NOTES for Luk 9:62

There are many examples in the Bible of such "looking back": Lot's wife, Israel during the Exodus... We look for ideals in the past, not realizing that the Kingdom of God is always here and ahead. Let me quote one passage from a contemporary author, Richard Rohr: "The Good News always points to the future, to some new place, to the promised land. It is never directed backward. But the irony of Christian history lies in our habit of turning back and saying: 'There used to be miracles. God used to be God then, great prophets lived then. Great saints lived in the Middle Ages...' Through this irony, the Word of God was turned from a liberating force into a conserving one. Because we did not truly listen to the Word of God, we began doing religious gymnastics and lost contact with the power of God's Word."