Year C
Luke 14:25-33
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
No Turning Back
Those of us who have made a Cursillo retreat weekend are familiar with the hymn “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” The story behind the hymn whose author and composer are listed as “Anonymous,” is interesting because there is some confusion about it. The most popular origin story is that the words of the hymn come from the last words of an Indian Christian who lived in the mid-1800’s in India. According to this story, the man and his family converted to Christianity and when it was discovered that they had become Christians, they were dragged into the village, where the chief demanded that they renounce their faith in Jesus.
The father, moved by the Holy Spirit, cried out in his native tongue, “I have decided to follow Jesus, and I will not turn back!” Even when his family was threatened, he said, “Though none go with me, still I will follow! He was given one more opportunity to deny his faith even at the point of death, but he proclaimed, “The cross before me, the world behind me. No tuning back.” The man and his family were martyred for their faith in Jesus, but their courage and commitment to Jesus sparked a revival in the village. In today’s gospel, we hear Jesus talk about the cost of discipleship. He demanded that his followers carry a cross. Author Timothy Keller wrote,” What Jesus is saying here is, ‘I want you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduring that all other attachments in your life look weak by comparison.”
Being a follower of his involves sacrifice for one must renounce the world, take up their cross and follow him. The apostle Andrew died on a cross. Simon was crucified. Bartholomew was flayed alive. James son of Zebedee was beheaded. The other James son of Alphaeus was beaten to death. Thomas was run through with a lance. Matthias was stoned and then beheaded. Matthew was slain by the sword. Simon Peter was crucified upside down. Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows. Philip was hanged. The extreme demands that Jesus makes upon those who would follow can shake foundations, topple priorities, pit people against family and friends, and can make us strangers in this world.
To the large crowd following him that day, Jesus goes to extreme measures to help the people understand the actual cost of being one of his disciples. I’m sure they were surprised by his words. Surprised because they were following with many different motives. Some in the crowd, would be following because they had seen Jesus feed a multitude of people and they are waiting to be fed. Some are following because they have heard of Jesus’ miracles of healing and they are hoping for a opportunity to approach him and be healed. Still others are most likely following for the thrill of it all and I would think it is safe to say that only a few were truly committed to this teaching and preaching rabbi. Jesus aware of their many motives turns to the crowd and tells them what is involved in a true commitment to follow him.
It is definitely not for the faint of heart. To follow him means establishing priorities, counting the cost and a willingness to pay the price. Jesus is asking “Who owns us and to whom do we belong? Are we willing to give up everything, if necessary, in order to follow him? Does the cost of discipleship really require one to “hate parents, spouse, children, siblings, even one’s own life? Hate here is a jarring word and yet we know Jesus liked to use parables and exaggerated statements to stress his point, as he is most likely doing here, but this doesn’t underestimate the potential costs of following him as all his original disciples found out.
Jesus is strongly inviting us to a relationship with God, a hungering for God, through him with the help of the Holy Spirit that will shape our lives not just on Sunday’s but through all days and all the years that lie ahead. God, Jeremiah tells us today is like the potter, shaping and forming our lives, the clay in God’s hands. The production of pottery was widely practiced in the Ancient Near East and the method has not changed much in 2500 years. Maybe you have tried working with clay as I have. It looks easy to do but really is not. It takes skill and imagination, and a willingness to destroy a deformed piece and start over.
The OT reading mixes metaphors and speaks of a God who builds and plants as well as breaks down and destroys. The analogy of God as divine potter and us as clay suggests that God might destroy a work of pottery because it is deformed, just as God might destroy an unfaithful nation; or that God might reshape a work of clay that holds promise, as God might renew a nation that has repented. Analogies however are incomplete descriptions of what is really going on. While the image that Jeremiah gives us is a helpful insight into God’s actions in the lives of the Israelites and also in our lives. It does not take into account our human response, our freedom to make chooses as a response to what God does.
The key point in the reading today is not that God shapes passive creatures. Rather, God shapes us through the gift of freedom entrusted to us, that the beloved clay, God’s people might express the potter’s own heart and will. God’s plan is to shape us in the image of the crucified one. God’s shaping a people through an intimate, covenantal relationship reaches it’s fulfillment in the cross, in the saving death of Jesus. We deform ourselves when our choices get in the way of being genuine followers of Jesus Christ; choices that compromise our relationship with God. This insight is at the heart of Paul’s letter today to Philemon as he witnesses to his effort to shape a Christian community into a forgiving and reconciling community even while he is in prison. Paul’s aim was to persuade Philemon, a prominent member of the church in Collossae, to accept a runaway slave, Onesimus, as a “dearly loved brother” which Philemon could legally do.
Paul recognized God at work in a runaway slave willing to return to his master. Just as Paul desired freedom for Onesimus and did not force Philemon to accept Onesimus back, so too God wants us to be free from whatever enslaves us and from whatever prevents us from being faithful disciples of God’s son. Whether we are shaped by Paul’s words or Jesus’s words and the Spirit’s actions, to be a people of love, mercy, justice and reconciliation, is up to us. God does not force us or give up on us and will continue to shape us into the image of God’s Son, to work out the flaws in the hope that even when we count the cost, we will still choose to follow Jesus and shout it out! I have decided to follow Jesus! The cross before me, the world behind me! No turning back, no turning back.