Luke 9:51-62
We shared part of this reading last Wednesday in our Ash Wednesday service, so I want to give a little recap from that service for the first section (verses 51-56). To begin with, it’s important to remember that this followed the Transfiguration of Jesus when he took Peter, James, and John up Mt Tabor to pray and encountered Moses and Elijah and Jesus’ clothes went sort of ‘supernova.’ After that the disciples were struggling to heal a boy, but Jesus did it with barely a thought – except to call them all faithless and perverse (literally turned away from God).What we know from all of that is that Jesus is the embodiment of the law and the prophets, and he knew at this point that he was headed toward Jerusalem and the cross in order to accomplish what God had in mind on a cosmic level instead of what the people all around him wanted on an individual level. On the way to do that, he still had some teaching and healing to do, if for no other reason than to demonstrate that the Kingdom of God has come near.
All of this is happening on the way to Jerusalem, and because Jesus is drawing such big crowds, he sends messengers ahead of him to be sure that the way is clear. Somehow, when he gets to this Samaritan town, the way is not clear. Wait, why did Jesus go to a Samaritan village? He kind of had to, since Samaria was between Galilee and Judea.
Anyway, with all that in mind, the questions that I asked you to consider last Wednesday were
Why did they reject Jesus?
What did the Disciples want to do?
What did Jesus do?
What does it have to do with us?
The answers were, like Samaritans, they were pretty used to being rejected by Jews, so it would probably be a little odd for a Jewish Rabbi of renown to be received super well by them. Also, the text tells us that his “face was set toward Jerusalem.” The idea that the mission of Jesus might include them was just not something that they could fathom.
Of course, the disciple’s response didn’t help things. I don’t know where they got the idea that they could “call down fire to consume them.” Maybe they thought Jesus had leveled up and could surely cast a fireball at this point. Maybe they saw Elijah and thought that they were going to be able to get all old school prophets on those that opposed them. It doesn’t matter though, because Jesus told them to stand down and move along. This wasn’t the village they were looking for.
For those that may remember, I suggested that it may not simply be the Samaritans that rejected Jesus. It might have been the disciples since they were so ready to condemn Jesus’s name rather than to love in a way that included the Samaritans in the mission of Jesus.
That brings us to the road we are on with Jesus today. He was probably a little tired. He might have been a little hangry. It’s tough to say. What we know is that he was singularly focused on getting to Jerusalem, and the disciples were probably still trying to work out why they were rebuked by Jesus for confusing power to condemn with power to redeem.
I have to admit that while it is a little hard to see grace and mercy in this passage, it’s not hard to think of Jesus acting in the same way as Leslie Neilson in the movie “Airplane” when he was bombarded by religious zealots and organizations like Greenpeace on his way to the plane. I doubt Jesus used martial arts to move through the crowd, but his words were certainly harsh, and I can imagine that he was equally as focused on getting to Jerusalem.
To one who pledged to follow, Jesus said, “Where? I’m homeless.” To another that Jesus invited to follow him, he said, “Let the dead bury the dead.” To another who wanted to say by to his family, Jesus said, “If you put your hand to the plow and turn around, you are unfit for the Kingdom of God!”
I gotta say, that’s a lot to process. First off, yes, Jesus was essentially a homeless, itinerant Rabbi. In his tradition, there may be times in which a Rabbi would move and some of his students might follow, but Jesus seems to be saying, “Where I am going is not about a place to live, it is about a way to live.” Not only that, it was soon to become a way to die in defiance of sin and evil.
Likewise, with the other two who were burying a father and saying goodbye to family, it’s really important to hear his admonitions in relation to his mission to Jerusalem. Jesus wasn’t saying that we should not express care for our families or respectfully mourn those who die. He was saying, “Right now I don’t have time for that. The cross and the new life it brings will have the power to restore all relationships whether here and now or in eternity!”
Now, when it comes to this illustration about the plow, I can’t help but think of this piece of art I found online. It’s called “The Hilltop” by J.J. Lankes, and it’s a print made from a woodcut in 1922 of a farmer sitting on the handles of his plow, resting. The two horses up ahead of him seem like they are content to wait for the next command, and the body language of the farmer is exhausted. His face looks a little anxious (as one does in a woodcut), but he’s not in the posture of a person who has quit. He’s simply taking a break.
I don’t know anything else about his story, but I do know this. He has two horses, a plow, and some ground that has already been tilled. There is no choice but to go forward. Maybe you feel like you’ve been trapped inside of a painting like that, on a constant break without moving forward. Maybe you feel like you’ve been working double-time and getting less done, and you just want a break.
I can tell you that the church of Jesus Christ may have had a rest or two, but the work is still going on. Just by joining online in this way, you are part of a public witness – a testimony – of your expectation that God is calling us to care for one another in new ways. Just last Friday a group met by Zoom to talk about immigration issues and how God might be calling the church to respond to people fleeing persecution from countries like Cameroon and Cuba – people who happen to be Christians. Then, yesterday, some of us set up a memorial space with flags honoring loved ones who died from COVID 19, and all the while we continue to work with partners like St Barnabas Episcopal Church for Meals on Wheels and the Wesley United Campus Ministry to provide food for college students through the Campus Cupboard.
I’m not saying all of this to boast. I’m saying it because no one who puts their hands on that plow does so with any intention of turning around! As followers of Jesus, once we know of God’s amazing love, what else would we do but proclaim that love in and through our relationships? I realize that Jesus may have sounded a little harsher than that on the way to the cross, but we can hear it as people on the other side of the cross. We can hear it and understand that Jesus calls us to do more than follow him physically – especially today when we are seeing that so much of what we do impacts the lives of others. Here in this time that is like no other, we can hear Jesus say, “I don’t want people who go through the motions.”
Here in this time that is like no other, we can hear Jesus say, “My love is stronger than death, and there is not only a death that awaits us all, but there is an eternal life that has already begun.” Here in this time that is like no other, we can hear him say, “There are no goodbyes in my kingdom. Tell that to everyone that I love – and I dare you to try to find someone that I don’t love!” Here in this time that is like no other, we can hear him say, “Rest a spell if you need it, but there is work to do. Now that you know of my love for you, what else would you do but share it?”
Friends, I want you to know that I believe that you are more than “fit” for the Kingdom of God, so I want to encourage you with that. Take a rest if you need it, but there are plows and horses and fields aplenty in every chance encounter and every intentional relationship and there is no turning back once you begin – and that’s a good thing – because, like Jesus, we are heading toward the place where all division ceases and all unity is restored. At least, that’s the hope that I have in the cross of Christ, and I hope you might as well – all to the glory of God, now and always. Amen!
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