Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!
In the name of God the Father, Christ Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
Today, the Indian Orthodox Church and her children have reached the 5th Sunday after the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord. As the faithful look towards the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, the Church Fathers have prescribed the Gospel Reading from the account of St. Luke 9:51-62.
At this point in his gospel Luke has been reworking Mark’s gospel and has reached Mark 10:1, where Mark tells us that Jesus set off for Judea. One chapter later in Gospel of Mark, Jesus enters Jerusalem and the temple. Not so in Luke. As Jesus reached Jerusalem after ten chapters! Luke does not return to Mark until he reaches 18:14. In between Luke brings a wide range of stories and sayings not found in Mark, but either shared with Matthew or from his own unique sources. Together they become teaching which Jesus gives on the journey. They are also like teaching for the journey upon which all disciples embark.
When we read this Gospel account, we can understand very well that the purpose of Christ to go to Jerusalem is to be crucified and to die. By this time, he has understood that His public ministry is now drawing to a close and the mission for His incarnation as a human will be culminate on the cross. He also knew that He would also be resurrected from His death. And knowing all this, He still decides to go to Jerusalem.
Overcoming Rejections
The phrase that is used here is, “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem”. This expression indicates absolute resolution. This resolution is born out of utmost trust in God and His plans for His life. This trust in God also prompted Jesus to reach Jerusalem at the earliest and thus He was willing to go through the city of Samaria as well. But what do we see here? We see that Christ is being rejected by the Samaritans, just for being resolute in His journey towards Jerusalem.
When we look at the life of Jesus, we can learn that there were very few towns/cities which has rejected His presence in their midst.
- He was rejected in his own hometown by the people. The Gospel of Matthew 13:53-58 states that He was not accepted in His own hometown as the people did not believe that He was a person worth knowing, since His father was a carpenter and brothers and sisters lived with them. They were not willing to listen and learn from His teachings but rather questioning from where He learnt these things. On account of this rejection, He was not able to perform much miracles there.
- He was rejected by the people of the Gadarenes country (Matthew 8:28-34) when He healed two demon possessed men by sending the demons into the swine, which resulted in the swine herd tumbling into the sea and killing itself. Christ, Who showed compassion on the two men who hurt themselves and others by releasing the clutch of the demons from them, was rejected by the people of the country, not because they became afraid of Jesus, but because they lost their livelihood. They, rather than being grateful, rejected Christ on account of their loss of income and their animals.
- He was rejected by this city of Samaritans when He was resolute in going to Jerusalem. The Samaritans shared some aspects of faith with the Judeans. Their sacred book was the Pentateuch, and, in their minds, they worshipped Yahweh. They rejected, however, the focus on Jerusalem that was integral to the Judeans’ Jewish faith. The Samaritans regarded Mt. Gerazim as the place where Yahweh wanted his holy temple, a temple which, by the way, was destroyed by Judeans in 128 BC. So when they learned that Jesus was heading towards Jerusalem, they didn’t want anything to do with anyone who headed towards that place. Hence, Christ was rejected on account of racial discrimination that was prevalent between the Jews and the Samaritans.
As followers of Christ, we are also meant to face rejections from people around us. When we resolve ourselves to head towards the eternal Jerusalem, through our ministry that is granted to us, do we not face rejections from those near and dear to us? Do we not face hard times to make them understand the reason and purpose of our resolution?
Do we not face rejection from people around us when our intention in doing a kind deed was to help them? Does it not seem like our actions have been misunderstood by the people whom we help?
Also, do we not face discrimination on account of our racial background, caste, nationality, such that we are not able to perform to our fullest ability? Do we not face challenges in creating new relationships on account of pre-existing enmity between various groups of people? Does not this discrimination or challenges create roadblocks in doing our work among those people?
In face of such rejections and discrimination, what would be our reaction? What would be our words to Jesus, if we were in the shoes of James and John? These brothers, they were sent as messengers to inform the people about Jesus’ passage through the city, but when Christ was rejected and they were not welcomed by the Samaritans, they were quick to pass judgement on them. They had got the message of Jesus wrong, for His message was not the message of Elijah. His message was not a message of judgement, but a message of compassion and mercy.
We as Christians are called to be His disciples and just as the disciples were sent to announce the passage of Jesus, we too are meant to go and announce the message of Christ. The message of Christ is a message of love, compassion and mercy shown through His life, death, resurrection, ascension and the promised second coming. When we do go about this ministry, we will come face to face with many rejections – rejection from family and friends, rejection from those whom we helped and rejection on account of our message. In face of such rejections, Christ teaches us that we are not called to pass judgement on them for there are others who will accept this message. We are not to judge them out of the hatred that rises on account of the rejection we face, but love them just as Christ loves them.
Cost of Discipleship
We all as Christians aim to be the ideal disciples of Christ. As we approach the Feast of Ascension, where we commemorate Him departing from our midst for a brief period of time, we all aim to become His messengers in this world until His return. But most of the time, our focus is on the adventure this discipleship brings us – the opportunity of going out into the world and bringing about positive changes in people and communities, the opportunity to perform miracles, the opportunity to travel, the opportunity to develop our networking circles and the opportunity to rise above our circumstances.
We all think that becoming a disciple of Jesus and following Him in His footsteps is easy. Many of us think that if we follow in His footsteps, we will have an easy life ahead of us, because we are doing His work in this world. The world tells us that we need to have comfort, security and good life as a Christian. But when we read this Gospel portion, Christ brings us face to face with the difficulties that we will face under His discipleship. It might seem as if He is discouraging us from becoming His disciples, but to the contrary, He is forewarning us about the costs that we might have to bear as His disciples. He is making us ready to bear the costs of being His disciples.
Being Homeless
For every human being on this earth, a home is a basic requirement. A home is a place where he calls that place his own and where he resides with his family and goes to sleep at night. It is a place where he feels secure. But Christ says that to be His disciple is to relinquish this dream of having a home – a place of security. Just like Christ lived among the foxes and birds – among the down-trodden and sick and sinful, we as disciples are also called to live among them.
In the Old Testament, God called Abraham to come out of his home and go to a place where He would show him as his resting place – a place which only God knows about, never having a stable place, but always moving about, always called to be a foreigner, that is discipleship. We are called to be foreigners in this world, never laying hold of any security for ourselves.
It does not mean that we should not have that we cannot use worldly wealth for God’s glory. We can and should. God gives us blessing and resources to enjoy. But we must never become attached to them. We have a home, and it is not here. We must never become so attached to the physical structure God has loaned us while we are here that we cannot respond immediately to his call to leave it. If you want to follow Jesus, you can’t have any other allegiances. You cannot serve God and money (Luke 16.13).
Being Committed
We come to the second person who crosses the path of Jesus and whom He calls to follow Him. But he replies that he wants to bury his father first before following Jesus. But it is surprising to hear Jesus’ response to this person’s request. Jesus said,
Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:60
It is surprising to hear Jesus’ response in denying this person’s request, more so as we are supposed to honor our father and mother. But we don’t know if his father is already dead, or if he is on his deathbed… or if he’s just getting old. Maybe, just like the guy who promises to start his diet and exercise ‘tomorrow’, this person wants to be a disciple, but he is not ready to commit. On hearing his excuse, Jesus doesn’t seek any clarification, but instead He points him to the task of discipleship. A disciple makes disciples. A follower collects followers. This is why God gave church leaders: to equip you for works of service (Eph 4:11-12).
As a disciple of Christ, what is our job role? My spiritual teacher, His Grace Geevarghese Mar Coorilos once said that our primary role as a Christian is to catch hold of the lost souls for Christ. Our primary duty is to proclaim the kingdom of God. We need to realize the urgency of the mission that has been given to us. If we understand the urgency of the mission, we will realize the need for his father to follow Jesus as well. There is an urgency that the man is clearly missing.
Though it is not the time of judgement, but it is the time of proclamation of the kingdom of God. The door of the gospel will not remain open forever. And Jesus’ response should open our eyes to this fact.
In our current time, when many around us are filled with passive faith, we, who strive to be fervent in our faith must be on our guard against the passive faith of those around us. We must work hard in proclaiming the kingdom of God, because that is a gift that has been given to us. If we are not sharing the gospel, have we really been freed from our self-centeredness?
No looking backs
Thus, we come to the third person who crosses Jesus’ path. The third guy also misses the urgency of the call of Jesus. He wants to say good bye to his family and friends. Again, Jesus’ response is striking.
No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:62
What is really conveyed here is the quality of usefulness.
It is very important for a farmer to keep a steady hand on the plough while ploughing his field, so that the plough would sink deep into the ground and turn the soil. Also, unless he has a steady hand on the animal/vehicle which he uses to plough the field, he would lose control over the animal/vehicle and would cause harm to the surrounding areas and thus damaging the fields. Thus, a constant focus and commitment is required while ploughing the field so that the seeds he would sow later would find good fertile soil to grow and he will be able to harvest a plentiful crop.
This is the same quality that is required in a disciple as well. A disciple who is distracted from his call is a useless disciple.
A disciple who is committed keeps his eyes on Jesus and there is no regret in his life for following Him. For a committed disciple, there is no looking back and there is no thought of all that has been lost to him on account of his discipleship, but his sight is on all that he has gained from his discipleship under Jesus.
It is better to not follow Jesus, if we are to keep looking back and hark back on the things that used to be. That is the reason why Jesus tells us to count the cost of His discipleship, before we even embark on the lifestyle. If we want to follow Jesus, we must be true to our word. We must not be distracted by anything, we must not look back with regret. But we must give our lives wholeheartedly over to Him.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, as we approach the Feast of Ascension of our Master and as we strive to follow Him to our eternal home, we are called to be His disciples with the aim of preaching the kingdom of God. But in the course of our ministry, we will face various rejections – rejections from family, friends and society at large. Christ teaches us not to be disheartened when we are rejected, for He was rejected first. We are not called to proclaim judgement, but to continue to proclaim God’s love and mercy and compassion for the whole universe. We are also called to count the cost of our discipleship, lest we tend to look back on our life and regret following Christ. We are called to be steadfast in our commitment.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George
