51 The time was soon coming for Jesus to go back to heaven, so he started to go to Jerusalem city. He wasn’t going to let anything stop him. 52 So he walked along the road, and soon he was getting close to a town in Samaria country, so he sent some messengers ahead of him to ask the people there for a place to stay that night. 53 But the people in that town said, “No. He is going to Jerusalem. We don’t like that Jerusalem mob, so he is not our friend. He can’t stay here tonight.”

54 James and John, 2 of Jesus’s special workers, heard what they said, then those 2 men 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?”[a]

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

56 Then they all went on to another town.

57 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.”

58 Jesus said to him, “All right, but your life will not be easy. You see, wild dogs have places where they go to sleep, and birds have nests to rest in. But I haven’t got a home to lie down and sleep in, even though I’m God’s special man from heaven. So if you follow me, you too might not have a home.”

59 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.”

60 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 have to go and tell people that God wants them in his family.”

61 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.”[b]

62 Jesus said, “Don’t think about going back. I’ll use the picture of a man that is driving something. He has to look at what is ahead of him, not look back at what is behind him. Well, it is the same for you. You have to look at me, and think about me. If you think about the people and the things that you left behind, it is like you are looking back, and you are not the right person to join God’s family.”

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