You may read the sermon below of listen to it at this link.
Luke 9:51-62
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for his arrival, 53 but they did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then they went on to another village.
Would-Be Followers of Jesus
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus[c] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
I’ll be completely and totally honest with you this morning— this is not the kind of Jesus story I really like.
I like the stories of tame Jesus. I like the stories of Jesus feeding people. And the stories of Jesus healing people. I would even much rather the story of Jesus putting a legion of demons into a whole herd of pigs.
Even give me the story of Jesus cursing a fig tree or clearing sinful people out of the temple. I’m okay with all of those kinds of stories of Jesus. They are tame… or if they aren’t tame, they seem to target the most powerful and sinful of the people Jesus encounters. And surely that’s not me, right?
But this story… this story is convicting and makes me uncomfortable. Not because of my wealth or my status in society, but because of my faith life— because of the way I walk with Jesus.
Perhaps I have been here at Redeemer too long, because when I read this story, I could hear Father Wiley say that he is not interested in ethical questions of good vs evil. It’s when we start to think about good vs good is when things start to get really interesting.
That’s what we hear this morning. That’s why this story is so very convicting and makes me so very uncomfortable.
First half is about Jesus’ mercy to people who really have no intention of following him in the first place.
Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem and are passing through a village of Samaria. The people there had maybe heard of Jesus, but knew he was on his way to Jerusalem, so they didn’t have any interest in even receiving him and his disciples into their village.
The disciples are eager to teach the Samaritans a lesson and ask if Jesus wants them to bring down fire from heaven to consume the people there. The disciples lack faith in so many different ways, but as soon as they see someone snub Jesus, they think they can bring down fire from heaven to avenge him. The disciples are such an interesting bunch.
But Jesus says no, and continues on his way. He extends mercy to the Samaritans, even though they wouldn’t welcome him into their village.
But then Jesus talks to some other people along the road. These folks are different than the Samaritans because they are already there with Jesus, walking with him to Jerusalem.
“I will follow you wherever you go.” One of them says. Jesus replies with a sort of coded message, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He seems to be saying, “you say you’ll follow me wherever I’ll go, but you don’t know where I’m going. I don’t have a palace somewhere and I have nowhere to keep you safe once we get to Jerusalem.”
“Are you sure?” Jesus seems to be saying to this follower.
To another person, Jesus said, “Follow me.”
But the man said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
And Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”
And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
This is why this story of Jesus makes me so uncomfortable. It makes me shift in my chair a bit as I read it. I don’t *like* this version of Jesus. I don’t want to follow someone who would say something that seems so callous and unloving.
But then I remember again what Father Wiley says. The questions of good versus good are so much more interesting. I don’t think that Jesus is saying that it is a bad thing for people to want to go back and bury their loved ones. I don’t think Jesus is saying that it is a bad thing that this follower wants to go and say farewell to the people that he loves.
But Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem and nothing is going to stop him from doing what he was sent to earth to do. He expects his followers to have the same kind of determination that he does. Perhaps that was unfair to some of his followers at the time— after all, they didn’t know how the story would turn out. They don’t have the same privilege that we do, knowing that the end of the story with Jesus’ death was only really the beginning of the story of the Kingdom of God.
But we do.
There will always be things that divert our attention away from the gospel. There will always be excuses that we come up with— even good, valid, and important excuses— as to why we cannot follow Christ right now.
There will always be reasons why it would be easier to just catch up with him later, when it’s more convenient.
There will always be times when we have to choose between what is good and what is the most important and pressing thing to God and the Kingdom RIGHT NOW.
And I don’t think these choices are going to get any easier. Over this summer, we will spend time going all the way through Luke’s gospel and what I think we are going to find is that the longer people follow Jesus, the most difficult it is to choose between good and the gospel. I think we will find that as well. Things are not going to get easier. They may, in fact, get much more difficult for us as people of God.
But we have the promise of the Holy Spirit in the baptismal waters. We have the promise of the feast to come in the Kingdom of God in this holy meal. We have a cloud of witnesses before us and a community of saints among us to help us understand and discern exactly what it means to follow Jesus in these times. Like I said, it’s not going to be easy. And there will be people who are bent on distracting you from resurrection and restoration. There will be so many reasons to choose the easier path, to make excuses why it is just too risky to do it right now. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Christ is with you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment