Section 9:57–62

It is hard to follow Jesus

In the previous section, Luke spoke about the unwillingness of people in a Samaritan village to receive Jesus. In this Section 9:57–62, Luke told about three men who said that they were willing to follow Jesus. However, they did not understand the difficulties involved. Jesus warned each of them that it would not be easy. He told them that they must put the kingdom of God above everything else in their lives.

Some other examples of headings for this section are:

The Difficulty of Following Jesus
-or-
Three People Who Wanted To Be Jesus’ Followers

There is a parallel passage for this section in Matthew 8:19–22.

Paragraph 9:57–58

The previous Section 9:51–56 indicated that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, so “the road” that Luke mentioned in 9:57a may be the road to Jerusalem. However, the setting for the parallel passage in Matthew 8:19–22 is different, so specific details about the location should not be made explicit here.

9:57a

As they were walking along the road: The pronoun they refers to Jesus and his disciples. The phrase the road does not refer to any specific place or time. You should translate this setting in a general way. For example:

As they were walking along (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-

⌊One day⌋ as they walked along the road

someone said to Jesus: Luke does not identify this man in any way. The text does not indicate whether he was walking with Jesus and his disciples or whether he approached Jesus at some place along the way. In some languages it may be necessary to introduce this man into the story in a general way. For example:

⌊there was⌋ a man ⌊who approached⌋ Jesus and said

9:57b

I will follow You wherever You go:
The phrase I will follow You indicates here that the man wanted to be one of Jesus’ disciples. In Jesus’ time, a disciple followed his master wherever he went and learned from him. In some languages some of this information may need to be made explicit. For example:

I will ⌊be your disciple and⌋ follow you anywhere you go.
-or-
I want to become your follower ⌊always⌋. Wherever you go, I will go also.

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