This road before us

 ‘… he set his face to go to Jerusalem.…’ (Luke 9:51)

Luke 9:51-62 (Year C: Trinity+5)

Jerusalem

Although I was never there Jerusalem puzzles me. The name of the city is understood by many to mean ‘foundation of peace’. According to a wikipedia entry the word ‘Shalom’ means peace in modern day Arabic or Hebrew (surely not the exact same word?). Jerusalem has been fought over back into the mists of time when Canaanite gods were on the rampage right up to modern times where the city is a symbol of division and strife.  There is conflict not only the squabbling among Jews, Christians and Muslims about the holy places but among Christians of various traditions about who gets to own and manage particular sites and churches.  Yet, the very clothes of the crucified Jesus had to be parcelled out and distributed as John 19:23 tells us.  Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if Jerusalem were declared an international city – all of it – belonging to nobody and to everyone. Dream on.

The mission of Jesus was to draw all people to each other to the Father through himself. Those who came after Jesus – enlightened by his Holy Spirit – and including those who wrote down the sayings and events associated with Jesus knew that the old game was up and a new era was breaking in on the world. The Temple of Jerusalem was gone by the time the gospel writers put pen to paper and the place God would be worshiped included not only Jerusalem but everywhere else in the world where people put their trust in God.

But, Jesus was rejected not only by his own people (at least some of them) but also by many Samaritans, as this Sunday’s gospel informs us. The Samaritans were outsiders to the Jews and were not properly Jewish or on the side of Correct Teaching (does this sound familiar to Christians today and over the centuries?). The Samaritans ‘did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem’.  That was enough for them: ‘he is not one of us’.  But Jesus had no time for petty squabbles. He was much too preoccupied by the ‘big picture’ and, at the same time, the exigencies of healing and caring those immediately around him.  Indeed, the events and details of Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem were all about grounding the ‘big picture’ in the detail of compassion. The capacity to keep going and to have a goal before one’s face was vital.  Jesus was on a mission. By now he knew well where it was leading even if his disciples had not grasped the ‘big picture’ yet.

Line by line

“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (v.51)

We are now nearing the end of Jesus’s mission on earth during his own lifetime here. His face is resolutely set on Jerusalem. There is no turning back now. It is a case of ‘This Road Ahead of Me’ (thinking of that poem An Ród Seo Romham). Trial lie ahead but it is necessary to continue on this road.

‘And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him” (v. 52)

We are, today, his messengers sent out one by one and two by two as the case may be to witness even in hostile places or in communities and settings far from our familiar surroundings. This takes courage.

“but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem.” (v. 53)

How often we meet scepticism, cynicism, apathy, even outright rejection and opposition. Every undertaking is particularly difficult at the beginning and at the end.

“When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them” (v.54-55)

The bad behaviour of others might lead us to responses that are less informed by the gospel and more by the rules of personal selfishness, revenge, bitterness, revenge and collective self-righteous anger. This is not the way of the gospel.

“The they went on to another village.” (v. 56)

Moving forward and not looking back is key to discipleship. This verse opens the way for the next verses where Jesus spells out the demands of discipleship no matter where we are at.

“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.’” (v. 57-58)

Told that way, this last verse sounds like an abrupt reply to a generous proposal!  Going the way of Jesus whether as someone sent to another place or sent to stay here or to provide the love and support to another in a family setting is demanding. We might like our personal spaces and times of diversion. And we should create times of rest alone or with others if only to given thanks, recharge and re-start.  But, it is a hard and unrelenting path that of discipleship and, like our leader and pioneer, we have ‘nowhere to lay’ our heads and hearts for too long. A parent nursing a sick child at 3 a.m. in the morning knows this.

“To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’  But 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.’” (v. 59-61)

Another abrupt reply to what was surely a ‘reasonable’ request!  The sense of this saying (another ‘hard saying’ of Jesus) is that we have choices to make and commitments to honour.  Sometimes, we need to let go of things, persons, relationships that are not helpful. This takes time, patience, discernment and wisdom.

“Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” (v. 62)

An agricultural worker or farmer (Jesus spoke to real people in a real historical and cultural context) knows that when ploughing you must keep watching carefully ahead of you. Looking back over one’s shoulder for any reason or constantly looking to your right and to your left is not good for proper forward ploughing! We need to be grounded in the present moment fully attentive to the task immediately before us and keep going.

Peace be upon you on your way

The writer of Luke’s gospel knows how to link the incident in Samaria (which is unique to Luke among the four gospels) with a hard and painful experience of the early Christian communities – on the run, in hiding or torn apart by internal strife. The messengers sent ahead of Jesus into the Samaritan village got a very negative reaction. As disciples of Jesus we can expect the same at any time anywhere.  Anyone who would follow Jesus must be (i) ready for hardship and (ii) ready to persevere and keep going. This is the point of what might appear to be cold and heartless advice (also found in Matthew 8:18-22) to leave one’s parents or fortune behind. Anyone who puts his or her hand to the plough must not look back. A modern day example might implicate a missionary in a dangerous city somewhere in the middle of a city in a far-away place. Keep going and face the danger with God’s grace behind you. Another case might implicate a refugee who has flown with her family the wars and terrors of Aleppo only to find herself and her children in terrible suffering and trauma in some camp by the Aegean sea. Keep going. Keep trusting. Keep hoping. God is with you. There is no turning or looking back. In time we will all get to ‘Jerusalem’ and, there, we will find that everlasting, grounded peace that nobody can take from us. Dear fellow pilgrim, peace be upon you on your way there.