Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 29, 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 3
Never Look Back
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)
You have heard it said: Never look back. It is good advice; great advice to be sure in all areas of life. But especially when it comes to following our Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life; and there is no other. There never has been, nor will there ever be. As the liturgy of the Hebrews states in 13:8, “Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today and forever.”
And so don’t look back, don’t live in the past because both pleasant and terrifying memories are imposters just the same that paralyze a person and stop him from following Jesus to the exclusion of all other “lords” or “gods.”
Yes, draw a line under the past and take the counsel of Saint Paul:
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Yes beloved! Our calling is forward, onward and upward; And so whatever ditch you may find yourself in today, ask your ascended Lord to lift you up high, and He will. He will forgive the sins of your youth, give you grace of overcome every obstacle; and will provide the way of escape.
All three of our readings today give us the same message: don’t look back: a message we all need to hear young Christian and old alike. Even Elijah who was a great, mighty and faithful prophet of God momentarily lost his footing because he looked back to the threats of Queen Jezebel to kill him, because he had killed all of her false prophets at the :LORDO’s command.
But the LORD set Elijah’s gaze forward and that was the cure for what ailed him. One of the jobs He assigned Elijah was to anoint Elisha to take over his prophetic office, because he, Elijah, would very soon be taken up into heaven alive. In so doing he would become a of prophecy of our Lord’s own ascension, and ours as well.
Elisha was another one who at first, looked back. But not for long. When Elijah put his own vestment onto Elisha he first wanted to go back home to kiss his father and mother good bye. But Elijah would have no part in it. Then when Elisha realized his mistake he instantly realized it, and conducted what was a beautiful prophecy of our LORD, and the Supper He instituted for us.
Elisha slaughtered the 24 oxen he was earlier using to plow the fields, cut up the wooden yokes, built a fire, cooked the oxen and gave it to his people to eat. But the word for “slaughter” in the original Hebrew Bible is the word: sacrificed. So he did not just kill the oxen, and burn the plows in order to show his radical separation from his old life – burn his bridges as it were – but he did it as a sacrifice to the LORD. And then, again in the original languages of Scripture the Bible reports that he “liturgized with Elijah.” That is to say: he worshiped and served the LORD along with Elijah. They were not united by the One True Faith in Christ.
Don’t look back. That is what Jesus says three different times in today’s gospel. One man, having realized the wonder of Who Jesus was, wanted to follow Him. But the Lord warned him that while: foxes have holes to live in, and the birds of the air have nests, that the Son of Man has no place to lay His sacred head. By which he meant that anyone who chooses to follow Jesus must be prepared to sleep rough. Must be prepared for a hard and challenging life. A lifetime of denying himself, his passions and pleasures, and instead taking up the cross like Jesus did, and following Him to Calvary and the grave, but finally to: the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
Two other men also wanted to follow Jesus that day but they wanted to put their affairs in order first. But no affair is so important as to delay following Jesus, even the sacred duty of burying our loved ones. Jesus said this: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”
But what does it mean to put our hand to the plow? It means to do what Elisha did: to worship and liturgize the One True God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. It means to do what Jesus told the man in today’s gospel: Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God. That is what we are doing at this very hour by grace through faith, Beloved, proclaiming the Kingdom of God. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Cor. 11:26)
Don’t look back. What else does it mean? It means to conduct war against the desires of the flesh: “adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, fits of anger, rage, rivalries, dissensions, factions, envy, murder, intoxications, orgies and the like – of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
As Christians we may look around us and see people engaging in the sins of the flesh, and having a good time. But that is only temporary because they cannot and will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Or we may consider our younger days before we believed, or when we took our Holy Faith less seriously and gratified the works of the flesh heedlessly, or perhaps hoping that God would forgive us before we got sucked under.
Don’t look back, but look forward to a New Way of Life in Christ. Living each day “in the Spirit” which He promised and richly poured out upon us, and continues to give us even more generously as often as we ask. Hear the Word of the Lord:
“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no Law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh along with its passions and desires. 25 And so if we live by the Spirit let us walk in line with the Spirit.”
Don’t look back. But instead adopt the Spirit of Saint Paul who says, “I strain forward to what lies ahead. 14 I press towards the goal, for the prize which is the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let as many of us as are mature think this way, and if anyone thinks otherwise, this also will God reveal. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.” (Phil. 3:13-16). Amen.
Don’t look back. Amen