One biblical scholar titled this pericope—or small slice of scripture— “The Cranky Jesus”. From what we heard in our reading this morning I don’t think many of us would disagree. The snappy answers Jesus gives to those who would follow him seem to be pretty harsh. To the Samaritan village that refuses him hospitality—he rebukes them. To the man who declares he will follow Jesus wherever he goes—basically Jesus responds, “Yeah, right.” To the man Jesus invites to join him but the man must first go and wait for his father to die—again, “Yeah, right.” And then to another who says he will follow Jesus after he runs home and tells them “goodbye”—well, Jesus doesn’t buy it. Another “yeah, right” escapes the lips of Jesus.
These are not the sort of compassionate and loving sort of responses one expects from Jesus. Yet, there they are in black and white for all of us to read for ourselves. I think we can all understand why the one biblical scholar declared Jesus to be “cranky” in this passage.
But let’s give Jesus a break. We are at a point in the story where Jesus is now making his way to Jerusalem where he is to complete the will of God. He is journeying towards the fulfillment of purpose for God. He knows what he must do and he is determined to fulfill his role in God’s plans . . . and to do this he has to get to Jerusalem. In his determination he will not allow anything to stop him.
Determination marks Jesus, his life, his ministry, and his love for God and others. He will accept no excuses for himself and allow nothing to get in the way of his goal; nor will he allow excuses from those who choose to follow him. No distractions if one chooses to follow Jesus. Basically, for Jesus he expects his followers to either do it or get out of the way.
I thought it was interesting that on the week that this scripture comes up in the lectionary I received two messages addressing this issue of “determination and distractions”. One came as an invitation to watch a video of the Reverend Ed Trevors speaking on the way that he sees the “church” happening today. He is a Canadian and an Anglican priest who shares an honest understanding of how he sees things being played out in the world.
In his message he talks about sin. First, he talks about those “sins” that we know we commit . . . those things we know we should not do. Then he talks about those other “sins”. Those other “sins” are those things we choose not to do when we know we should. For example, not helping someone in their times of need. Instead of helping we just walk away. He says that the greater of those two types of “sin” is the second one . . . willfully ignoring what we should do as the followers of Jesus. Ignoring God’s call upon our lives. He states that this is the greatest downfall of the “church”.
At the same time, he acknowledges there are always good reasons for putting off what Jesus would do or of doing what God would want. We have homes and businesses to take care of . . . family that need us . . . work to be done. Instead of hopping in with both feet we ignore the call of Jesus and God to join in the building of the kingdom . . . the Kingdom of God. We’ve got business to take care of before we can do the business of Jesus and God. We allow our distraction to detain us from what really need to be done. And, granted, the excuses sound good.
At least to our ears, but not to the ears or heart of Jesus.
The second unknown reference to our reading this morning came in the form of the Wednesday evening devotion that was shared with everyone this week. In this devotion there was a dialogue of sorts between responding to the needs of others after the flood in the area and of ignoring those calls to help for various reasons. The writer did a good job of laying out all the excuses there could be and even backed them all up with biblical examples like Moses, Jonah, Gideon, and even the Apostle Peter. When God calls, they all come up with excuses as to why they can’t respond . . . again, distractions from doing what God would want to be done. Then the writer asks the question: How are you going to respond to God’s call on your life?
The author answers the question by writing: “As we help our friends, neighbors and total strangers, we demonstrate love and response to God.”
Seems to me as if the Spirit was speaking this week. The question is whether anyone was listening? Or, if we were, did we allow ourselves to be distracted or make excuses?
We all know that Jesus was on a mission. We know that he was determined to fulfill that mission. He was about the business of building God’s Kingdom. And he was not going to allow anything to distract him from the job that was at hand. We also know that Jesus invites others—you and me--to join him on this mission of building God’s Kingdom. He not only invites us but shows us how it is to be done . . . through loving God and loving others . . . through building and not tearing down . . . through community and not disunity . . . through compassion, care, and respect . . . through justice and peace . . . of laying down one’s life for the good of others. He makes no excuses in his tunnel vision of determination, nor does he accept excuses from those he invites to join him in this task.
We are a long way from the Kingdom of God. You do not need me to point out the reality of the world that we live in today. You have seen and experienced it for yourselves. You read about it in the newspapers and magazines . . . you hear it on your radios . . . watch it on your televisions. We experience it through social media. What we are witnessing is a far cry from God’s Kingdom. How should we respond? Will we respond?
Remember earlier when I shared what the Reverend Ed Trevor said about “sin”? Remember he said there are the “sins” we commit when we do things that we should not do. Then he said there were the “sins” we commit when we purposefully refuse or ignore that which we should do that makes a difference . . . that builds the Kingdom of God.
It seems that we are that point . . . that nexus . . . between “here and there” in which we have do decide whether or not we are going to respond to Jesus’ invitation to build God’s Kingdom. God desires the kingdom be established where there is love as the foundation of all that is done. Jesus invites us to join him in building that kingdom as he shows us how it is done. We know what needs to be done . . . know what God wants, because Jesus has shown us.
The choice is ours to make.
Do we follow Jesus with determination, or do we allow ourselves to be distracted? Do we make excuses? We know deep down within our hearts how we should respond . . . what are we going to do? God would like to know . . . the world would like to know . . . Jesus waits. What are we going to do? Amen.
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