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| Following Jesus can be challenging or downright confusing. |
Last week we walked with
Jesus as he encountered a man possessed by a platoon of demons. After the
healing, the now healthy man wanted nothing more than to follow Jesus.
Remarkably though Jesus told the once demon-ridden man, “Return to your home,
and declare how much God has done for you.” In essence, Jesus said, “No, you
can’t follow me!” Without hesitation though the man set forth to share his good
news of God’s power, which was working in him through Jesus.
Strangely enough in
today’s Gospel lesson we find Jesus giving would-be-disciples the exact
opposite instruction: follow me no matter what! Don’t follow me? Come after me
before everything else? Which is it? Well, herein lies the challenge of
following Christ. Everything Jesus says cannot simply be taken literally.
Contrary to what some
people say, the Bible is not an instruction booklet. It is however Holy
Scripture. And, the power of our sacred text comes not like the guide which
accompanies a frustrating piece of furniture from IKEA, but rather it comes in
the way its stories, histories, poems, songs, rules, and yes instructions speak
to the depth of who we are as people of God.
The
way that the pastor, author, and theologian Frederick Buechner put it:
It
is a book about both the sublime and the unspeakable, it is a book also about
life the way it really is. It is a book about people who at one and the same
time can be both believing and unbelieving, innocent and guilty, crusaders and
crooks, full of hope and full of despair. In other words, it is a book about
us.
And
it is also a book about God. If it is not about the God we believe in, then it
is about the God we do not believe in. One way or another, the story we find in
the Bible is our own story.[1]
The truth is that when we
hear Jesus saying conflicting things one chapter of the Bible to the next, we
are not encountering a wishy-washy flip-flopper. Instead, we are meeting one
who knew the complicated nature of human beings because he was one. We are
encountering one who understood the context around him, who knew his audience.
Jesus comprehended that we can be believing and unbelieving, innocent and
guilty, hopeful and despairing at the same time!
So as we hear Jesus say
to some, “Come follow me!” and to another, “Stay where you are and share the
Good News!” we have a view into the challenging way that God calls each of us
to live as God’s children. Simply put, the way that we are called to “follow”
Christ—whether we stay or go—the way we are called to follow Christ requires us
to live in a state of discernment. God then always calls us to wonder, “How
then shall we live?” So let’s briefly examine last week’s Gospel lesson and
this week’s, as we listen for how we are called to be Christ’s followers.
Both of these encounters
between Jesus and potential followers happened outside of Jewish culture. The
story last week transpired across the Sea of Galilee in the land of Gerasenes. Once
the man possessed by a legion of demons was cured, he wanted nothing more than
to follow Jesus. However, Jesus saw a more fruitful path for him in the land of
Gerasenes. As Glenda relayed to us last week, the next time Jesus returned to
this side of the Sea of Galilee there were 4,000 people not including women or
children who sought sustenance from Jesus. The demon-less disciple was in truth
following Christ, as he shared how God had been working in his life. So,
sometimes God calls us to stay exactly where we are, as we tell people just
like us how good God is. But, sometimes that’s not what we’re called to do.
Today with Jesus and his
disciples we find ourselves taken into the land of the Samaritans. The reluctant Samaritans in the second half
of this reading described their roadblocks to following Jesus. If we simply
focus on the latter part of the story, Jesus comes off looking like a jerk, but
he wasn’t simply being belligerent or critical. The words spoken to the
would-be-disciples in the second part of the story were also a challenge to the
disciples in his inner circle from the first part of the story.
Recall that Jesus was not
received in Samaria at the beginning of this lesson. As a result, James and
John got frustrated. Elsewhere in the Gospel accounts, James and John are
referred to as the Sons of Thunder. They had a hot-headed reputation, as seen
by their desire for fire to consume the Samaritans. Now, before we go looking
for the sawdust in James’ and John’s eyes, we would do well to remove the plank
from our own. We have all been in their shoes. We probably did not call down
fire, but we have all had that same rage course through our veins. When people
vilify us, turn God’s message of love into something it’s not, or mistreat the
most vulnerable—women, children, migrants, people of color, or the LGBTQ+
community—I know I can act like James and John.
In these moments, when I
want not only to justify my stance, my rightness, and my faith, but also like
the Sons of Thunder to attack others, I fail to follow Christ. Seething
anger from all parts of our society today infects
Christianity. And this rage scrambles completely the coordinates which Jesus
set for us to follow. This is why I believe Christ Jesus came off so strongly
during the second half of today’s Gospel lesson. He was speaking not just to
Samaritans but to James, John, and anyone of us who thinks we can have our beliefs
which exclude others and follow Jesus too.
The strange words that
Jesus spoke to those who wanted to follow him were the next step after turning
and rebuking the fiery Sons of the Thunder. For Jesus in this moment following
had everything to do with letting all else fall away. It is like us receiving a
gift in our hands. We cannot have clinched fists and receive something at the
same time. Likewise, we cannot hold onto our anger or prejudices and receive
the gifts of God at the same time.
What James and John had
put in the way of following Jesus was their own agenda. Their anger at someone
not buying into this new way of being. This is not unlike when we get embroiled
in dogmatic debates, discounting another religion’s belief system, or
overlaying the notions of our preferred political party upon Jesus of Nazareth.
When we approach someone else promising fire from heaven there’s little room
for conversation. Worse still in this moment we obscure the grace that God
intends during the encounter. So, in response to this sort of behavior Jesus challenged
not only those who approached him on the road, but also James, John, and yes
us!
If you want to follow
Jesus, you must put this pursuit first—even before having a home, family, and
work. Now, don’t leave thinking I said stop making your mortgage payments,
neglect your family, or stop showing up to work. Remember not every word Jesus
spoke was to be taken literally. However, in every decision you make, in every
relationship you form, in any work you do the guiding question must be, “Am I
following after Jesus when I do this?” or again, “How then shall I live?”
It is so easy for us to
allow anger or fear or close-mindedness to infect our beliefs as Christians.
This world is ripe with cynicism and bitterness, jadedness and brokenness,
prejudice and bigotry, and we can quite easily allow for that rottenness to
affect the fruit that God is growing in us. Instead though, Jesus challenges us
to follow him in everything we do.
There are an infinite
number of ways we can put our walk with Christ first. In the Gospel stories we
observe different ways in which Jesus called people to follow him. We might be
asked to stay put to share how God is working in our lives right here, like the
man who was cured of his demons. We might be asked to walk after Jesus in some
challenging ways, like the Samaritans were. Or, we might be called to let go of
our hang-ups about how others receive the Good News of Christ, like James and
John. All of us are called to follow Jesus, and the way we walk with Christ
changes throughout our lives. So today and every day, listen to how Christ is
beckoning you to follow him, and then prioritize that relationship because when
you do your life will be eternally transformed. Amen.
