Luke 9:51-62
June
29, 2025
I was
a communications major in college. My focus was on radio and television, and I
had an English Writing minor. That meant that when I entered the real world
after graduation, I was qualified to be an assistant to the Public Relations
Director for a talent and booking agency in Nashville. Being the assistant
meant that I did the grunt work of the job. I answered phones and brought
coffee to our clients when they came to the office. I collected headshots and
other press items from other assistants to other artists and directors to keep
our stock up-to-date. I ran errands. I took the CEO’s wife’s car to the shop. And
it turned out that when that same wife wanted to make venison chili for the
entire office, I was the one who had to locate the venison.
It
was not a glamorous job by any stretch of the imagination, but I learned a lot.
I learned by doing and I learned by listening. Mainly I learned by listening to
my boss. She was great. A hard worker. A tough boss. But we became good
friends, and nobody could sell like she could. Now, technically, PR is not
selling. Except that it is. You’re not selling a product like dish soap, but
you are selling people on the talent you represent. One of our responsibilities
was creating tour press for some of the artists we represented. That meant that
we had to send out press releases and schedule interviews for the upcoming
shows in the cities and towns where the talent was touring. So you’d have to
reach out to newspapers and radio and tv stations. My boss was a master at
creating amazing tour press. She could talk to anybody about anything. She
could make the most mediocre album sound like it was destined to go platinum. I
would listen to her do her pitch and just marvel. She was a PR dream come true,
and she knew how to spin information just so and make it work, make it
believable and exciting. I would listen to her and marvel because I did not
have that talent. And at the risk of sounding irreverent and sacrilegious,
neither did Jesus.
If
you are looking for a lesson in selling discipleship in a neat and happy
package, do not turn to our passage from Luke’s gospel as guidance. Jesus’
approach to would-be disciples is a public relations nightmare. He is not
interested in making following him sound palatable. He clearly does not want to
market discipleship as fun or easy. He puts no spin on what it costs to follow.
He just speaks the truth, the hard truth, the messy truth, and keeps on going.
What
we learn about discipleship from this passage is that if you want to follow
Jesus, you better really think it through because nothing about it is going to
be easy or tidy or nice. It’s going to require total commitment on our part. Even
to the point of giving up our lives for the sake of following Jesus.
But
are we ready to do that? Are we prepared to take that step, set off down that
path, and be willing to give up everything, even our lives, to follow Jesus?
That’s
the question that Jesus has for the three would-be followers in our passage
from Luke. The time for the cross has drawn near so Jesus has set his face
toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the place where his last days would be lived out, where
he would stand up to the powers and principalities, not with violence nor
bloodshed but with love and the power that comes from being the suffering
servant.
Jesus
has set his face. This is not just a point about the direction Jesus has chosen
to take. Setting his face means that Jesus is going to Jerusalem no matter
what. Jesus is fully aware of what waits for him in Jerusalem, but he has set
his face and there is no looking back. This is not the road most people would
choose willingly. I suspect that many of us would choose to go anywhere but
Jerusalem if we could foresee what lies ahead. But that isn’t Jesus. Jesus
knows that taking the road to Jerusalem will make all the difference.
So,
the scene is set, and Jesus is on his way. In the first part of this narrative
Luke tells us that Jesus sends messengers ahead of him. They stop in a
Samaritan village but are not welcomed there because of Jesus’ destination. The
enmity between Jews and Samaritans was deep and wide, so I suspect that just
the idea that Jesus was going to Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, was enough
reason for the Samaritans to refuse him welcome. When James and John witness
this they are outraged and ask Jesus if he wants them to rain down fire on the
village. But Jesus rebukes them, not the
villagers like we might expect. Rejection is part and parcel of following
Jesus, and to respond with anger to anyone who disagrees with you or rejects
your message is to spend more energy on anger than on love. Therefore, there
will be no raining down fire on villages.
They
travel on, and along the road the first of the would-be disciples approaches
them and declares to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Seeing
as how Jesus’ disciples often made the decision to follow him in an instant, it
is surprising that Jesus doesn’t immediately take this person up on his offer.
But Jesus replies in an unexpected way, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” It’s as if Jesus
is asking this person, “Are you sure about this? Are you really sure? Following
me is not about comfort and stability. Following me means that you are not guaranteed
even a pillow to lay your head on at night. Are you sure you want to follow?
Then
Jesus calls to another person, “Follow me.” This person tells Jesus that he
must first go and bury his father. Jesus’ responses continue to surprise. “Let
the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of
God.”
Scholars
far smarter than me have been trying to work out the exact meaning of Jesus’
words about letting the dead bury the dead. Is this about the spiritual dead
burying the physically dead? Or something else? But I’m not sure understanding
his exact meaning is really the point. I think it is more about understanding
his urgency. If you want to follow me, you must let go of everything that holds
you here, even burying your father.
Jesus
approaches still another person who tells him that he will gladly follow him
but first let him say goodbye to the loved ones back home. For the third time,
Jesus responds with the unexpected, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and
looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Again,
Jesus seems to be telling these potential followers that they must let go of
all that holds them where they are. What they consider priorities are really
obstacles to following. What they think are responsibilities are really excuses
to prevent them from following him.
Think
about the first person. He wants to follow. He’s eager to follow. He seeks
discipleship with Jesus voluntarily. But Jesus issues him a stern warning. Even
animals have a place to call home, but the Son of Man doesn’t. And the
implication of this is that anyone who follows Jesus will suffer the same
consequences. So are you ready to follow Jesus, to be without security, without
home? Are you ready to face the trials and tribulations that will inevitably be
encountered on the road of discipleship? Have you counted the cost?
The
next prospective disciples are also willing to follow Jesus, BUT. I will
follow you, Jesus, but I have duties I must fulfill. But I have
responsibilities I must take care of. But I have priorities. I have
prior commitments. I have a long to-do list and very little checked off. However
Jesus wants them to understand that discipleship, following him, is not
something you put off until its convenient. It will never be convenient. You
can’t check off discipleship on a list of tasks and think that it’s over and
done. It is ongoing. It is all the time. It is not a priority, it must be your
top priority.
Following
Jesus along this road comes with a cost. Have you counted the cost?
The Biblical scholars I’ve read agree
that Jesus’ responses are harsh. They are, and it would be easy to try and
explain this harshness away by saying that Jesus was using hyperbole,
deliberate exaggeration to make his point. But that doesn’t do justice to
Jesus’ words. Jesus’ face is set toward Jerusalem. He’s going. He has chosen
this road, and he knows what lies ahead. He’s told the disciples, twice, what
it means for him to be the Son of God. He will suffer. He will die. He will be
raised again. Jesus refuses to put a pleasant PR spin on following him. Jesus
knows what’s coming, so there is no time for waffling. There is no such thing
as casual discipleship.
There is no such thing as casual
discipleship, and that should give us pause. Jesus wasn’t speaking in
hyperbole. He wasn’t exaggerating to make a point. Discipleship is hard,
uncomfortable, inconvenient, and it could cost you everything. There is no spin
on this that can make it nice and tidy and easy. There is no way to sell this
so that it is palatable and polite. Discipleship is hard. Following is hard.
Choosing the road that Jesus chose is hard. I think Jesus really means what he
is saying, and that gives me pause. That makes me uncomfortable, because I know
that I do not follow him with this level of commitment. I like comfort. I enjoy
having a soft place to lay my head. I am good at nesting. Please don’t ask me
to lay aside my to-do list. Please don’t ask me to reprioritize. There are some
costs that I am still not willing to count.
An acquaintance that I met on a study
trip in seminary many years ago, joked with me about the serious signatures of
most pastors. He wasn’t talking about our names. He was talking about the ways
we end letters or emails. Like in my weekly emails to the church, I always sign
off by writing, “Peace and blessings.” Other ministers will write, “In Christ,”
or “Serving Christ,” or “In Christ’s holy name,” and so on and so on. But this
person joked that when he became a full-fledged minister, he was going to sign
off with “Serving him leisurely in my spare time.”
We both laughed at the irony of this,
but looking back I wonder if that signature is truer than I care to admit. Do I
serve leisurely? Is my commitment more on the spare time side and not on the
this is my top priority side? Have I really counted the cost?
So, what is the good news in all
this? What is the good news in this passage that gives us pause? What is the
good news about following Jesus when it’s hard and uncomfortable and even
scary? The good news is that we’re here. That we’re listening. That we keep on
trying. We may fail and falter, but we come back. We continue along the road.
I’m not trying to let us off the hook, but I am trying to trust in the power of
grace. I trust that the call to follow continues to be offered. I trust that
God’s love is bigger than my mistakes, my misgivings, and my missteps. And I
trust that the Holy Spirit is still moving, still working, through me and in
me, through us and in us. And that gives me hope. Hope that even when I mess up
and fall away, Jesus still calls, Jesus still challenges, Jesus still wants us
to follow. That is good news indeed. Thanks be to God.
Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”
Amen.
