a field, but it is impossible to plough the field in a straight line if you are looking behind you. (The explanation of Japanese “Suki”: omitted) Christ is saying that just as we cannot plough a field in a straight line if we look back while letting the oxen and horses pull the plough, we cannot follow Christ in a straight line if we are still dwelling on our past lives. We, too, should be mindful that we do not bend the path of following Christ because of our concern for the dead or for our immediate family.

This may give the impression that a life of faith is to be lived in what is known as “Chototsu Moushin” in Japanese, which means a rush, as a wild boar charging forward. However, it is not enough to live a single-minded life of faith from a superficial point of view. Rather than superficial behaviour, the soul itself must become a way of following Christ without looking away. In my sermon the other day, I talked about Mr. YOKOI Tokio. This man was baptised and became a Christian under the guidance of Captain Leroy Lansing Janes in Kumamoto during the so-called Meiji Era. As I have already told you, he suffered severe persecution from his immediate family and others when he became a Christian. However, Mr. YOKOI pushed through it and entered the path of faith. He later studied at Doshisha and served as pastor of the Imabari Church in Ehime and the Hongo Church in Tokyo before becoming rector of Doshisha. Later, however, Mr. YOKOI became steeped in the liberal theology that was popular at the time and stopped being Doshisha’s rector and turned to politics and economics. Even if it cannot be said that he renounced his faith, he left the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel. A man who, when baptised, literally followed Christ over the objections of his immediate family and those around him, eventually came to distance himself from Christ.

However, this was in contrast to the case of Rev. UEMURA Masahisa, who was baptised by missionary Rev. James Hamilton Ballagh in Yokohama. As you know, Rev. UEMURA was a leader of the Church of Christ in Japan during the so-called Meiji and Taisho periods. And throughout his life, Rev. UEMURA remained a preacher of the gospel of Christ. He excelled in literature and criticism and was fluent in English. It was said that he was the best critic of the English poet Robert Browning at the time and he was repeatedly asked by Waseda to give lectures on Browning, but he kept refusing.

I would like to briefly introduce the circumstances of UEMURA Masahisa’s initiation into Christianity. UEMURA Masahisa’s father was a shougunal vassal, but when the new Meiji government was established, he lost his job and fell into ruin. As a young boy, UEMURA Masahisa, the eldest son, studied hard at a temple school in order to rebuild the family name. Every morning and evening, and twice a day, he visited a shrine dedicated to the warlord KATO Kiyomasa to pray for the longevity of his military fortunes. He was so devoted that he ate no fish and devoted himself to a vegetarian diet in honour of KATO Kiyomasa, who was a devoted Buddhist. Eventually, at the age of 13, UEMURA Masahisa enrolled in an English school run by a Japanese man, where he was taught English while working as a live-in student. However, he was forced to work there and was not allowed to study much, and the atmosphere at the school was frivolous, so he returned home after a year. Later, in 1872, he found out about an English language school in Yokohama run by missionary Rev. James Hamilton Ballagh, and he went there. Before he began teaching, Rev. Ballagh always read the Bible in English, explained it in Japanese, and prayed over it before starting his classes. It is said that his Japanese language was quite strange, and there is a story that UEMURA Masahisa used to listen to it while laughing. However, when UEMURA Masahisa himself read the Bible and learnt of the existence of the Creator God, he felt as if the world had been completely renewed, and he decided to enter the path of faith of Christianity and began to pray by himself every day.

Interestingly, it seems that it was only a little later that UEMURA Masahisa came to have a clear belief in the atonement of the cross of Christ, which is the core of the Christian faith. He was not baptised immediately, but took a few months to convince his mother. At first glance, this appears to be like the person in today’s Bible passages who consults his immediate family before attempting to follow Christ. It would seem to be contrary to biblical teachings. However, he should not simply be seen that way on the surface. Rather, we should see him as a man who read the Bible and decided to take up the Christian faith, and since then, with unwavering ambition, he walked step by step in following Christ and even persuaded his mother to do the same. UEMURA Masahisa’s walk was a step-by-step walk of sure obedience to Christ. God used such a man as a leader of the Church of Christ in Japan. We, too, want to be followers of Christ step by step with unshakable determination.