Setting out for Jerusalem
Luke 9: 51 – 62
Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 16 March, 2003

A TIME came in Jesus’ life and ministry when he had to make a change. He had reached a turning point and now he was headed towards the final steps in our redemption.

It is fashionable among us Evangelical Christians to think of Jesus as unchanging. It’s as though we could sum up his entire life in four statements:

• He did miracles
• He died
• He rose again
• He is now at God’s right hand.

In other words, we see him as leading an unchanging existence from his baptism until his arrest.
It’s not true. In fact, Jesus lived a very eventful life which breaks easily into several phases. There was a Galilean ministry. There was a Jerusalem ministry. There was a holiday in Lebanon. There was a major turning point when the disciples finally worked out who he was, the Christ, the Son of God. And there was the countdown to the cross.

Jesus was tempted and tested in every point just the same as we are. And that means that he went through all the phases of life we have to go through. Do you remember the emotional roller-coaster that life was when you were a teenager? Jesus lived through that. Do you remember wondering what you should do with your life? Jesus has been there. Do you know something of what it means to confront your own inevitable death? Jesus has experienced that.
To experience life, he had to experience the kinds of ups and downs we all experience.

Once John Giles came to our church. In his talk he mentioned that Jesus experienced sexual temptations.

I don’t know if John could see the reaction on one of the choir’s sopranos, but I saw her back stiffen and the hair rise on her neck. But before she could do whatever she was thinking of doing, he went on,
“And, if you don’t believe that, then you are a heretic. The Docetists in the second century believed that kind of thing, and too many Christians today are really Docetists.”

Jesus lived one of the more eventful lives. He was not religious recluse, sitting in a mountainside cave, thinking mighty thoughts. He lived among people, he experienced their lives, and he was there with them when the foundations were crumbling.
If you want someone to walk with you through Death Canyon, if you want a friend when the storm is raging or the devil is raving, if you want a staff for the rough path or a sword and a shield in the evil day, you can’t do better than Jesus. He knows what hardship is like!

And the major turning point in his life came when he was talking to his disciples and asked them “What is the rumour? Who do people say that I am?”
His disciples said, “There are all kinds of things going around. Some people say you are a reincarnation of some prophet, some think you are Elijah sent back to us to make way for the Messiah.” And they told him all the theories going around.
So then Jesus asked them, “And who do you say that I am?”
You know how we feel when someone puts us on the spot like that. You know that there is a right answer, but you are not sure what the right answer is.
The disciples were looking at their feet or up in the sky, hoping that the question would go away. But it didn’t go away.
Some of them were thinking, “I think he’s probably the Messiah, but maybe he doesn’t want me to say that.” Others were saying, “He wants us to say, “You’re the Messiah,” but the Pharisees would crucify us if we said that.” Maybe others were saying, “I’m not sure who he really is. He is a miracle worker and God has blessed him in many ways, but he’s not delivering what I expected of him.” And I suppose some were even saying, “He wants me to say he’s the Messiah, but I don’t think he is.”

And Jesus just waited and didn’t say a word. He just stood and looked around at them, face by face, judging what they were thinking.

Finally Peter couldn’t stand the silence anymore.
"You are the Messiah, the son of the living God!'
he blurted out.

And that was the key for Jesus. Immediately he had to begin on the final phase of his ministry.
He warned his disciples that he would go to Jerusalem and suffer there and die. He told them that he would rise again after three days. And they didn’t believe a word of it.

But Jesus

...resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

He was going there to die. But he made up his mind. He was going through with it. The Authorised Version says,

He set his face to go to Jerusalem

There was a granitelike hardness in his decision.

One thing Jesus told his disciples straight after Peter declared that he was the Christ is this:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it...”

And, like any good leader, Jesus immediately began putting into practice what he had taught them. He

...resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

There has been a lot of controversy in the papers recently about the first sermon that Rev Philip Jensen preached in St Andrews Cathedral as the new Canon. The big gun in a Cathedral is called a Canon. I am not one of Philip Jensen’s biggest fans. I don’t like the way he deals with people he disagrees with.
At the same time, much of what he had to say was really rather unobjectionable. He said that, where different religions disagree with each other, they can’t all be right, and, as far as he was concerned, Christianity is right where other religions have it wrong.
He then went on to say that religious ideas that are untrue are part of a demonic plan to seduce people from God and to keep them from salvation.

Everyone has been whingeing. "It’s going back to a 1950s mindset."
"It’s arrogant to say that Christianity has the truth and other religions haven’t."
"It doesn’t do anything for interfaith relationships."

As one reporter remarked, no one would complain if you heard something like that in a mosque or a synagogue, but everyone complains when a Christian leader says it.

When Jesus left Galilee to go to Jerusalem, he knew he was facing death. He was staking his life on his faith to an extent that no other religious leader has ever done.
Socrates was probably the closest. When he was condemned to death for leading youth astray with his teaching, he refused to recant and drank poisonous hemlock rather than live in silence.
Mahomet was a brave man. He led his Muslim armies into battles where the chance of victory was infinitesimally small.
Moses led the Israelites across the Sinai deserts where many before and since have perished. He did it knowing the risks, but trusting God to carry him through.
St Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and still carried on.
Martin Luther had the entire power of the Mediaeval Catholic Church against him. If the Elector hadn’t kidnapped him and kept him a virtual prisoner in the Wartburg, he would have been killed.

But only Jesus chose to leave a place of security and success and go into the very place where Rome and Jerusalem could and would combine to kill him. He didn’t go out of a perverted desire to die. He went because that was God’s plan for his life, and to refuse that plan was to refuse to give salvation to the world.

Jesus took up his cross willingly. He had to choose whether what he believed was true. He didn’t have the luxury of wondering if the Buddhists were right about the eightfold path. If what he believed was true, then he would die, and the world would be saved, and he would rise again. But if it wasn’t true, he would die a fool, die as one of those people whose religious fanaticism leads them into impossible situations. What was the choice for him?

You are almost certainly facing changes in your life. Just like Jesus, we all face changes. There are broad changes. I was talking to a woman I know the other day — I expect she is about my age — and she told me about some major changes she had in her life at about 40.
I said, “That’s pretty standard. Women go through a crisis at about 40 where they begin to define who they will really be for the rest of their lives. Men go through two crises, one at about 35 and the other at about 50. One has to do with career and the other has to do with personal definition.”

Another set of broad changes have to do with facing major life crises: getting married, having children, major illnesses, facing death.
Then there are career changes, moving house, all those things. We all face changes.

And Jesus shows us a way ahead.
He put first things absolutely first.

[He] resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

Those men who met him along the way provide an excellent contrast between Jesus’ way and the way we often go about our lives.

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
9:58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

This man was willing to go with Jesus as long as he could have his creature comforts along the way. He wanted to go first class.
If God gives you first class, by all means receive his gift. But remember that Jesus didn’t go first class. He had less than foxes and birds have. He didn’t even have his own bedroom.
If you want to follow Jesus, you’ve got to be ready to go to Jerusalem the same class he went.

Then another man came along and this time Jesus invited him to follow.

He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
9:60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

This man thought that the most important thing was to do family things, even if they clashed with Jesus’ call. This man wasn’t asking Jesus for a week to get a funeral done. He was saying, “After my parents die, then I’ll be ready to become a disciple.” He wants Jesus to wait for another 20 or 30 years, then he’ll be good and ready to follow.
The Bible says that anyone who neglects his family is no better than a pagan. But if you want to follow the way of the cross you’d better be ready to start following straight away, not some vague future date when every family duty that might possibly fall on you is fulfilled. Start now: God will look after the details.

Just remember Jesus, who

...resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

Then there was another volunteer for the Kingdom, and here’s his story:

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”
9:62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

It’s more subtle this time. Here’s a man who wants to follow, but can’t make up his mind. There’s desire but no resolve. The comfortable way with family and friends is such a great temptation. He doesn't want to break out and try anything new.
By contrast, Jesus

...resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

When you are confronted with a choice in life, here’s the thing to do: chose the way of Jesus: choose the way of the cross.

Last Sunday afternoon late, I fell asleep in the lounge chair and was rudely awakened by an old friend. In the course of conversation, he informed me of a situation which means I will have to make a few decisions that I don’t want to make.
The problem is that, if I go the way that seems to be on offer, it would give me a lot of things I would like to have. I’m not talking about great wealth, but there are other things in life. It could also have benefits for the family. At the same time, it would cut off a heap of other things that are very important to me. I can’t tell which way to go. I hardly slept on Sunday night because too many things were hanging in the balance.
On the other hand, it might all come to nothing. Or it might just be something to help me focus my thinking in areas that already concern me. For example, several things have come up at the same time that remind me that something needs to be done to reach out into the Green Square area, and I keep putting the two things together in my mind for some reason that I can’t quite work out.

All I can say is that I have to find Jesus’ way in the midst of all those conflicting tugs on my life and resolutely set out for whatever my Jerusalem is.

And that’s all I can say to you.
In all of the pressures and conflicting ideas coming into your life, where is Jesus leading? What is the core issue in your life, regardless of costs and benefits?

What calling of God makes you what God has created you to be?

Once you know that, once you are committed to following Jesus whether it gives you nothing or whether it gives you everything, then you can decide, and nothing will sway you. No bribe will make you do it if it is not God’s will; no loss, not even of life itself, will turn you from it, because it is God’s will

Jesus

...resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

Are we willing to follow him all the way?