Proper 18: Deuteronomy 30: 15 – 20 -- Psalm 1 -- Philemon 1 – 20 -- Luke 14: 25 – 33
Given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL
Every time I see a report of one of the Marathon races that are being run around the country, I think of the individuals, thousands of them, who train for and enter those races.
I am awestruck by their dedication to the training and preparation that are needed to be able to run 26.2 miles. Some of them are marathoners by profession: that is to say, their whole lives are structured around the central place that running such a grueling race occupies in their lives.
Others, I suspect, are people who set a goal for themselves to run such a race, perhaps as a one-time event in their lives, and then they go about preparing for it, even as they tailor the obligations of family and work together with their running, so as to be able to train for the race.
A marathon race is a good image, I think, with which to unpack Jesus’ difficult sayings, heard in today’s Gospel: “Unless you_____, you cannot be my disciple.”: Our Lord’s words hit us hard in the face, like the “wall” that runners hit when they run a marathon race. The “wall” in a marathon is that place that is reached when the body says, “I want to stop now, I can’t go any further.” Our Lord’s words make us want to stop following Him, to say, “I can’t go any further.”
But Jesus’ teachings, spoken as He makes His way to Jerusalem and to the cross, encourage us to “look higher”, to look at the “big picture” of following Him as we, too, follow Him in the way of the cross.
“Look higher, see the big picture”, Our Lord seems to be saying. Indeed, His words are a hyperbole, a figure of speech whose roots are in the Greek language (HYPER + BOLE = “above + “throw”). Hyperboles are deliberate exaggerations which are intended to shock the listener into seeing a greater reality. Hyperboles encourage us to “get out of the rut” of everyday thinking. To get out of that rut enables us to have the strength to go on, and perhaps that is Jesus’ main reason for teaching us as He does today.
So as we consider what Jesus’ words might have meant to His original hearers, we would also do well to consider what they might have meant to the church to whom Luke was writing. And then, we should consider what they might mean to us, today. (Looking at Gospel texts from this three-way approach is an excellent way to study the four Gospel accounts, by the way.) But first, we should look more closely at the text itself, to determine its key features:
- “Unless you ______, you cannot be my disciple.”: Occurring three times in the text, this phrase is the heart of the hyperbole. Taken at face value, its demands are impossibly high: “hate your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself”, he says following the first occurrence of this phrase. And then, as part of the second, we read, whoever does not “bear the cross”, and as part of the third iteration, we see, “give up all your possessions”. The sequence of demands follows the natural progression of discipleship: 1. give up family relationships, 2. take up the sacrifice necessary, and 3. give up everything in the process.
- Two parables of cost:[1] The first has to do with ridicule and shame: The tower-builder who did not consider the cost “up front” becomes the object of ridicule (Our Lord’s word) and shame (by inference).
Now, let’s turn to the meaning of Jesus’ teaching, for His original hearers, for the early Church to whom Luke was writing, and then, for us as 21st century Christians today:
Jesus’ original hearers: Context is extremely important whenever we consider a Scriptural text. And, in the case of the Gospel accounts, the context is especially critical to the overall meaning of what we read.
In today’s account, we must remember that Jesus is making His way toward Jerusalem. Already, He has told His disciples what will happen to Him there (see Luke 9: 21 – 22 and 9: 43b – 45, e.g.). Jesus’ cross looms large over today’s text. In fact, for about ten chapters (chapters 9 through 19) of Luke’s Gospel account, the cross is the place to which this part of Luke are moving.
His passion and death seem to be foremost in Jesus’ mind….His words denote the progression of martyrdom, similar to the sequence of the things that must be given up:
- family relationships,
- accept the sacrifice that is necessary, and
- give up all possessions in the process.
Remembering what we know of Our Lord’s suffering and death at Calvary, we can see these themes at work in Jesus’ words, heard today, and in the sequence of events that attended His crucifixion (and, most likely, many of the victims of crucifixion): 1. victims of crucifixion were often disowned by family and friends (to get a sense of this, try picturing yourself explaining that a member of your family or a close friend had been executed); 2. crucified persons sacrificed everything: honor, dignity, and, yes, even life itself; and 3. possessions were lost at the time of crucifixion (remember that Jesus’ remaining possessions were gambled away with the casting of the lots).
Jesus’ way to Calvary has often been characterized as a spiritual battle of colossal proportions: the forces of evil battle to overcome the forces of good.
In essence, then, Jesus seems to be painting a picture of the events that He, Himself, will undergo, leading us by example as He walks the way of the cross.
Luke’s church: By the time Luke was penning out his account, the church had already been through times of ridicule and persecution. Many scholars think Luke was writing in the period around 85 – 90 AD. Some 20 – 25 years earlier, the first persecutions of Christians had taken place in Rome under the Emperor Nero.[2] Tradition tells us that Saints Peter and Paul were martyred at this time. So the church was beginning to live into the matter of forsaking “even life itself” in order to be a disciple.
In addition to those who actually suffered martyrdom, for many in the Church of Luke’s day, there was the more present reality of ridicule and shame….Shunning by neighbors became more common, and family members who did not convert to Christianity disowned family members who did.
So Jesus’ words come to Luke’s church, offering consolation: they were beginning to suffer just as their Lord had already suffered.
Just as He triumphed, so through the merits of His death and resurrection, they, too, would triumph, if only they could see “the big picture”. They, too, could win the battle, if only they could recognize the size and the strength of the spiritual forces that were ready to wage war on the opposing forces.
The church today: We do not live in a world which is characterized by the overt ridicule, shame and struggle that Our Lord faced on Good Friday, or that the early, first century church faced when Luke was penning out his Gospel account. To be sure, in some places in the world, Christians still suffer shame, dishonor and even lose their lives for the sake of Christ.
As modern Americans, the battles we face are far more subtle, though no less real: The shame and ridicule we might encounter is more likely to be characterized as indifference and quizzical looks (“who would anyone want to become a Christian, and give up all this fun” is the more likely response we are apt to face from family and friends).
But the spiritual warfare is waged on the same battleground as it was 2,000 years ago: the temptation to become lazy or careless about our Christian faith and life is as real today as it was back then….the opportunities to engage in destructive behavior are probably as plentiful today as they were in the Roman Empire. Anyone who has become serious about their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can testify that it is tantamount to pinning a big, fat target on your chest: the forces of evil come, bringing their best methods of spiritual assault with them.
Jesus’ words come crashing in, urging us to “count the cost” of discipleship, and to reorder our priorities in the process. His words exhort us to see the true nature of spiritual warfare by which the people of God are worn down and then, finally, conquered in the battlefield of the heart.
So enable us, dear Lord, to see “the big picture”.
Let us pray:
“Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”[3]
[1] These two parables are found only in Luke.
[2] A bit of history might be in order here: At the time of the Great Fire that destroyed much of the city of Rome (64 AD), Nero attempted to blame the fire on Christians, which subsequently led to the first organized persecutions.
[3] From the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, the Collect for Fridays from the
Office of Morning Prayer, p. 56.
