-
June 15, 2022
At the beginning of today’s Gospel, we see Jesus putting his own region of Galilee behind him as he resolutely begins the journey to Jerusalem. The beginning of that journey is the turning point in Luke’s Gospel: Jesus has started down a road that will lead to the ultimate challenge of his mission - the cross. If Jesus is to be faithful to his mission, he cannot turn back.
It is in the context of the journey to Jerusalem that Luke shows how Jesus faces a number of questions. The first thing Jesus meets on the road is the inhospitality of the Samaritans who regard Jerusalem as the wrong address to be heading for. Why should they be gracious to a group of Jews who are travelling to a theological mistake? Two of Jesus’ disciples think that the way to respond to religious difference is to incinerate your opponents. Jesus doesn’t think much of a pastoral strategy that cannot be distinguished from a holocaust. His answer is to keep moving and not be distracted from his ultimate goal: Jerusalem.
As they journey on, Jesus is questioned by three prospective disciples. Jesus warns the first that to follow him means following an itinerant who has nowhere to lay his head; a clear warning that inhospitality is going to be a regular problem. The second and third questioners want to follow Jesus but have prior claims: one has to bury his father while the other has to say goodbye to his parents. In Judaism family loyalty is a matter of religious duty. But Jesus is seen to say ‘’no’’ to these previous attachments which call people back to the home they have left. There is a dramatic urgency in Jesus’ challenge the disciple has to decide which has priority, loyalty to family or loyalty to mission. To be freed for mission the disciple must be freed from past ties. For the sake of the kingdom the disciple must be prepared to sacrifice security, duty, and affection.
At first, Jesus’ response seems very harsh, but we must appreciate that Luke is presenting the radical requirements of following Jesus as Jesus begins his own journey to Jerusalem. And Luke does that in a way which highlights the conflict both master and disciple face. The commitment of the disciple must be single-minded because all disciples must face their road to Jerusalem. And the probability is that they will have more to deal with on their journey than the inhospitality of some villagers!
Through Luke’s Gospel Jesus is seen to warn all disciples that it will take enormous courage and resolve to keep travelling along a road that leads to hardship and trial. He hopes his followers will have the resolve to keep going.
When Jesus arrives at journey’s end and the cross looms large, we see that he prays for the resolve to continue. He too is tempted to give up and return to the quiet security of Galilee. But he literally hangs in there. The journey to Jerusalem which he begins in today’s Gospel is seen as a route which all his followers have to take. No matter where we live. It is not a journey that is plotted through a map; it is an inward journey that is plotted through our experience. For each of us it is our journey to God in the footsteps of Christ.