"No Looking Back" - a sermon on Luke 9:51-62

1. The Journey to the Cross

Something had to be done! Peoples’ lives were caught up in hopelessness and tragedy. They also lived under the oppression of Roman authority. These were desperate times, yet in some quarters there was a spiritual openness ... a real desire to connect with life’s real purpose. Of course God knew this, and in the fullness of time sent Jesus to earth in human form to interact with the world and reveal the true nature of God.

For centuries, right through Old Testament times, people had grappled with who God was and what God required of humanity. There were many misunderstandings about God’s nature. There were also some shining lights of understanding: like in Genesis, where it was understood that humanity was to take responsibility (under God) for the well-being of the earth and all its inhabitants and life-forms; like in Joshua, where it was understood that fulfilling and purposeful life would require courage; like in Psalm 139, where it was understood that God intimately knew each human from the moment of their conception; like in Micah, where it was understood that to fall in line with God would require us to act justly, love mercifully, and to walk humbly in life with God.

Ultimately though it would be Jesus that revealed God to us! And such was God’s commitment to bring about reconciliation with all people, that Jesus would do whatever it took to bring people face to face with God’s grace. And so, as people found themselves caught up in their own selfishness, sin and turmoil, Jesus would die for them on a cross, to open up guilt-free access to God. God would then raise the completely innocent Jesus from the dead to lead his followers into newness of life.

So it was, that at Luke chapter 9 and verse 51 (and similar stages of the other Gospel books), we read that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem”! This phrase “set his face to” means that Jesus made a firm decision with resolve and steely determination. Jesus did so because he considered that any suffering ahead was an inevitable part of God’s plan of reconciliation and salvation.

Despite this being a God thing, it was still not an easy decision for the physical human Jesus to make, for he knew what Roman punishment involved. This concern (shall we say, this fear), was still evident later in the Garden of Gethsemane; yet both there and here, Jesus commits to going forward to the cross ... without looking back. Yet resolve and courage would be needed, when such rampant rejection lay ahead! Jesus could have looked back to a quieter and safer life in the family carpentry business. Jesus could have looked sideways toward the temptation of taking up a position of power on earth (as put forward by Satan) or given in to the temptation of avoiding the cross altogether (as put forward by his own disciple Peter); yet Jesus did firmly “set his face” toward the cross at Jerusalem.

Earlier in chapter 9 (v.22), Jesus had said to his disciples, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised”. The disciples were gobsmacked at this, thinking and saying “Surely not”; yet they did not yet understand the cost of setting humankind right, and how deep the problem was imbedded. After all their own religious leaders, for their own reasons, were going to be complicit in Jesus’ death. These disciples were also not ready to hear that, being Jesus’ followers, they too may be required to face persecution and death (in the name of Jesus).

So here we are today faced with Jesus’ determination toward taking the way of the cross. A lot will happen along the way, and for us as we read what happens, we will come to know God better, and we will come to know better what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We are seven weeks from Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We can prepare well, and God will teach us something new. Some Christian people will take this period of “Lent” very seriously, giving certain things up, hopefully not just as a ritual, but also to allow more time for spiritual preparation.

Devotional material has been made available to us, through which we can deliberately focus on Jesus taking the way of the cross. On Sundays [when I’m preaching] we will also focus on some of the incidents that occur on Jesus’ journey to the cross. Let me encourage you to open your life afresh to God’s Word as we approach Easter. Look at this material individually or get together in twos and threes to pray through these biblical texts [in addition of course to (rather than replacing) what you’re already doing]. Look for instance at what you can gather from our text today:

2. The Nature of Discipleship

(a) When the disciples James and John wanted to punish the Samaritans for not welcoming Jesus (v.54-5), Jesus rebuked them, as if to say, “that is a ridiculous suggestion”! And not just ridiculous, downright harmful, and not representative of God at all. What was this all about? By sending disciples ahead of him to try to arrange some accommodation, Jesus hoped to be able to spend a little time in this Samaritan village, despite the hostility that existed between Jews and Samaritans. Whereas it was regrettable that the Samaritans there were unwilling to welcome Jesus, because of their animosity towards Jews and Jerusalem, this should not cause the type of retributive response proposed by James and John (who should have known better). For, there might well be another day when such people will be more open. And of course Jesus would continue to be a champion of reaching out beyond the existing cultural norms.

Later on, when telling a particular famous parable, Jesus was actually going to cast a certain “Samaritan” in a very “good” light (Luke 10:25-37). Luke goes on to relate an incident where ten sufferers of leprosy were healed, but only the Samaritan in the bunch returned to thank Jesus (17:11-19). We often encounter people who are closed to our message of light and hope at the time, but this has to be seen as a matter of timing which wasn’t quite right. Whereas we might move on to other places (as Jesus did here), even wiping a bit of the dust off our feet, we would not write such people off entirely and forever (like James and John seemed to want to do). Jesus “set his face to Jerusalem” to die for ‘such as these’ as well. The disciples are called to broadly share the gospel message – not to judge those who reject it!

This is a very important thing to remember in regard to the broad application of the Easter story. Jesus died for all people, and certainly for the people that are currently closed and resistant, and certainly for the people we find difficult or inconvenient, and also certainly for the people who have annoyed us or even hurt us. We can feel frustration or even resentment for people who blaspheme God or persecute Christians, yet Jesus died that even they might be reconciled to God, and who are we to interrupt this outpouring of grace!

(b) When certain people attracted to Jesus thought that it would be easy to follow Jesus, and that they could do so at their own convenience, Jesus put some significant challenges to them (v.57-62). This was not to send them away or scare them off, but rather to point out the seriousness of such a commitment, and that they needed to be fully focussed if they were going to be able to stay on the journey. It was like someone saying to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go”, while thinking that this would be easy, and without complication, without first thinking through the full consequences of such a statement.

After all, Jesus was an itinerant prophet without any particular place to call home, and thus was constantly on the move. Even foxes and birds had more settled living arrangements than Jesus did. Jesus’ task was large, and he had a history of getting his disciples to do things that were way out of their comfort zones. For instance, Jesus was asking fishermen and a former tax collector to become preachers and roving missionaries into friendless places.

Jesus actually sensed someone who had the potential and qualities of a disciple in verse 59. Jesus picked this person out of the crowd, eye-balled him, and said “Follow me”. Jesus would have hoped that this person would have left everything behind and followed like the fishermen and Levi (the tax collector) had already done, but not so. This one wanted to attend to the funeral of his father first. Whereas this might sound reasonable at first, it misses the whole urgency and importance of what Jesus was doing. Some commentators suggest that this excuse refers to wanting to see out the final years of his father’s life before becoming more free to follow Jesus, which suggests an even greater delay.

Following Jesus is never a matter of our convenience or when we’re ready, it must start now. The controversial and tough saying of Jesus, “Let the dead bury their own dead”, suggests that such a task should be left for others who are not so inclined to put their priority on proclaiming the Kingdom of God; as if to say, let the spiritual “dead” bury the physical “dead”, while the spiritually alive promote the cause of Jesus. While this doesn’t mean we neglect our natural responsibilities, it does bring certain priorities into focus.

As we read on to a third would-be-follower, we see even that saying farewell to those left behind at home meets with objections from Jesus? Was this due to the delay or the potential distraction or the possible second-guessing involved? One commentator suggests that what is meant is that this person wants to seek permission from his family before following Jesus. At any rate it seems that there is some level of reluctance to be decisive here. To be so inclined risks losing the positive and life-giving impulse of the moment. Jesus says, “Just follow me”!

There is no time to look longingly back to warm experiences in the past. Or, given how Jesus replies in verse 62, is it more about the associations and baggage of the past being allowed to limit the future. To take on the task of ploughing a field without one’s full attention being ahead on the job at hand is not going to work out well. To try to do this while taking cues from a wide variety of people will quickly go wrong – a singular focus on Jesus is required. Tough teaching, but I’m only explaining what the Scriptures have said for nearly 2000 years.

The point being made here, is that you can recite the best excuse imaginable (and these last two excuses weren’t too bad), but it still won’t cut it! Nothing is as urgent as ‘proclaiming the Kingdom of God’. For discipleship is not a part-time extra job or a bit of a hobby carried out when other preferred activities are complete, but rather the over-riding context in which a life is lived. Walter W Wessel calls all this a “radical transfer of loyalty” to Jesus. To follow Jesus involves a “radical transfer of loyalty”.

This all is a very important thing to remember when we are talking about what being a Jesus-follower or a Christian is all about. If we say that a person can just come to Jesus and be forgiven and then live in freedom, I think we’ve left a whole lot out. We have not fairly represented the biblical truth, nor been fair to the person themselves. The great commission given by Jesus was about making disciples, not simply adding numbers.

Here is an interesting definition of a disciple I read this week: ‘one who not only welcomes Jesus, but also embodies Jesus’ commitments and practices in one’s own life’ (Joel B. Green in “NISB”, 2003). All other considerations or interests in life should fall into line with this priority. Did the second and third of these would-be-followers (in our passage) really seriously consider following Jesus, or were they only interested if they could control the agenda themselves (as seen by their delaying tactics)?

3. Embodying Jesus

Jesus did not look back when he had “set his face to go to Jerusalem”. Nothing was going to get in the way of bringing salvation, hope and purpose to humankind. There was nothing more important than people being reconciled with God, and learning to live in God’s way. And necessarily Jesus’ followers would have to understand the real nature of taking up this cause. The lot of his disciples is tied in with Jesus’ own lot. It is at this moment that people have to decide if they are joining Jesus in “setting his face” toward the cross and a mission toward all humanity. The true people of God are being formed around Jesus himself (this concept from Luke Johnson cited by R.B. Hays).

Jesus put his own hand to the plough and brought in the Kingdom of God. Jesus first left the glory of heaven, and then his human family and home for our sake. Jesus spent his days with people who were blind, suffering from leprosy and riddled with demons of various kinds, people who had been well and truly rejected by mainstream society. Jesus constantly faced the reality of opposition and the prospect of death. Jesus also involved himself with a ‘rag-tag’ band of slow yet committed learners. And Jesus promoted “good news” that needed to reach the Samaritans and the Gentiles and the people of all the nations of the world ... no matter what religion that they were presently practicing. God seeks to love the refugee and the asylum seeker and all people who live under violence and tyranny. Jesus sought to reach out to the prisoner, to the oppressed, to the poor, and to the blind.

First Isaiah, then Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. [The Spirit of the Lord] has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free; and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour" (Luke 4:18-9).