Episodes
Sunday Mar 03, 2013
Finding sense in a senseless journey
Sunday Mar 03, 2013
Sunday Mar 03, 2013
Bishop Daniel C. Arichea Jr. (Ret.) Luke 9:51-62
FINDING SENSE IN A SENSELESS JOURNEY
Text: Luke 9:51-62 (Good News Translation)
51As the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind and set out on his way to Jerusalem. 52He sent messengers ahead of him, who went into a village in Samaria to get everything ready for him. 53But the people there would not receive him, because it was clear that he was on his way to Jerusalem. 54∗ When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” a
55Jesus turned and rebuked them. b 56Then Jesus and his disciples went on to another village.
The Would-Be Followers of Jesus
(Matthew 8.19-22)
57As they went on their way, a man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.”
59He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But that man said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.”
60Jesus answered, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”
61∗ Someone else said, “I will follow you, sir; but first let me go and say good-bye to my family.”
62Jesus said to him, “Anyone who starts to plow and then keeps looking back is of no use for the Kingdom of God.”
Let me at the outset thank the leadership of Foundry for making it possible for me to be a part of this worship service. When I asked about the theme, Dawn Hand sent me a copy of the 2013 Lenten Sermon Series. I immediately scanned the topics and the passages, and one thing that delighted me was this: For last Sunday, the biblical reference is from Luke chapter 8, and for next Sunday, the biblical reference is from Luke chapter 10. And it so happened that one of my favorite passages in Luke is Luke 9:51 on, and so it looked like Luke 9 was intentionally skipped for me!
Let me say that I like the theme of journey. Journey is movement. And movement has characterized our life as a family. To give you an example, our daughter Miriam was born at Duke Hospital, went to Kindergarten in Manila, first grade in Columbus Ohio, second grade in Manila, 3rd and 4th grades in Bangkok, Thailand, 5th grade in Manila, 6th till 11th grade in Jakarta, Indonesia, and finally graduated from high school in Princeton, New Jersey! Now if that is not movement, I don't know what is!
Michael is the same. Born in the philippines, he was one year old when we went to Columbus, 2 years old when we moved back to Manila, 4 years old when we moved to Thailand, 6 years old when we moved to Indonesia.
Journey is movement. And movement is what is expected of the people of God. Examples abound in the Bible. Why would God accept Abel’s offering and reject Cain’s? Because Cain was a farmer, and Abel was a hunter. Movement! Why would Stephen in Acts 7 have high praises for the tabernacle or tent that the Israelites used in the wilderness, and was so negative against the temple, even labeling it as a symbol of idolatry? Because the tent was movable, a very appropriate symbol of a God and a people on the move. The temple, on the other hand was stationary, a symbol of the static people of God. Movement!
This morning, I would like to invite you to be part of what looks like a senseless journey, namely, Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Senseless because he started his ministry in Galilee and has been quite a success there. Consider these from the Gospel of Luke: Luke 8:1 1Some time later Jesus traveled through towns and villages, preaching the Good News about the Kingdom of God. Luke 8:4 People kept coming to Jesus from one town after another. He did not confine himself to Jewish territory; he also went to Gentile territory beyond Lake Galilee, as for instance, Gerasa, where he had 2000 pigs killed in order to heal one man.
And now he is a big success in Galilee. Would he stay in Galilee, where it is safe, and where success is guaranteed? Or would he move on? This was not the first time Jesus was confronted with this choice. In fact, this challenge came to him right at the very beginning of his ministry in Galilee. The first chapter of the Gospel of Mark describes for us the early days of Jesus’ ministry in the town of Capernaum. After a series of significant and miraculous events, Mark writes in 1:28 “And so the news about Jesus spread quickly everywhere in the province of Galilee.” A few verses later, in Mark 1:32, we read, “After the sun had set and evening had come, people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who had demons 33All the people of the town gathered in front of the house.” What a successful beginning of his ministry!
Now we look at the next part of the passage. In Mark 1:35, we are told that Jesus woke up very early to go to a lonely place all by himself to pray. We are not told what he prayed about. But we have an idea. He must have prayed about what to do next, with all this popularity and success in Capernaum. Would he stay on in Capernaum, build a Jesus center there, a mega-center, so to speak, where all the people from Galilee and Samaria and Judea could gather to listen to him and be healed of their sicknesses? I am almost sure that was what he was praying about. Would he stay put or embark on a journey? Would he be stationary or itinerant? As he prayed, Simon Peter found him and told him what he thought was good news: “Everyone is looking for you!” But Jesus answered, “We must go on to the other villages around here. I have to preach in them also, because that is why I came.” (Mark 1:38 GNT)
So the first point is: we must go on! This is Jesus’ message: we must go on. The journey does not end, regardless of the successes, or even the failures! The journey begins again and again. After Capernaum there is all of Galilee. After Galilee there is the world! Journey is movement, and movement is fundamental to the people of God. We must go on, we must move on!
But going back to our text for this morning, we ask, why Jerusalem? Jesus could have continued his journey somewhere else. There were still places in Galilee that he has not visited. Why Jerusalem? Why would Jesus leave his comfort zone, to use a cliché, and go to Jerusalem where what is guaranteed is not success but failure, suffering, insult, rejection, and even death? Why would he want to go to Jerusalem? Why would anyone want to go to Jerusalem? Why would any of us want to go to Jerusalem? We are doing so well in our Galilees. Forget Jerusalem! Forget the uncertainty! Forget the suffering and the pain! Forget the rejection and the insult! Stay in Galilee where it is safe and secure, and where success is guaranteed. And yet, and yet, Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem, and he invites us to go with him in this senseless journey. And the question we ask is Why?
Fortunately for us, the answer is right in the text. Listen to v. 51 again:
"As the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind and set out on his way to Jerusalem."
His decision to go to Jerusalem is connected with his being taken up to heaven. This has reference to the Ascension of Jesus, which we affirm in the Apostles’ Creed: “On the third day he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” So what does it mean for Jesus to be taken up to heaven? It means to be vested with authority. Ephesians 4:10 makes this clear: “The one who came down is also the one who went up, above and beyond the heavens, to fill all things,” or as the Good News Translation puts it: to fill the whole universe with his presence.” Ascension means that Jesus is no longer space bound but is present anywhere and everywhere in the whole universe. And presence means power and authority. So verse 51 in our text would mean something like this: When Jesus knew that the time was near for him to be given complete authority, he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem.
Now authority is something that we humans understand so well or more accurately, misunderstand. Authority for us is control, it is absolute power, it is having the last word. How did Jesus understand authority? Here we find some help from the Gospel of John. Listen to the famous passage in John 13:
"Jesus knew that the Father had given him complete power; he knew that he had come from God and was going to God. So he rose from the table, took off his outer garment, and tied a towel around his waist. Then he poured some water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist." (John 13:3-5 GNT)
Authority for Jesus is taking a towel and a basin of water, and washing the feet of his own disciples. In simple terms, this means that for Jesus authority is being a servant to his own disciples who were supposed to be servants to him! Authority is not power, it is service!
Now we get a clue as to why Jesus would go to Jerusalem at a time when he was about to go up to heaven, that is, he was about to be given complete absolute authority. Jerusalem for him was not power or authority but something else. Listen to him as he spoke to his disciples in Luke 18:
31 Jesus took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “Listen! We are going to Jerusalem where everything the prophets wrote about the Son of Man will come true. 32 He will be handed over to the Gentiles, who will make fun of him, insult him, and spit on him. 33 They will whip him and kill him.
Jerusalem is suffering, Jerusalem is death. But not simple suffering, not simple death. It is suffering and death as a result of obedience to God’s will. Which leads to another factor in going to Jerusalem: It is God’s will that Jesus should go to Jerusalem. Going to Jerusalem is obedience to God’s will.
The apostle Paul can help us here. You remember him? In three missionary journeys, he traveled the Greek and Roman worlds. He established many churches. And yet, there is this unfinished business, this urgent need to do one more thing, and that is, to go to Jerusalem. Why would he want to go to Jerusalem? What is Jerusalem for him?
Listen to what the book of Acts has to say on this matter. In his farewell speech to the elders of Ephesus, Paul says to them:
22And now, in obedience to the Holy Spirit I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit has warned me that prison and troubles wait for me. 24∗ But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do.
Jerusalem stands for the unknown. Jerusalem stands for suffering. But most important of all, Jerusalem stands for obedience to the will of God and the completion of God’s mission. Where is your Jerusalem? How many Jerusalems have you traveled to? How many Jerusalems are waiting for you?
As you ponder on these questions, let me just say that today, we are in Jerusalem! We join u?Jesus in Jerusalem, and sit with him in the upper room. We watch him as he takes the bread and gives it to us with the words, Take, eat, this is my body sacrificed in Jerusalem for you… Then he takes the cup, and says to us, Drink from this, all of you, for this is my blood poured out in Jerusalem for the forgiveness of your sins
And we eat the bread, and drink the wine, and then move on, to our own Jerusalems, as we say with the apostle Paul: in obedience to the Holy Spirit we are going to our own Jerusalems, not knowing what will happen to us there. But we reckon our own life to be worth nothing to us; we only want to complete our mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave us to do.
Let us go on. We must move on! AMEN!
Daniel C Arichea Jr
Foundry United Methodist Church
Washington D C
March 3, 2013
Comments (0)
To leave or reply to comments, please download free Podbean or
No Comments
To leave or reply to comments,
please download free Podbean App.