Luke 9:62

LESSONS FROM THE PLOUGH

‘And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’

Luke 9:62

The point of view from which the Lord regards nature is often novel and unlooked for, producing all the effects—moral as well as intellectual—of surprise or discovery. The saying of the text is a condensed parable suggestive of—

I. The kind of work to which Jesus calls.—‘ Having put his hand to the plough.’ Ploughing, in its first effects, is—

(a) An overturning and destructive process. This is the very aim of the Son of God’s manifestation, whether in Himself or His followers, viz. ‘to destroy the works of the devil.’ And the first grave charge brought against the apostles was, that they ‘had turned the world upside down.’ The Christian life is more than an uncompromising attitude, it is an active iconoclasm, an aggressive crusade. But the first field of the disciple is his own heart.

(b) A preparative work. It is but a beginning—of the whole cycle of agriculture the farthest from the harvest—but it is as necessary as any of the later processes, and may not be omitted. It fits the ground for the reception of the seed, and provides for the health and unhindered growth of the plants. It is thus, and not otherwise, the Kingdom is to be brought in.

II. What this work demands.—Our Lord checked thus the plausible desire of a compromising disciple. Is the requirement too stern? The defence is that it is absolutely necessary. As in ploughing, so in Christian life and service, there are requisite—

(a) The forward look and the distant aim. The skilled ploughman instinctively fixes his eye on a mark far ahead of where he stands, and keeps the ploughshare in line with it. The truly spiritual man is an enthusiast but not a fanatic; he is in the best sense an ‘idealist.’ The world mocks and denies whilst the Christian gazes at the city that is ‘out of sight’; but he has no alternative. The ‘forward look’ is the very law of the new life. No true work for the King is possible without it. And as for the ‘backward look,’ it is not for a moment to be thought of. ‘Remember Lot’s wife!’

(b) A straight course. The disciple’s duty is like the straight line of geometry, ‘the shortest between two given points.’ We must keep steadfastly on, turning neither to right nor left.

(c) Resolute and sustained effort. Putting the hand to the plough is a serious, deliberate act. It is that of one who professes to intend work. Are we in earnest?

These are high qualities the ploughman teaches us, but in their perfect embodiment there is only One Who can be our example.

Illustration

‘The ploughman and his team are a favourite subject for painter and poet; but this particular view of them, in which an analogy to His kingdom is declared, is too austere to lend itself readily to the uses of art. Two, and only two, of our modern men of genius recall to me, just at present, this mood of the great Teacher—Millet, the painter of the peasant life of France, in such pictures, for instance, as his “Sower” and “The Angelus”; and Burns, the poet of the plough, who sang with such immortal pathos the sorrow of the field-mouse, that

saw the fields laid bare and waste,

And weary winter comin’ fast,

And cozie here, beneath the blast

Had thought to dwell,

Till, crash! the cruel coulter past

Out through its cell;

and the ruin of the “wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower,” that had “met him in an evil hour.” Very terrible is the large pessimist moral concerning “suffering worth” with which the latter poem ends:

E’en thou who mourn’st the Daisy’s fate,

That fate is thine—no distant date;

Stern Ruin’s ploughshare drives, elate,

Full on thy bloom,

Till crushed beneath the furrow’s weight

Shall be thy doom!

In Christ’s reference to the ploughman’s task there is full recognition of its hardship and difficulty, nay, there is an emphasis on these, but we fail to detect the slightest trace of pessimism; on the contrary, His words ring with hopefulness, resolution, and strength.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

SPIRITUAL PLOUGHMEN

It is quite certain that our Lord Jesus Christ, Who never used His words or His metaphors lightly, meant a great deal by comparing the work of the Gospel to the work of the ploughman at the plough. What He must have meant was this, that all the characteristics which we see essential to the ploughman, are also essential for the work of the Gospel. Every single baptized member of the Church has his infant hand placed upon the plough at his baptism, and we are to be—

I. Men of dogged determination.

II. Men who go on whether the sun fall upon us—the sunshine of popular favour—or the cold rain and mist of hostile criticism.

III. Men who never look to the right hand or to the left, who do not say to ourselves in the middle of our work, ‘I am sorry I was ordained,’ or ‘I am sorry I took these responsibilities upon me again on my confirmation.’

IV. Men who never look back or look to the one side or to the other for mere comfort in life, or easier circumstances, but who are wholly bent upon this one thing, seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

V. Above all, we are to be men of unbounded hope with something before us, a future which, perhaps, we shall never see, and ever ringing in our ears a song which on earth, perhaps, we shall never hear—that picture the picture of a redeemed humanity, and that song the song of the eternal Harvest Home.