Street Faith

In Luke 9:62, Jesus makes a statement that bothers a lot of modern readers. They don’t get it. As various people offer their excuses for not immediately following him, he finally says, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Most readers today just think that he was strongly emphasizing the singular demands of following him, but then most readers today have never driven a tractor or plowed a field. It requires concentration. Undivided attention. To drive in a straight line, your eyes need to be fixed on where you’re going, not where you’ve been. If you look back there’s a good chance that you’ll pull to the right or left. And if the row you’re tilling swerves, even slightly, it effects the entire field. If you want to work the field and do it properly, you can’t spend time looking back. And, according to Jesus, this is what it’s like with the Kingdom of God. Today’s episode of Marketplace Kingdom features the second half of our most recent interview w