Sermons
1st July 2007 - Trinity 4
‘Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem’
When I lived in Kenya journeys were often unpredictable, cars would break down, roads would be unusable or not exist, maps were frequently wholly inaccurate. A particularly beguiling example of this sort of thing took place whilst driving back to Nairobi from a little village beyond Mount Kenya, late at night. We set off south on the track we believed to be going towards the city and were delighted when we hit the partially tarmac’d road and saw a sign saying Nairobi 200km. After a little while we saw another sign that said Nairobi 250km, which was disheartening. But by now we definitely had the mountain behind us and the city had to be in front so we kept going. A little later a sign said Nairobi 300km and as we entered Nairobi itself we saw two signs next to each other. One said ‘Welcome to Nairobi’ the other Nairobi 350km. The signs on our journey had been put in the right places but the wrong way round, so travelling away from Nairobi the next day we were told by the signs we were getting ever closer…
‘Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.’ Lots of signs on the way, mostly discouraging. This part of Luke’s gospel is characterised by the feeling that Jesus knows exactly where he is going, this is travel-writing for the determined not for those having doubts. On the way he meets with those reluctant to follow him on his great journey, he meets those who say they have something else to do first but that they will catch up and he meets some who reject the purpose of his journeying outright.
And this journey is described by Luke against a very rich Old Testament background. Consider the many resonances. Elijah called Elisha from the plough, the two prophetic figures Elijah and Moses appeared at the Transfiguration speaking of the exodus the journey out that Jesus would accomplish at Jerusalem and thus reminded those present of the great journeying narrative the great exodus that is the story of the people of God in the Old Testament, and the disciples of Jesus wonder if they should call down fire on those oppose his journey, as Elijah did in his anger at those who opposed his prophetic voice.
And Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem stands in Luke’s gospel as a stark picture of the Christian journey, which is to be full of single-minded determination, a journey going in one direction, turning neither to the right nor to the left, a journey which must be begun without delay, a journey undertaken without looking back. Jesus seems to say, this journey with me, you have to do it now ‘No-one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’…How can we fit this stringent urgency in with a day to day Christian life that might not displace every other activity we have to do, indeed how could it ever? The demands of the kingdom are all very well, we might say, but I still have to put the kids to bed, and go to work tomorrow, and make the dinner and everything else. Is this Christian journey supposed to knock everything else off my to-do list? Can he really expect us to neglect our duties to those whom we love? Who does this Jesus think he is after all?
Well, it is because of who Jesus is that we take this call seriously and try to work out what it might mean, it is because of who Jesus is that we even listen for a moment to these utterly unreasonable requests being made on us. And we need to remember a basic point about Christianity that often seems to be forgotten; we are not Jesus, but his followers. In all his actions of mercy and healing and generous love, we have our model and our ideal, but Jesus knows of what we are made, he knows we are but dust. He knows that on each of our journeys through life there will be much turning to the left and to the right, many times when we not only fail to keep up with Our Lord but when we actively turn the other way, saying ‘this journey is not for me’.
If in this section of Luke’s gospel we hear the uncompromising voice of urgency from Jesus, it is a good wake up call, a fresh opportunity to turn to his ways and walk with him, but we need to remember that this Jesus also says to his disciples and to us, ‘Come to me all who are heavy laden and I will refresh you’. Jesus urges us to accept our part in the Christian journey certainly, but we mustn’t ever feel he has gone so far ahead that we have lost sight of him. As we say at the start of our Eucharist prayer, the Lord is here his spirit is with us. And it is with the strength that the Spirit gives us that we can accomplish our Christian journey, knowing that however many times we lose the way, however many times we wilfully misread the signs we will be accepted back into the journeying band, and helped again to see the direction our lives need to take. As Saint Paul says in our second reading today ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit’.