“Obstacles to discipleship”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, October 21, 2024
Luke 9: 51- 62 (Forward, p. 84) CEV p. 1072
At first glance there would seem to be little or no connection between the two pericopes or small sections of today’s reading. However, upon a more careful look, we can see that they illustrate some frequent obstacles to following Jesus.
The Samaritans display what might be construed as a party or religious or denominational loyalty. Jesus, as far as they were concerned, was not of the ‘true’ faith, and furthermore, was on His way to worship at the rival place of worship, Jerusalem versus their own choice, Mount Gerizim. And so, they refuse to accept Jesus and His disciples, and refuse to provide them with any provisions for the trip.
The disciples, namely James and John, aptly nicknamed ‘the Sons of Thunder’, display the same warped sense of loyalty. They want to send down fire from heaven to punish and destroy these wayward and unhospitable folks. As is stated in one of the alternative readings, they, in their zeal, had missed out on one of Jesus’ premier tenets, namely to save people rather than destroy them.
Both groups display a mistaken zeal or loyalty, which certainly can pose an obstacle to faithfully following Jesus. However, in the next few verses we can identify something that is just the opposite of zeal, that is, a certain lethargy or hesitation in following Jesus. Here the ‘obstacles’ are not always spelled out explicitly, but can be inferred.
The first ‘would be’ disciple promises to go anywhere with Jesus, but Jesus picks up on that disciple’s unmentioned, and perhaps, unrecognized, hesitation, namely his need for security. Counter to this, Jesus (and His disciples) have no place to call their own.
The second would-be disciple mentions a need to first take care of some family business, namely burying his father. Jesus’ dismissal of this claim sounds to us today as being very harsh and unfeeling, but this conclusion misses out on what actually took place with Jewish burials at the time of Jesus. The burial itself occurred on the very day that the person died, so, obviously, this would have not posed an impediment, not at all. But then there was a secondary burial that took place after the flesh had decayed from the bones. At that point the bones were transferred to a stone box called an ossuary, but could take place months or years later, depending on the condition of burial site. Obviously, then, this was effectively putting off following Jesus for a considerable and as yet unseen length of time.
And the third would-be disciple has some other unspecified household responsibilities to take care of, perhaps devising a will or paying his bills. The list could be endless, and, to be honest, isn’t there always something seemingly ‘urgent’ to take care of?
How very contemporary these two sets of obstacles can seem: a mistaken loyalty or a mistaken sense of what Jesus is ‘about’ on the one hand, and other ‘needful’ things to do on the other. I think that we can all find ourselves in either one or other category at some point—or maybe both. Fortunately, this is a choice we need to make every single day, and today’s choice, or tomorrow’s, can be more faithful in following Jesus than the previous ones. No obstacles need be permanent if we desire otherwise.
Forward notes: “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head “ (verse 58b).
“Years ago, about 15 minutes before worship was to start, someone came up to me and said they found a houseless person sleeping in the back part of the church property. ‘Don’t worry,’ he continued with a smile. ‘I chased him out of here. And he won’t...’ Before he could finish, I ran off to find this person, but he was long gone. Worship that day started a little late, but honestly, it felt a bit empty for me—even though I was presiding over it. The church member and I had a conversation after worship about how to approach this kind of situation next time with a bit more grace.
“I’m always confused about why we treat our houseless siblings with more contempt than grace. Many Christians will ignore a houseless person on their way to church to offer worship to Jesus, who lived an itinerant life.
“Theologian Willie Jennings says, ‘Disciples are watched, especially by those in need. Disciples must be seen, especially by those in need.’”
Moving Forward: “Are we making ourselves seen, especially by those in need?”