Luke 9:51-62

“Following Jesus…On Our Terms”

        Sometimes it’s difficult to be a follower.  I’ve been in a lot of youth group caravans and it seems as if nobody really ever goes exactly the same way as you do.  Someone has a ‘short-cut’ that you haven’t taken; the leader misses a turn and you head off the wrong way; or the speedometer on the car ahead of you seems to be way off from yours!  The same holds true when you’re riding with someone else.  How many times have you been going somewhere and the person riding with you says something like, “Oh, you take this road?”  The implication is that it’s either too slow or too far out of the way, and the person riding has a much better route in mind. 

       One of my uncles had a favorite phrase:  “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”  In an effort to find the best route and of course, to make use of modern technology, I recently purchased a GPS device.  This little gadget maps out the route from point A to point B and tells you every little twist and turn along the way.  It’s a really fun device to play with!  You plug in the address of your destination and the GPS figures the best route for you to get there.  It has the roads labeled, the turns marked, and it even tells you when a turn is coming up.   There is a voice that alerts you to where you have to turn, or if you miss a turn it attempts to redirect you back on the right road.  It’s really quite amazing.  There is a satellite somewhere up there in the wild blue yonder that is tracking my every move!  Frankly, it’s a bit unsettling to know that this is even possible. 

       The catch to all this comes when I disagree with the GPS!  For instance, I think that it is faster to get to the interstate by going through Evansville and Brandon.  The GPS wants me to go to Ashby.  As I turn off Hwy. 78 to go toward Evansville I can almost hear the little voice saying, “Oh, so you don’t like the route I’ve chosen!? Maybe you should just get there yourself!”   When I know the way, I can see where my ideas conflict with the GPS.  When I rely totally on the GPS I don’t know if I’m going the best way, but I have to trust that it is working properly.  That trust comes easier when I am not sure of myself and need to rely totally on the GPS. 

       We’re raised to be self-sufficient and we’re taught to be able to figure things out ourselves. So it can be difficult to follow someone else’s lead in life, even if that someone else is Jesus.  Conflicts occur when we think we know the best way to get where we’re going, and that clashes with what Jesus has in mind.  In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus has set His face to go to Jerusalem.  To set one’s face to go somewhere means that you become focused on reaching your goal and nothing will deter you from getting to that goal.  You become single-minded in that everything you do reflects your desire to reach your goal.  You let nothing deter you. 

       Jesus had set His face toward Jerusalem, meaning that He was physically heading from Galilee in the north, south to Jerusalem.  He was also emotionally heading from His preaching and teaching in Galilee, toward the cross that He knew stood before Him in Jerusalem.  He was going to Jerusalem to die.  He was focused on getting to Jerusalem because that was where the temple was and where the ultimate sacrifice of the Son of God would be made.  Nothing was going to deter him from reaching his destination. 

       As Jesus made His way south He encountered some Samaritans.  The Samaritans worshipped God, but felt that Mt. Gerazim in Samaria was the proper location, not the Temple in Jerusalem.  The Samaritans clashed with the disciples and Jesus, and so they moved on.  Jesus called people to follow Him along the way, but again He was met with rejection.  They had excuses for waiting.  The first must have naively volunteered to follow Jesus without counting the cost.  Something about him caused Jesus to question his intent.  The second person needed time to spend with an elderly father until such a time as his father died.  This could take years—time that Jesus obviously didn’t have! It wasn’t a case of leaving a dead person to be buried by others—culturally what is meant is that the man was obligated to care for his father until such a time as he died.  Then he would be free to follow Jesus.  The third person had basically the same answer.  They would follow, but on their own terms at a later date.

       How different are we?  We follow, but we do it on our own terms.  We’re like that GPS – when it is going our way, it’s great.  But we don’t always trust it enough to let it take us in a new direction.  We will be a follower of Jesus, but when it becomes difficult, expensive, or time consuming we tend to back off.  Think about your own life and your faith commitment for a moment.  Has this ever happened to you?  It’s a common thing for all of us, I’m sure. 

       Jesus had a quick answer for those who put off following or want to follow Jesus on their own terms.  Jesus is teaching that the relationship between Himself and those who are His followers supersedes all other relationships and loyalties, even loyalty to family.  As one person put it, “Becoming a disciple of Jesus is not ‘signing up for the course’ to get a little information.  It is cementing a lifelong relationship to a Person—Jesus.”   AMEN.

Pastor Jim