Pentecost 3 – 2020
Luke 9:51-62
Marian Free
In the name of God who calls us to a future that is as yet unknown. sci
It is said that earning a Phd is more about persistence than it is about intelligence. I can testify to the truth of that. The most exciting year of the project is the very first year during which one develops a proposal for the research topic which involves coming up with an original argument and discerning whether or not there is enough evidence to support it. This is a challenging and stimulating time – a year of discovery and of new insights. If, as I was, you are studying part-time, the next eight years are spent developing and defending the proposal. Towards the end, it becomes simply mind-numbing. The initial enthusiasm wanes and the energy fades. Now it is just hard slog – ensuring that the thesis is well-argued, that the expression is good and, most importantly, that the referencing conforms to the required system. At this point, one is no longer making new discoveries or engaging in further research. The research question has been satisfactorily answered and now it is just the matter of putting the insights gained into some coherent sort of order. Not surprisingly, some students find this stage simply too tedious to continue. Many half-finished PhDs litter the halls of academia.
I know only too well the feeling – having answered the question to my satisfaction, I wondered why I needed to someone else to approve the result. After all, I knew by then that I was right! Thankfully I pressed on and gained a qualification that allows me to pursue a passion for teaching.
It is not always easy to see something through to its conclusion. I suspect that many of us over the course of a lifetime have begun projects with enthusiasm, only to leave them to languish when they became too difficult or when something more interesting cropped up. This is the point of today’s gospel which begins a new section in Luke’s telling of the story.
“Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The strength of the verb (set his face) tells us that this is no easy decision on his part. Going to Jerusalem (where he will surely die) takes all of Jesus’ resolve. This is something that he must do, not something that he wants to do.
This week and next our gospel readings focus on discipleship – what it means and what it demands. As Jesus sets out on the journey that will lead to his crucifixion, he needs to make it clear to would-be disciples that following him is not for the faint-hearted. Jesus knows what lies ahead for him – a sham trial, humiliation, and a brutal death. Those who choose to follow him must be prepared for discomfort, rejection and death. So, when these three representative disciples make enquires about following him, Jesus is keen to ensure that they can step up to the challenge and if, having stepped up, they can go the distance. For this reason, instead of enthusiastically welcoming them, he throws down the gauntlet. Can you accept having nowhere to lay your head? Will you risk the social and familial censure of not fulfilling your cultural obligations? If confronted with persecution will you hold fast or fall away? Are you prepared to live with uncertainty, abandon your families and not look back?
By testing the commitment of these would-be disciples Jesus is trying to discern whether they simply want to be part of the excitement that surrounds him, or whether they have truly grasped what it means to be a disciple.
We do not hear if Jesus adds to his followers that day or not, but in the following verses (as we will hear next week) we get a fuller idea of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and why Jesus might want to test the enthusiasm of those seeking to join him. His disciples are sent on their first mission: “like lambs in the midst of wolves”, with no purse and no bag and nowhere to stay. It takes real commitment (and courage) to rise to this and the other challenges that lie ahead of the disciples.
For most of us here, the experience of following Jesus is quite different from that described in today’s gospel. We are, by and large, followers by birth rather than by choice. When we were in our infancy our parents and godparents enrolled us in the faith through our baptism. The questions they were asked were very different from the challenges that Jesus threw out to his potential disciples.
“Do you renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow, nor be led by them?
Do you believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles’ Creed?
Will you then obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life?”
These are questions about faith rather than discipleship. In Baptism we are made members of the church rather than enrolled as followers of a radical, itinerant teacher. This is an important distinction, and one that we should take seriously. It is easy enough to believe – in God and in Jesus whom God sent. Being follower, a disciple, is potentially demanding and life-threatening. In twenty first century Australia it is unlikely that we (believers or followers) will be put to the test. We will not be asked to abandon home and family or to give our lives for our faith. But that does not let us off the hook. If we want to be followers of Jesus and not just believers, our commitment must be wholehearted, enthusiastic, and able to withstand any test.
Today, on his behalf, Braxton’s parents will promise to share with him their faith in God and in Jesus whom God sent. We pray that through them he may come to know the power of God’s love, have faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour and have the courage to follow wherever that faith may lead.
Tags: baptism, commitment, discipleship, persistence
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