Bible Text: Luke 9:51-62 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
There is an NPR program called “Car Talk.” The premise is simple, people call in to talk about their car problems- while two brothers, Tom and Ray, give advice. The show is now in reruns ever since Tom died in November of 2014 but it still has a strong fan base. You would think someone like me who knows very little about cars and is an extremely nervous passenger, let alone driver, would not be interested in such a show. And you’re kind of right, but there is such a humour to these two guys answering bizarre auto issues that when I catch the program on Saturday mornings, I usually end up in tears of laughter. A recent syndicated episode was about the classic summer adventure of a road trip. Well, actually the show invited people to talk about their worst road trip experience and they had a winner- the ultimate worst road trip story. Thomas Martinez said, “I could sum up this little adventure in one phrase-1977 MG Midget-but here it is anyway. I left Los Angeles in July of 1979 with my girlfriend, the MG midget, and naiveté. We were headed for Yosemite. Going up the Cajon Pass, the car boiled over so we stopped and let it simmer down. As soon as we hit Victorville, the accelerator cable let go. I found a foreign parts store but the only cable they had was for a Spitfire–it barely worked. We made it up Tioga Pass sputtering all the way. I hit a deer at the summit. It busted both headlights. It was dark so we slept on the side of the road. The next morning we got to Yosemite Valley and promptly lost the clutch. I tried unsuccessfully for two days to fix it. That night bears ate all our food. The next day a stranger suggested that I drive the car with no clutch. I didn’t know how, so he taught me the finer points of “speed shifting.” The next morning we loaded up and headed out toward Merced, grinding the gears on twisting mountain roads. We made it to Merced in time for a rain storm. You’ve got it: The top leaked! The fuel pump gave out in Salinas. We had it fixed in Monterey. It cost a fortune. We made it down to Bakersfield when the water pump went. We finally puttered into the San Fernando Valley and that’s when the throttle cable broke.”
Road trips are an essential part of summer adventure but I sure hope I don’t experience one like that. While Jesus, of course is not in a vehicle, he seems to be having similar trouble. Jesus has decided to head to Jerusalem. In the NRSV Luke says that Jesus is “firmly resolved to go to Jerusalem”, giving Jesus a single-minded determination. The Greek is literally, autos to prosopon esterisen, or “he set his face” to Jerusalem. Interesting that the Greek word autos means “self.” So an automobile is a mode of transportation for self. Jesus sets his face to a very specific destination but it is worded as such because this isn’t just about Jerusalem but about a fulfilment of prophecy and purpose. This journey is all part of the divine plan. The city of Jerusalem is linked with Jesus’ destiny.
Unfortunately it is also a journey that has an inauspicious beginning. As they enter a Samaritan village they begin looking for a place to stay, but they are rejected because their final destination is Jerusalem. There is a lot of animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans- these Galileans, who are Jews, are already treated with suspicion but then when it is revealed that they are headed to Jerusalem, the capital of Jewish faith, the Samaritans want to have nothing to do with them. The disciples are indignant that they and Jesus would be rejected like this and the disciples are eager to try out their new prophetic power. As I have mentioned before, the relationship between the Samaritans and Jews is frayed because during the Babylonian captivity the Hebrews, who managed to remain in Judah and Israel, made every effort to preserve their faith despite living in a place called Samaria. When the Israelites who were in Babylon returned the Samaritans felt that the Torah and religious practices of the Jews had been altered and affected by Babylonian culture. As a result, despite being part of the same ethno-religious group they clashed in their orthodoxy, their theology, and their orthopraxy, their practices. And for centuries those relationships festered and were frayed. So the animosity is mutual and you can well imagine that if it were Samaritans looking for a place to stay, the disciples would not have them in their house.
Jesus, however, is not even thrown off when this village will not receive him, in fact, it appears that this is what he expected would happen and when the disciples are put off by this and want to condemn this town, Jesus rebukes the disciples, particularly James and John, likely because they are so quick to condemn and destroy. Their proposed violence and punishment is not what Jesus came to preach and teach. It is likely that the disciples’ reaction to the Samaritan village is what will inspire the story of the Good Samaritan a few chapters later.
The story continues- remember they have just left a Samaritan village, one in which they had hoped to lay their heads. So they are tired, it is probably late, and most definitely hungry. But three new followers meet Jesus on the road. Jesus responds to these three would be followers who say that they are ready to follow Jesus wherever he goes. This section introduces the theme of discipleship- fitting, since James and John and their desire to punish the village with fire from heaven- isn’t really part of the job description.
Mikeal Parsons, the Chair of Religion at Baylor University points out that Jesus’ three responses to these followers mean that , “to follow Jesus is to follow someone who has no place to lay his head, is to embark of a journey that may involve alienation; indeed it already has in the preceding rejection by the Samaritan village. Further, the call to follow Jesus on the journey of “proclaiming the kingdom of God” is a call to radical commitment.” But Jesus is always on this journey with us. To the first follower, Jesus’ remarks make sense, since he has just experienced this inability to lay his head. Unlike the birds of the sky or the foxes in their den there seems to be no place for Jesus to rest.
The second follower, though, seems to have a very reasonable request, to go and bury his deceased father. To be honest I don’t have a great answer about why Jesus would say, “Let the dead bury the dead.” It seems equally difficult to understand when read with our Old Testament reading from 2 Kings- even Elijah allowed Elisha to say his farewell. In some commentaries they suggest that it refers to those who are metaphorically spiritually dead or for those who always seem to have an excuse. Or perhaps Jesus is aware of the urgency of his journey. It reminds me of how I feel before I go on a road-trip. I will get packed well in advance, and wake up early the day of our trip so that we can hit the road as early as possible. The earlier we leave- the earlier we can get on our way. There is determination in my planning.
Perhaps Jesus is feeling this urgency and the burdens before him- especially those that will meet him in Jerusalem. On the road Jesus will experience his own life and death and of course while Jesus heads toward his death it will mean life for us. This certainly explains his response to the third follower- there just isn’t time to look back. Jesus is calling all disciples to leave the predictable and cherished moments of daily living and instead take up the surprising and unexpected realities of discipleship.
You know what I needed to hear that this week? I needed to be reminded that discipleship is unpredictable and busy and full of exciting moments punctuated by the mundane not the other way around. Like Jesus, whose face is set to Jerusalem, whose journey is entirely based on God’s plans, we too must set our faces to the discipleship at hand. There are times we when might be more like the disciples feeling rejected by the Samaritan village- people make assumptions about who we are as Christians, proclaiming judgements, and restricting evangelism. People at us and want nothing to do with us. But that is in part because we are often like the three would-be followers. We have excuses, we have distractions, we have our idols that interrupt our obligations. It is humbling when we are reminded that discipleship is a lot more than that. As the disciples travelled with him to Jerusalem so do we go with him into today’s world. Sometimes that means that we will experience frustrations because our clutch breaks, sometimes it means we are hit by unbearable grief, sometimes it means we have to replace our parts but always as Jesus set his face to Jerusalem he set his face on his purpose- which was to be our friend, our guide, our saviour. What a road trip it is! Amen