+ 3rdSunday after Pentecost – June 30, 2019 +
Series C: 1 Kigns 19:9-21; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Family road trips are full of questions. Right after the famous…“Are we there yet?”…comes the next question. “Where are we going?” I imagine the disciples often asked these questions too. But just in case there was any doubt or confusion, Luke tells us over and over again in his Gospel where Jesus was going and why.
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
This was Jesus’ purpose. That’s why Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. Why He obeyed and fulfilled the Law. Why He was baptized in the Jordan. Jesus came to be “taken up” on the cross for you in order to take us up together with Him. And so He set His face to Jerusalem. For you.
On his way, Jesus traveled through Samaria. And the Samaritans refused Him. Why? Because His face was set toward Jerusalem. Samaritans worshipped on Mt. Gerazim – in the old Northern Kingdom from the Old Testament, not Jerusalem in the south. The Samaritans in Luke 9 did not understand why Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. Ironically, neither did his own disciples.
James and John, the “sons of thunder,” wanted to call down a little Sodom and Gomorrah style airstrike. “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
But that’s not the message Jesus called them to proclaim to all nations. Didn’t they get it? Didn’t they see who Jesus was? It’s easy to point the finger at the disciples and forget that we’re no different.
James and John admit the truth about all of us. It’s not for us, just as it wasn’t for James and John, to call down fire from heaven to consume those who aren’t nice to us. The same fire and brimstone we call down on others, could very well be called down upon us. No, this kind of judgment, thankfully, hasn’t been given to us…can you just imagine what kind of chaos we’d cause if we did have that power?
What’s truly remarkable is that God doesn’t judge us as we would judge others. The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem. God judges the world by sending Jesus to be judged in our place. God desires to seek and to save the lost, even Samaritans, even you and me. And he goes to the greatest length possible, even death on a cross, to be judged in our place, to rescue us from sin and death forever. For all the times we’ve set our face in the opposite direction of our heavenly Father, Jesus set his face to Jerusalem for you. And for all.
Jesus set His face to Jerusalem also for the Samaritans, even those who turned Him away and slammed the door in His face. You can walk down the streets, any street at any time of any day, and look in the face of any random person, be they rich or poor, young or old, well-dressed or not, and you can truthfully say to yourself, “Jesus gave His life on the cross to save that person.” He set His face to the cross of Jerusalem to save this person. There would be no fire from heaven for the Samaritans or for you, only for Jesus. That’s the way of the cross. And the way of the cross is also the way for you his disciples.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 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.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesussaid to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Tough words aren’t they? Jesus’ claim on his disciples is radical. It’s all or nothing. No halfway, half-hearted disciples. To follow Jesus is to go the way of Jerusalem with him; to the cross. To follow Jesus is to die and rise with Jesus. To lose your life in order to save it. To become least in order to receive greatness.
That’s what Jesus saw when He set His face to Jerusalem. Yes, he saw the cross, He saw his suffering. His death. But above all, he saw you. His focus was like that of a lifeguard venturing out into the rip currents with only one thing in mind. Saving you.
And so, the disciple’s focus is on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We don’t look to ourselves. For the moment we do, we get it all wrong. Rather, look to Jesus Crucified for you.
Remember Elijah. When he looked to himself and started whining about how he was the only faithful one left in all of Israel and how everyone was trying to kill him, that’s when he got it wrong. He had his little pity party at Mt. Horeb. Queen Jezebel had issued death threats against him. And he expected God to flex some muscle…you know, call down some fire. He thought he was the only faithful Israelite left on the face of the earth. We call it an “Elijah complex” today, when we think we’re the only one who sees it, the only one who has it right.
Elijah quickly learned that it wasn’t about him. The kingdom didn’t rest on his shoulders. And he wasn’t alone. Seven thousand in Israel had not bowed the knee to the idol Baal. The Church is the same kind of hidden mystery. We can’t see it in its fullness. We can only hear Jesus’ Word and see the activity of Christ in the sacraments. God’s kingdom doesn’t rest on our shoulders, but on Jesus crucified for you.
Like Elijah, we learn that God works hiddenly. Elijah saw the power and glory as fire rained down from heaven on the prophets of Baal. But he also learned that fire from heaven was not God’s ultimate purpose. Instead, it is to justify the ungodly. Forgive sin. Save us. Show mercy. God wasn’t in the strong wind, the earthquake, or the fire. God was hidden in the soft voice. We expect God to shout, and He whispers. Hidden and humble. In simple ordinary words, water, bread and wine.
Dear baptized Christians, fix your eyes on Jesus. For it was Jesus who fixed his eyes on Jerusalem for you.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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