Luke 9

1 The time was soon coming for Jesus to go back to heaven, and he knew that, so he started to go to Jerusalem city. He wasn’t going to let anything stop him.⋮

2 He walked along the road, and he was getting close to a community in Samaria country, so he sent some messengers ahead of him to ask the people there for a place to camp that night.⋮

3 But the people in that community said, “No. He is going to Jerusalem. We don’t like that Jerusalem mob, so he is not our friend. He can’t camp here tonight.”⋮

4 James and John, 2 of his close followers, heard what they said, and those 2 said to Jesus, “Can we ask God to send fire down from the sky and kill all those people? Do you want us to do that?”⋮

5 Jesus turned around and said, “No. That is very wrong. Don’t do it.”⋮

6 Then they all went on to another community.⋮

7 As they walked along the road, a man said to Jesus, “I want to be one of your followers. I will go everywhere with you.”⋮

8 Jesus said to him, “Wild dogs have places where they can sleep, and birds have nests to rest in. But I have no home to lie down and sleep in, even though I’m God’s special man from heaven.”⋮

9 And Jesus said to another man, “Come and follow me.” That man said, “All right, I will come with you. But my father has died, so let me go home to bury him. After that, I will come with you.”⋮

10 Jesus said to him, “Some people don’t want me. It is like they are dead to me. So those people can bury the dead bodies of their own people. But you come and follow me.”⋮

11 Another man said to Jesus, “Yes Sir, I will follow you, but first I want to go back home and say goodbye to all my family.”⋮

12 Jesus said, “Don’t think about going back. It’s like a man that is driving something, he has to look ahead, not backwards. Well, you are like that man. You have to follow me and look at me. If you look back, like you think about the things you left behind, you are not the right person to join God’s family.”⋮