Sermon: No Place for the Faithful
|
Luke 9:57-58
“No Place for the Faithful”
Series: “The Cost of Following Jesus”
You may have seen the picture that went viral of Bubba Watson, the PGA golfer, who played in the NBA Celebrity All-Star game, held in Los Angeles last week. The picture was of Bubba donned in his celebrity basketball gear putting up a jump shot with another celebrity, Tracy McGrady, a former NBA player, swatting Bubba’s jumper out of bounds. In basketball parlance, that’s called a “rejection,” and for all of us who know the term we couldn’t help but commiserate with Bubba for the embarrassment such an experience must have caused him.
There is no pain more familiar to us human beings than the pain of rejection. You may never have played a game of basketball in your life, but chances are that you can remember those terrible times in days gone by when in the process of trying to figure out who you were, being accepted by your peers was something incredibly so important. Whether it was crying out to be chosen for a pickup game or standing in line while someone was about to be crowned homecoming queen, most of us know what it’s like for our name not to be called.
That “kicked-in-the-gut” feeling you get when someone overlooks your ignores you inevitably generates some type of physical reaction. In fact, recent brain-imaging studies have shown that a social snub of any kind affects the brain precisely the way visceral pain does so that when someone hurts your feelings, you really hurt all over. Is it any wonder then that we talk of having broken hearts or bruised egos? Now you understand why people will go to almost any lengths to “fit in.” The thought of having to go through this life all our own with no one in our corner is quite simply more than we can bear.
And yet, that is precisely the pain that Jesus knew even prior to the cross when he often found himself at a place in life where it seemed that the world had forsaken him and he was left all alone.
Luke’s Gospel records one of those places. Jesus and his disciples have begun making their way from Galilee down to Jerusalem and have sensed the Spirit leading them through Samaria, a region steeped in rejection from its inception. Most of you know enough Bible to know that the Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along at all. Both rejected the other. Their enmity stemmed back to the days of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in the days after the exile. The Jews had returned to start that massive work project and their cousins to the north in Samaria had offered to assist them. But the Jews rejected their offer because in their eyes the Samaritans had rejected God’s commands not to intermarry with foreign nations. Hence, the Jews considered the Samaritans “half-breeds” and the Samaritans the Jews “religious snobs.” That is why when Jesus had sent messengers on ahead of the group and they came to a Samaritan village, the citizens did not welcome Jesus and his disciples, “because they were headed to Jerusalem” (Lk. 9:53). And that is why when two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, saw the rejection, they asked Jesus if he wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy them, in the same way that Elijah had done with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. But of course Jesus refused, bidding them to move on to another village. Jesus knew such was the lot in life for all who were serious about serving God.
Now, as Jesus and his disciples are walking down the road, a man approaches and says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” You’d think that given all the rejection that had been in the air, Jesus would have jumped at the opportunity to add to the number of his disciples. But, remarkably, he doesn’t. Instead, he wants the man to know that for those who follow him there is little comfort and little security but rather much rejection along the way. Hence his reply: “Foxes have their holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
As I read this passage, the word that jumps out to me is the word “follow.” The Greek word is akoloutheo from which we get our English word “acolyte.” Some of you grew up in faith traditions that employed acolytes in worship. An acolyte is more than just someone who follows the priest in his liturgical duties. An acolyte actually assists the priest and attends to his needs. In high church traditions, acolytes do things like carry crosses and ring bells and swing censers. They don’t just tag along in the worship proceedings; they are intricately involved in all that is going on, which is what I believe Luke was trying to help us understand in this passage. Following Jesus means more than just hanging around him at a safe distance so that we don’t risk anything in the course of our discipleship. Instead, it means putting ourselves in the same places in which Jesus put himself, places where we have no one else to rely on other than Jesus so that we come to discover that when we rely on Jesus, we find that he is always enough.
William Willimon, the former bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, tells about a baptism ceremony he participated in while he was in campus ministry at Duke University. It was a baptism for a graduate student from Mainland China, who had come to faith in Christ while at Duke. Willimon had met the young man before and was more than happy to participate in his baptism.
After the baptism, Willimon pulled out his cellphone and proceeded to take a few pictures. “You can send these pictures to your family back in China,” Willimon said to the student. “This way, you can share the day with your family and friends back home.” But as Willimon maneuvered everyone into place for the snapshots, he noticed that the student looked a little shy and awkward as his picture was being taken.
Later on, as everyone was leaving, the other campus minister saddled up to Willimon and said, “Will, that was embarrassing.” “Embarrassing?” said Willimon. “What do you mean?” “Well, now that he’s been baptized, his life back home has been ruined. His parents say they will disinherit him. The government will probably take away his scholarship. He won’t be able to show those pictures to anybody. His life as he knew it is over, not that he’s been baptized into Jesus.”
And you thought it was tough when you didn’t get invited to the big party.
It’s time we move away from emphasizing believing in Jesus from the demand to follow him. Both are important. But it’s much easier to talk about believing in Jesus than it is in following him, because when you follow Jesus, it has an impact on every area of your life – your labor, your leisure, your finances, your relationship. Your life as you once knew it is over, once you make the decision to be baptized into and to follow after Jesus.
Yes, the pain of rejection is about as harsh a pain as there is, because it tears so deeply at our sense of self-worth. But when you know whose you are, you no longer worry so much about who you are. You find your worth in Jesus, “a friend who sticketh closer than a brother,” a friend who will never turn you away. You find that with Jesus you are never alone. With Jesus you are loved. With Jesus you are embraced. With Jesus are accepted. And no matter at what stage you are in your life’s journey, you find that being with Jesus is somehow always enough.