Perspective: No Turning Back

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No Turning Back

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."

Matthew 16:24-25 (NRSV)

I just can't walk away

'Cause after loving You

I can never be the same

From "Never Be the Same" by RED

The prophet Elijah had been instructed by God to name a man named Elisha as his successor,¹ so he met up with Elisha at his family's home.  While Elisha was helping to plow a field, Elijah walked past him, throwing his mantle over him.  Elisha understood what this symbolic action meant for him, but there was something he needed to do before he left his home.  He ran after Elijah and said to him, "Let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you."

"Go!" Elisha replied.  "I'm not holding you back!"

Elisha then returned to his home, butchered the two oxen that were pulling his plow, used the plow and the yoke as firewood to cook the meat, and then served the meat to the members of the household.²

It was a strange way for someone to tell his family goodbye.

I think it is safe to say that Elisha had no intention of ever plowing again.

One day hundreds of years later, while walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus met a number of fishermen, and He called them to follow Him.  They left their nets, their boats, and their families' businesses and followed Jesus.³  Later on, Jesus came across a tax collector named Matthew and also called him to be His follower.  Matthew left his toll booth, and, like Elisha, he commemorated his new calling in life with a dinner, to which he invited a number of his colleagues.⁴

According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."⁵  Death is the ultimate symbol of change.  In some sense, life itself is a repeating cycle of death and rebirth.  What was ceases to be, and what will be comes into being.  When Elijah called Elisha, Elisha died as a farmer and was reborn as a prophet.  When Jesus called His first students, they died as fishermen and tax collectors and were reborn as Disciples.  Their lives would take on a new meaning, and they would no longer be the people they were when they accepted their call.

Some journeys in life are such that, once we start down the road, there will be no turning back.  What is seen will never be unseen; what is learned will never be unlearned; and what is discovered will never be undiscovered.  We will not be the same people we were before we started the journey.  Such are the journeys God calls us to take.

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I believe that my own journey has left me a different person.  If you would like to read about my call and journey of faith, check out my introspection "A Time of Growth."


Notes:

1. 1 Kings 19:15-16
2. 1 Kings 19:19-21 (CEB)
3. Matthew 4:18-22
4. Matthew 9:9-10
5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The Cost of Discipleship.

The illustration featured in this perspective is understood to be public domain.