Luke 9.51-62
51 As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken up into heaven, he determined to go to Jerusalem. 52 He sent messengers on ahead of him. Along the way, they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, 53 but the Samaritan villagers refused to welcome him because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “ Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them? ” 55 But Jesus turned and spoke sternly to them, 56 and they went on to another village.
57 As Jesus and his disciples traveled along the road, someone said to him, “ I will follow you wherever you go. ”
58 Jesus replied, “ Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Human One y has no place to lay his head. ”
59 Then Jesus said to someone else, “ Follow me. ”
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 spread the news of God’s kingdom. ”
61 Someone else said to Jesus, “ I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those in my house. ”
62 Jesus said to him, “ No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for God’s kingdom. ”
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
LORD , my rock and my redeemer.
As we prepare for Fireworks and Flag Flying day, I find it appropriate to offer a word about freedom.
And by a curious coincidence (if we believe in coincidence), our readings today also say something about freedom and the nature of following Jesus.
How about that?
We are living in a region and in a time in which freedom has a very specific, political context, and the word is really hard to understand apart from that context. Freedom means the right to free and fair elections, the right to determine our own destiny, the right to property and prosperity, the right to speak our mind in the public sphere.
It’s a kind of freedom that we believe must be defended through the threat of violence, and so we also protect the right to bear arms in the interest of maintaining a well-regulated militia.
Which is not, of course, the same as every propertied person owning a firearm to defend his land, home, and family. A well-regulated militia is not the same as anarchy.
But I digress. Already.
Paul shares this proverb with us:
Christ has set us free for freedom. Therefore, stand firm and don’t submit to the bondage of slavery again.
But what kind of slavery are we talking about? Not the kind that leads to throwing crates of British tea into the Boston harbor. Not the kind that led to the Civil War.
Paul is very specific about the kinds of things that own us:
sexual immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, 20 idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, 21 jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that.
I love how earthy, how real the CEB is here, by the way. We aren’t hiding behind more abstract words like “licentiousness” or “factions”. “Doing whatever feels good” and “group rivalry” are so much more clear.
Freedom in Christ has nothing to do with what we’ll be celebrating this week. The freedom we celebrate this week often leads to any number of the actions in Paul’s list, in fact. That’s why so much of the world despises us. We are a hypocritical and fundamentally greedy, lustful people. We use our political freedom as a pass for corruption and idolatry. We use our capitalistic ideology as a pass for oppressing the very people God swears to protect.
And setting ourselves against the people God swears to protect does not put us in a very tenable position, folks.
Just how long do we think we can hold out when we pit ourselves against God?
Church, we have to do better.
We have to forsake shallow political freedom and greed-based ideology for the sake of freedom in Christ.
And that freedom doesn’t look like the kind of freedom we understand. Listen again to how Jesus responds to the various people who want to follow him:
57 As Jesus and his disciples traveled along the road, someone said to him, “ I will follow you wherever you go. ”
58 Jesus replied, “ Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Human One y has no place to lay his head. ”
59 Then Jesus said to someone else, “ Follow me. ”
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 spread the news of God’s kingdom. ”
61 Someone else said to Jesus, “ I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those in my house. ”
62 Jesus said to him, “ No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for God’s kingdom. ”
Does that sound like freedom to you?
What kind of expectation does Jesus have of us? Homelessness, neglect of the dead, abandoning our families. That doesn’t sound like compassion and understanding. It doesn’t sound like family values. It doesn’t even sound like Torah.
But it does sound contextually appropriate.
Today’s reading is introduced:
As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken up into heaven, he determined to go to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:51 is exactly that point at which the gospel turns toward the cross. Luke’s “carefully ordered account”
takes on a fundamentally different tone here. It gets darker, more foreboding, more grave.
It’s no wonder Jesus would be warning people off now. He knows what’s coming. He knows what’s in store. And he knows that there will be no one who’s capable of following him all the way to the cross.
No one.
Everyone leaves him.
But we’re still called to try. And we’re promised things greater than the blessing of Elisha if we will try.
Elijah said to Elisha, “ What do you want me to do for you before I’m taken away from you? ”
Elisha said, “ Let me have twice your spirit. ”
The risk of staying behind, getting caught up in our own stuff, neglecting the call to follow, is missing that blessing. The risk we take in slavery to idolatry and greed is to miss out on freedom and power.
But isn’t the blessing worth the risk?
Because if we would forsake our burdens, our greed, our idolatry, and choose to follow Christ along the difficult, painful road to the cross, we would also find Jesus bringing us the rest of the way to freedom.
If we will follow Christ as far as our mortal being will allow, Christ will take us beyond the pain and beyond the fear. Christ will take us to glory.
Not just the glory that’s got three syllables in our pulpits (“guh-law-ree!”). Christ will take us into the active, present, right-now glory of bringing the Kingdom of God today. Harvesting and sharing the fruits of the Spirit that Paul reminds us:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control
And oh, that’s good news, friends. That’s Jesus bringing blessing through us. That’s Jesus making us his own hands and feet. That’s Jesus reaching out through us and making us bringers of salvation and healing and forgiveness.
That’s Jesus reaching through us and offering real, true, lasting freedom.
Forget the barbecue and the flags and the fireworks, y’all. If you want to celebrate and bring true freedom today, come join me, and together we’ll make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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