Luke 9:51-62 (Pentecost 3C)
St. John, Galveston 6/29/25
Rev. Alan Taylor
+ In Nomine Jesu +
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The message this morning is based on the Gospel reading you heard a few moments ago from Luke 9. The passage is two parts. In the first part, Jesus was rejected by an entire Samaritan village, primarily because He was set toward Jerusalem. The people weren’t so much concerned about the direction Jesus was traveling as they were about His destination. With His eyes set toward Jerusalem, Jesus was, no doubt, a Jew. The long established tension between Samaritans and Jews, dictated the action taken by the citizens of the Samaritan village.
After He encountered the citizens of the Samaritan village, Jesus moved on to the next village. As He traveled, He met a man who said, “I will follow you wherever you go.” To which, Jesus said, consider the cost. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
From there He encountered a couple of other people who were reluctant to follow Him because they had a few personal matters to take care of first. The first one said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” “Leave the dead to bury their own dead (Jesus said). But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” The next man said, “I will follow You, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my house.” “No one who puts his hand to the plow (Jesus said), and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of with the two men that wanted to attend to pressing matters. I mean, their requests didn’t seem unreasonable. The one only wanted to go and bury his father, who had apparently recently died. The other simply wanted to go and tell his family goodbye. And yet, Jesus told them to leave those things behind. In fact, to the one, He said, “when you follow Me, if you look back, you’re not fit for the kingdom of God.” Our Lord’s response seems so unlike Him. In fact, some would say that this is one of those passages where the Bible contradicts itself. I mean, elsewhere the Bible says, “honor your father and mother.” And yet, in this case, Jesus wouldn’t let the men go and tend to their families.
It seems to me that there is a greater principle in this passage before us this morning. I mean, the need to bury one’s father, and the desire to tell one’s family goodbye, before following Jesus, are both laudable and worthwhile requests, even Biblical. At the same time, these requests were part of a litany of concerns and urgencies in life that really never end.
When I was at the seminary many years ago, men would talk about their journeys enroute to the seminary. There were so many stories. Some said, I would have been here years earlier, but my kids were too young back then. And then, later, they said, then they were too old. And then, my wife and I were too established in our jobs. Finally, we both realized that there would always be a reason to not go to the seminary. It occurred to me that all of those stories of seminarians were kind of a microcosm of all of our lives when it comes to following Jesus. There will always be some pressing issue, some reason, why we can’t follow Him.
Beyond the call to leave everything behind in order to follow Jesus, there are many instances in life in which following Him puts a demand on us that we wouldn’t otherwise face. The tension between holding a Biblical faith and living in today’s world is very real. How do we as the Baptized, those called to love our neighbor as ourselves, navigate the waters of the LGBTQ movement, or of transgenderism, or of the legal establishment of same sex marriages, or of immigration, or any other pressing topic? How do we love people, but not condone sin? How do we follow Jesus in a world that is so steadfastly set against Him and the word of truth?
Unfortunately, there is a general softness and an insatiable craze for comfort in us that leaves us reluctant to take difficult stands on issues, and to make sacrifices for the sake of our faith. In that regard, it isn't uncommon for a Christian, that is, anyone of us, to hold certain values that are opposed to the word of God. I will follow you, Jesus, but on this or that issue, I must take exception. And there it is, I will follow you, BUT…
When it comes all of this issues that compete for our attention, and our even our devotion, thankfully, God is long suffering and patient. As to the two men in the Gospel reading, we really don’t know what happened with them. Did they leave their pressing issues behind and follow Jesus? Or did they tend to those issues, figuring they could follow Jesus on another day, at another time?
One thing is certain, God’s love in Christ Jesus, both for those two men, as well as for you and me, never ends. Be it life’s pressing matters, or the necessary resolve to take a stand in life where we ought and must, our tendency is always to underestimate the cost of following Jesus, concluding that we, by our own strength, have what is necessary to be faithful in our confession of the faith. In that regard, I simply can’t stop thinking of Simon Peter. Peter, you may recall, swore to Jesus that, even though everyone else might leave Him, he never would. It was only a short time later, that Peter’s situation changed and the pressure was on. Huddled around a warming fire in the courtyard of the High Priest, a woman blurted out, 'you are a disciple of Jesus, aren't you.''No, Peter said, I am not.' Three times Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. Peter, of course, was wrong! He counted what he thought the cost would be to follow Jesus and he mistakenly thought he, of his own strength and will, could pay the price.
In terms of the cost of following Jesus, the overriding principle before us this morning is that none of us possess the power to satisfy the cost of following Jesus by our own will or strength. You and I are carried along on this journey of faith by the One who fights for us, the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected. He is of Sabboath Lord. That means He is Lord of the heavenly armies, the heavenly hosts. Luther incorporated this battle imagine into his great hymn of the Reformation. Jesus is of Sabbaoth Lord. And so, He holds the field, the battle field of this world, of our lives, of your life, forever.
At the same time, He clothes you with the whole armor of God. With righteousness, with the sword of the Spirit, with truth and with the helmet of salvation. Having been so clothed, you carry in your heart and upon your lips the confession of Jesus as Lord.
Kurios Christos (Christ is Lord) was the creed of a group of people in the Roman Empire in the late first century a.d. This Christian group was far more politically concerned than its simple faith formula might suggest. They lived in a time and place in which all loyal, patriotic citizens were required to assert once every year, “Kurios Caesar,” which means “Caesar—the State—is Lord.” So when these Christians pronounced their creed, “Kurios Christos,” they were not only saying “Christ is Lord,” but they were also saying, “the State—Caesar—is not Lord.” They were affirming what the Lord had told their Israelite forebears on Mount Sinai: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Whether it’s due to cultural pressures, or the endless litany of urgencies, one has to wonder what history will demonstrate was our confession as the people of God. One thing is certain! God is patient and long suffering. He has forgiven us time and again for our failure to count the cost of following Him. And with that forgiveness bound up in His body, in His blood, and in water and the word, He empowers us to honor Him with a confession that we would never take upon our lips were it not for His goodness and grace. Indeed, “Kurios Christos”...Christ is Lord!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +