In the Name of Jesus
Luke 9,57-62
Oculi (3. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 026 „My eyes“
Rupert, Founder of Salzburg, Apostle to the Bavarians in Regensburg, † 710
27. March 2011
1. O Lord, our eyes look to You, for You are have redeemed Your fallen creation. Our discipleship is not faithful and our desires are not pure. We often set aside following You so that we may pursue other pursuits. We try to have the best of two worlds, the heavenly and the temporal, often desiring what the world demands instead of what heaven freely gives. Give us, we pray, all the blessings You promise to Your children. „We beseech You, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of Your humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of Your Majesty to be our defense against all our enemies“ (Book of Common Prayer 36). Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Luke where the holy evangelist writes: 57As they were going along the road, someone said to Jesus, „I will follow you wherever you go.“ 58And Jesus said to him, „Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.“ 59To another He said, „Follow Me.“ But he said, „Lord, let me first go and bury my father.“ 60And Jesus said to him, „Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the reign of God.“ 61Yet another said, „I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.“ 62Jesus said to him, „No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the reign of God.“ This is our text.
3. Luke 9,51 is the great apex in the Gospel according to Luke. Prior to verse 51, Luke notes that Jesus had been teaching, preaching, and doing miracles, all of which proclaimed that He is the Son of Man who was sent by God the Father to redeem the world. At verse 51 Jesus’ ministry entered the 4th Quarter. He has set His face toward Jerusalem and journeys up to that holy city. As Jesus embarks on this journey, one boasts that he will follow Jesus anywhere, another is commanded by Jesus to follow Him, and a third also desires to follow Jesus. Each disciple does not fully comprehend what „following Jesus“ as His disciple entails.
4. The first disciple is told that following Jesus means one must give up the basic needs of this life. The forest animals have their boroughs and nests wherein they can relax and sleep when night falls. Not so for Jesus! And not so for His disciples, either. Following Jesus entails a discipleship that must be willing to give up what this world entices with and promises, even the very necessities of life, including a roof under which to sleep and a comfortable bed in which to rest. A second disciple wants permission to first bury his father, and a third disciple also asks to be allowed to see his family one last time and exchange farewells. Both are told to forsake their family obligations.
5. In fact, Jesus counters their requests with an absolute claim to the disciples’ allegiance (Gibbs 433). To follow Jesus will be to surrender all guarantees of comfort or predictably stable existence (Gibbs 433). These disciples have sought to qualify or demote the priority of Jesus and His authority (437). Jesus presents the disciples with the question of boundaries (Gibbs 439). Where will the line be drawn (Gibbs 439)? Which relationship will be primary (Gibbs 439). No one can remain a disciple of Jesus if he demotes the authority of Jesus to be on or even below the level of human authorities and responsibilities (Gibbs 439). No one can look the Son of God in the eye and say, „You are not first“ (Gibbs 439).
6. Putting the Triune God first began in our Baptism. The question was asked of us: Do you renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways (Agenda 15)? Later we were asked the same question at our confirmation, where instead of someone else answering for us on our behalf we spoke for ourselves: Mr. devil I reject you and I confess my Lord Jesus Christ as first in my life. Aside from our days of Baptism and confirmation, on any given day we might struggle to keep this confession of „Christ first“ because our corrupt, sinful flesh always seeks to elevate itself to the top spot. Our fallible human reason is unable to grasp the full magnitude of what it means to place Christ first in our lives. Like the disciples in Luke 9, we might presume that we can put Christ first, until something else important comes along, and we temporarily move Jesus down a level or two, and at a later time re-elevate Him to the primacy. Such is the struggle we have during our earthly life.
7. It is not easy to follow Jesus and put Him first because we know that to do so means that we must take up the cross and follow Jesus. We were asked at our confirmation: Do you intend to continue in this confession and the Church and to suffer all, even, death, rather than fall away from it (Agenda 29)? In every day practice we more often fall away from our confession to believe in Jesus because it is simply easier and safer to step aside rather than bear the brunt of trials and tribulations. Furthermore, Jesus will not give us a special dispensation to temporarily set Him and His primacy aside, for He demands an absolute claim to our allegiance. Jesus forthrightly commands us to „Follow Me.“
8. And where, pray tell, do we follow Jesus? Where is Jesus going? In verse 51 Jesus has set His gaze toward Jerusalem, and that city is where He bids us to follow Him in verse 59. The Son of Man goes to Jerusalem where He will suffer, die, and rise again as the redemption price for the world and its sinfulness (Luke 9,22). Jesus does what we cannot do, and He does it vicariously in our place, for Jesus follows His Heavenly Father’s will to surrender all guarantees of comfort and predictably stable existence (Gibbs 433). The Apostle Paul described it this way: »Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form/nature of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be held onto, but deprived Himself of power, taking on the form/nature of a slave; and being found in the likeness of men, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, death on a cross« (Philippians 2,5-11). Jesus does what He says: He puts His Father’s allegiance and will first and foremost, fulfilling what we in our sinful nature cannot do, and walks to Jerusalem, to the cross, into death, buried in the tomb, descends into hell, and rises again as our Victorious Redeemer.
9. We may be tempted to think that Jesus’ obedient fulfillment of His Father’s will is something easy. St. Luke, however, reminds us that the passion and suffering Jesus endured was fraught with great distress. Jesus fervently prayed that if it were possible, that His Heavenly Father remove the cross and death He was about to endure (Luke 22,42). So stressful was His impending passion, that Jesus sweated blood (22,44). In spite of the horror of the crucifixion, Jesus followed His Father’s will and paid the costly redemption price in order to save each one of us.
10. We can never meet the high, exacting standards of God’s law, but Jesus did. We do not go to the law when our failed attempts at discipleship beat us down with guilt, but we go to God’s gospel that is manifested in Christ Jesus. Striving to be better disciples does not merit in any way our justification and salvation. We should indeed strive to be better disciples, but we must never put any amount of trust in our striving or our discipleship as something to be added to our meriting righteousness. The gospel tells us that Jesus is the Faithful Disciple, and He Himself has merited pure righteousness; Jesus freely gives us this righteousness in our Baptism.
11. Christian discipleship is about following Jesus to the cross where He merits the forgiveness of sin for the entire world. This forgiveness is given out in the preached Word, in Holy Baptism, in receiving the Lord’s Supper, and in the confessing of sins and accepting the Absolution that promises that your sin is forgiven. All of this is received by faith which is a gracious, free gift given to us by the Holy Spirit. Christian discipleship is thus faith in Christ.
12. The wonderful story of the Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation is that Yahweh’s people fall into sin and never live up to the strict demands of discipleship, but Yahweh comes to His fallen and discouraged people and brings them the gospel of forgiveness that is grounded upon Christ crucified and risen for our justification and salvation. Christian discipleship is not about living the good, morally improving life – any philosophy, religion, or self-improvement methodology can offer that – but Christian discipleship is about Christ, believing in Him whole-heartedly for the forgiveness of sins and rejoicing in the amazing gospel that says you are saved, you are the beloved of the Heavenly Father – not because you have lived up to your Christian potential – but rather Christ has lived it for you and He gives it to you and me as a free gift. It is a gift that we cannot buy or earn by our good intentions or merits, but it is a gift that was earned by Christ so that He alone gives it to us through the Holy Spirit. This is the gospel, and its message is unique in all the world, and we have it by Christ alone for our eternal salvation. Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, who put Your hand to the plow and looked straight ahead as the one fit for the reign of God, we give thanks that You faithfully lived as the Faithful Disciple of Your Heavenly Father’s will. Apply to us the soothing balm of Your precious gospel, so that when we fail as Your disciples we can rejoice in Your success, a success that You accord to us according to Your holy merit. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
Agenda. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.
Book of Common Prayer. Copyright © 1771 Oxford University.
Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Matthew 1:1– 11:1. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.
Just, Arthur A., Jr. Luke 9:51––24:53. Copyright © 1997 Concordia Publishing House.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
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