51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 Then he and his disciples went to another village.
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
I don't like making public predictions; I have come to terms with the fact that I don't know what the next person will do, and I just have to be ok with that knowledge and live accordingly. I don't like when people try to make me give a public prediction about something because I know I don't know what the next person is capable of doing. I know I am not good at making predictions, and I also know I am not alone.
People are not very good at predicting the future.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, many of us thought we'd be home for a few weeks. The virus would pass through the country, and then we'd all be back to school, work, and church.
We thought we'd surely be able to gather for Easter Sunday in April!
Well … it didn't exactly turn out that way.
Most of us did make it back for Easter … in April of the following year.
Washington Post columnist John Kelly lists several wrong predictions. In the year 1486, a royal committee was gathered in Spain. The committee said it would be wrong for the king and the queen to provide funding for an Italian explorer named Christopher Columbus. The committee members insisted that sailing west to Asia would take a ridiculously long three years. And why would anyone want to spend so much time at sea? They believed there was nothing between Europe and Asia but a vast and featureless ocean.
A congressman from New York named Orange Ferriss couldn't believe that the United States would be willing to pay Russia $7 million for the Alaska Territories. That might have seemed like a lot of money, but it was still a good deal — just two cents per acre. Ferriss complained to his fellow congressmen, "Of what possible commercial importance can this territory be?" Alaska turned out to be worth more than two cents an acre.
We see a prediction in scripture when Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem. Jesus has been talking about sacrifice in the gospel of Luke up to chapter 9. Jesus has prepared for the journey in chapter 9, verses 21 through 50. Jesus now sends the disciples James and John ahead of him to a village in Samaria. Why Samaria? Samaria is fertile ground; Samaria has some diversity in it. There are potential new converts in Samaria. We get the term good Samaritan from the parable Jesus told today, but the church folk would not have wanted that name back then. Samaria had people there who weren't born and bred believers, and that is where Jesus sent his disciples to reach new believers, not just be complacent with the people already in the kingdom.
The people in the first village rejected the disciples, and their response was to call fire down; we cannot respond to everything with violence. If you have to resort to violence to teach people about Jesus, you are doing it wrong.
Jesus then goes to another village and meets someone on the road that says they will follow Jesus wherever he goes. Then another person comes and says he wants to follow Jesus, but needs to bury his father first, then another comes and says they want to follow Jesus but let them say goodbye to everyone else first.
The first man envisions a place to rest. The second assumes he will be able to bury his father, and the third is anticipating a chance to say goodbye to his family. They seem like reasonable expectations. So why does Jesus consider them to be problematic?
All three potential disciples fail to see that a future with Jesus is very different from the past. They cannot imagine a time in which they don't have a bed to sleep in, the opportunity to go to a funeral, or the chance to visit with their family.
Is Jesus saying you need to be homeless, forget about funerals, family and friends to be a Christian? No, Jesus is not saying reject your responsibilities, but look at your duties in the light of Christ. I also see a call out about excuses in this passage. The text doesn't specify that his dad is dead but could mean he wanted to wait until his father passed to follow Jesus.
I want to be more active in church, but I just don't have the time now. I want to be in ministry, but I don't want to be in charge, or the only volunteer. I want to help, but I want to wait until we create a committee to plan it, then a committee to plan the plan, then another committee to critique the plan before we do something. I want to attend church more often, but brunch is out there. An adage says that after all is said and done, there is usually more said than done.
Discipleship is costly; you will face rejection, you will face uncertainty, and there will be hard work. The kingdom's work is not easy, it's not simple, and it's not always going to go the way you planned, but Jesus was resolute when he turned his face toward Jerusalem, and we should be resolute about doing the work of the kingdom of God. Following Jesus means following some radical demands, talking to some people you may not always talk to, doing some new things, and doing some old things differently. We must be resolute in our journey, just like Jesus was resolute in saving us.
When Jesus looks into the future, he sees the kingdom of God coming near. He doesn't see comfortable beds, respectful funeral services, or satisfying family visits. Jesus envisions a future that is very difficult for us to predict because it is a future being created by God.
Looking to the future, we followers of Jesus often fail to see what he desires for us. Like James and John, we assume that Jesus wants to destroy the people disrespecting us. Like the three potential followers on the road, we cannot envision that discipleship will disrupt our regular routines.
The truth is that our assumptions and predictions will cause problems for us unless they are in line with the coming of the kingdom. But if we act in ways that are in response to the words of Jesus, we will be adding essential building blocks to the kingdom of God.
Jesus is resolute in saving us; he set his face toward Jerusalem because he has accurately predicted what he has to do and what it will do for us. Jesus taught about sacrifice because he knew he would have to make one.
Jesus, the sum total of all of creation wrapped up in human flesh.
Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
Jesus, the one enduringly strong and immortally graceful
The king disguised as a kid
Divinity in dermis
eternity in epidermis
The loftiest idea in literature
The highest personality in philosophy
The wheel in the middle of the wheel
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