Luke 9:57-62 — “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first…” In this passage we witness Jesus’ interaction with three disciples who expressed a desire to follow Him. Rather than affirming the first disciple, Jesus told him what following Him would cost. The second and third disciple each offered an excuse as to why they could not follow Jesus immediately. There were things they needed to do “first.” These seemed to be quite reasonable excuses but Jesus would not accept them.
In Jesus’ response to these disciples He put his finger on what is perhaps the greatest problem afflicting Western, middle-class, evangelical Christianity. It is the reality that for many, there are things they want to do first, before following Jesus.