Third Sunday after Pentecost

Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 8C)

June 26, 2022

Text: Luke 9:51-62

            The Christian life is journeying with Jesus on the way, through suffering and the cross, to resurrection and eternal life with God.  Jesus Himself undertook a great journey for us, and for our salvation when He came down from heaven, the eternal Son of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.  This is the stuff of the Creed.  He made His dwelling among us.  He set up His tent in our midst.  Flesh of our flesh.  Bone of our bone.  In every way like us, except without sin.  And as a Human Child, a Boy, He grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.  Baptized by St. John in the Jordan waters.  Baptized into us, to bear our sin.  Sealed with the Spirit.  The Father’s voice from heaven declaring Jesus His beloved Son.  He went about doing good and healing creation of its brokenness, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, restoring the lame, forgiving sins, raising the dead, preaching good news to the poor.  He came down on this journey from heaven to do precisely this.  And now the time had come, the days drew near, for Him to be “taken up” (Luke 9:51; ESV), first, by going all the way down to the very rock bottom, suffering on the cross, hell, the full force of God’s wrath; death as the Sacrifice of Atonement for our sins, burial in a tomb that should have been ours.  He had to go all the way down, in our flesh, to redeem us all the way down to the very depths, that from the depths He be taken up again, in our flesh.  And that is the Third Day.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  His ascension into heaven forty days later.  Seated now in our flesh at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. 

            That is the journey of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Down from heaven through the cross, death, and burial, and up again to heaven by His resurrection and ascension.  When the days drew near, Jesus resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem for that.  To suffer.  To die.  To rise again on the Third Day.  All for us.  All to save us and make us His own.  And now we are given to travel with Him on this journey in our Christian life.  But we must ask, concretely speaking, what does this mean? 

            It means, first of all, Baptism into Christ.  In Holy Baptism, His journey becomes our journey.  “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:3-5).  So, in Baptism, His death is our death.  His life is our life.  And where He is, there we shall be.  Heaven.  Resurrection.  New Creation.  And in the meantime, we should know that, baptized into Christ, we are clothed with Christ.  We read it just last week.  “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).  You are clothed with His righteousness.  That is your justification before the Father.  God regards you as righteous, not on account of anything you have done (and, in fact in spite of what you have done), but on account of Christ, His Son, who covers you with Himself.  And so also, you are the mask of Christ toward your neighbor, as you walk not in the works of the flesh that harm yourself and your neighbor, but in the Spirit of Christ who has been poured out on you in Baptism, bearing the fruit of the Spirit that is for your good and for the good of your neighbor.  You daily crucify the desires of the flesh… sin, old Adam.  That is daily repentance.  And you daily emerge and arise to walk in the Spirit of Christ and bear His fruit.  That is the newness of life God has given you as a gift. 

            But you must know that life in Christ, this side of the veil, also includes some very unpleasant things.  You will taste the bitterness of the cross in this earthly life.  You will suffer.  Not, by the way, to atone for your sins.  That is all done now, in Jesus.  But because you are in Jesus.  Because you are united to Jesus.  So He unpacks for you some of these sufferings in our Holy Gospel this morning, so that you are not surprised when these things happen to you. 

            You will suffer rejection.  Jesus reminds us, “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).  The Samaritans rejected Jesus and His disciples.  They rejected the preaching of Jesus’ messengers.  They rejected Jesus’ Word.  Why?  Because He had set His face to go to Jerusalem for their salvation.  It can be confounding, and it is always heartbreaking.  And it can be tempting… as those Sons of Thunder, the sons of Zebedee, James and John were tempted… to ask if we should call down fire from heaven, that is, God’s wrath, on those who reject Jesus and His Word, persecute His Church, and engage in idolatry and wickedness that must have its source in the evil one himself.  You know, like Elijah called down fire on the men sent to arrest him (2 Kings 1), or like the fire that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19).  But the Lord rebukes James and John for such thoughts, and He rebukes every such thought in our hearts.  Repent.  I repent.  Because Jesus came on this journey, not to pour out the fire of God’s righteous wrath on humanity, but to take that fiery wrath upon Himself in His crucifixion.  He set His face to bear that very thing.  Leave those who reject Him to God.  Your job is to confess Christ and His saving Gospel.  To speak the truth in love, with gentleness and respect.  And then to suffer for it, if that is God’s will.

            And there are some other things you must know if you are going to follow Jesus on this journey.  “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).  When you follow Jesus, it will often feel as though you have no home in this world.  Because, truth be told, you don’t.  Here you have no abiding city, but you look forward to the city that is to come (Heb. 13:14).  Your citizenship is in heaven, and from it you await the Savior, your Lord Jesus Christ, who will come again, and transform your lowly body to be like His glorious body (Phil. 3:20-21).  It is He who gives you a home even now in His Church, here among the Family of God.  It is He who will open your eyes on that Day to the New Creation he has brought about by His being taken up, by His death and resurrection.  See, Jesus is your home.  Not this world.  You are comforted and nourished and sheltered and defended by the things of Jesus, here with Jesus, in the House of Jesus.

            And… “Leave the dead to bury their own dead” (Luke 9:60).  Now, Jesus is not heartless.  He is not telling the man he can’t attend his dad’s funeral.  He is saying, don’t let that, or any matter of this life, keep you from following me now.  The time is now.  You don’t know when you will die and the time of grace will be ended.  You don’t know when the Lord will come again.  Repent now.  Follow Him now.  And as for the dead?  That is, those spiritually dead, those who do not believe in Christ?  Let them tend to the matters that are purely this-world centered.  “You, follow Me!”  This is really the point.  You must not wait for all the circumstances to be just right before you follow Jesus.  It is neither right nor safe to put off following Jesus until you’re older, toward the end of your life, or until you’ve accomplished some worldly end.  “I’ll follow you, but first let me…”  Whatever.  Build my business.  Have my carnal fun” (Augustine famously said that, when he was a young convert, he prayed for chastity, but not yet!  He was afraid God would heal him of his lust too quickly, before he had a chance to satisfy it with illicit activity… needless to say, he repented, thanks be to God, and by His grace alone).  Don’t wait.  Repent now.  Be a Christian now.  Follow Jesus now.  Jesus is calling you now.  Don’t doddle.

            And, it is also true, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (v. 62).  We heard this morning that Elisha begged Elijah to let him go and say farewell to his family before taking up the Office of Prophet, and Elijah let him, so this is not a command that disciples leave their families without saying a word, or some silliness like that.  It is to say, keep your eyes forward… on Jesus!  Don’t be like the Israelites in the wilderness, who are always pining after the flesh pots of Egypt.  Jesus has freed you from the chains of sin and death.  Don’t let nostalgia for the old life reel you back in and prevent you from entering the Promised Land.  You can only plow straight if you keep your eyes forward… on Jesus.  Then, keeping your eyes on Jesus, the valleys will be filled, the mountains and hills made low.  The crooked will be straightened, and the rough places made level.  With eyes on Jesus, you will repent of your sins, and you will walk in His Spirit. 

            Why?  Because you are in Him.  And this is what being in Jesus means.  With Him.  Following Him.  On the journey.  On the way.  This is why the first Christians were called, “The Way” (e.g. Acts 9:2).  Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).  Through Him, you come to the Father. 

            And it is worth all the suffering, whatever your Lord gives you to bear.  To follow Jesus means to go the way Jesus goes, and that necessarily means the cross and suffering.  But this is the only way to be taken up with Jesus into resurrection and eternal life.  And in that, there is indescribable joy.  See, this is the journey’s end.  Not scourging and blood and death and burial.  Not rejection and homelessness and forsakenness.  No.  The resurrection of your body from the dead, even as Jesus is risen, bodily, from the dead.  Eternal life with Jesus in the Kingdom of His Father.  New heavens.  A new earth.  An eternal city.  A place.  A home.  A Father who loves you and wipes away your tears.  A Brother who has borne it all for you and now gives you to share in His inheritance.  The Spirit who is perfect love, poured out on you and abiding with you.  It was for this joy that was set before Him, that Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem and endure the cross, despising the shame, and who has now been taken up, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Luke 9:51, Heb. 12:2).  Baptized into Christ, this joy is yours.  So you may endure.  And now, to steel you for the journey and fortify you along the way, here is a little foretaste of that joy on the altar: the crucified and risen body and blood of Jesus, His life poured out for you, and taken up again for you, now poured into you.  Come, be refreshed, as you follow Him on the Way.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.