51When the days were approaching for him to be taken up, Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem. 52He sent messengers ahead of him. They went and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him. 53But the people did not welcome him, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” 55But he turned and rebuked them. “You don’t know what kind of spirit is influencing you. 56For the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s souls, but to save them.” Then they went to another village. 57As they went on the way, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 59He said to another man, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61Another man also said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those at my home.” 62Jesus told him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (EHV)
Dear Friends in Christ,
Is it bad to go to your father’s funeral? Is saying good-bye to your family a sin? Is Jesus crazy? Chances are at least a couple of these questions rolled through your head as you heard today’s readings—Elijah and Elisha’s unusual exchange, and then Jesus’ answers to some would-be followers. If there’s one thing you can draw from the answers Jesus gave, it’s that Jesus was not bland in making His point to people. The trick to understanding Him in texts like this is simply to focus on His point, and the point is this: Jesus expects His true followers to be COMMITTED TO HIM THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN.
Elijah and Paul were Committed
Elijah was fully committed to his calling. As one of God’s most famous Old Testament prophets, Elijah saw good times and bad. The best example of good times comes from right before our Old Testament Lesson, the story of how he famously confronted the prophets of Baal. What an opportunity to preach to the masses he was given! Remember his challenge to the 400 false prophets? Build an altar, put a sacrifice on it and call to your gods to send fire from heaven to consume it. They tried all day, even slashing their wrists…but nothing happened. Then Elijah built his altar, put a bull on it, and had it dowsed with barrels of water. When he called on the LORD not only the sacrifice was consumed, but the stones of the altar and all the water in the ditch around it. All the people had called out, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!” What a story! Elijah was COMMITTED THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN! The thin times followed immediately. Queen Jezebel took an oath to see Elijah dead within 24 hours and Elijah took off running, all the way to Mt. Sinai. He’d had enough, or so he felt. That’s when God demonstrated for Elijah the power of the still small voice – the Word of God.
But the LORD, who promises never to give us more than we can bear let Elijah know that He would let him retire, so to speak, and hand off his mantle to a younger man—a man who would also be COMMITTED TO GOD’S WORK THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN. Before the LORD took him to heaven in a whirlwind, he was given a list of final instructions, things to prepare for the future without him. One of those assignments was to anoint Elisha as his successor.
He tells Elisha what God will expect of him. His life will be much like Elijah’s, filled with ups and downs, thick and thin, good times and bad. Elisha will need to be fully committed. And Elisha showed that he was. He took the team of oxen [he’d been farming with] and slaughtered them. Using the equipment from the oxen as fuel, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him.
In our Epistle Lesson we have another example of total COMMITMENT TO GOD THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN. We know Paul as the greatest missionary of all time. Just look what God accomplished through him, spreading the Gospel and starting congregations on two continents, Asia Minor and then Europe. Toward the end of his life, Paul could look back on all those accomplishments with both pride and humility—humility that it was all God’s doing, pride that God had allowed such great things to happen through him. Paul was COMMITTED THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN, and there was plenty of thin to go with the thick. You heard Paul’s list of so many of the hardships he endured as a faithful follower of Jesus on his way to glory: He was whipped, beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked. He spent sleepless nights due to hunger, thirst, cold and concern about his people.
What about the rest of us? Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus and His disciples walking through Samaria on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem. These felt like good times for the apostles, and then something discouraging happened. The Samaritans didn’t really want them there. He sent messengers ahead of him. They went and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him. 53But the people did not welcome him, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”
James and John
Following Jesus has plusses and minuses, humanly speaking—Thick and Thin, good times and bad. Maybe James and John didn’t expect that. A lot of people don’t. A lot of people falsely suppose that becoming a Christian means all their woes are over. That false idea is known as the “Theology of Glory”, and you may have even heard it preached on television. It’s a pretty popular theme in America. But Jesus taught the “Theology of the Cross.” He told His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him. That’s why following Jesus requires COMMITMENT TO HIM THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN. James and John needed to learn that lesson, and in time they would. Ultimately James would become a martyr and John would spend his later years in exile on the Island of Patmos, both remaining faithful to the end.
James and John showed with their rage that they were fallible, sinful human beings. As such, their Savior Jesus would forgive them this time, like so many other times, and the Holy Spirit would continue throughout their lives to work on them—to Sanctify them. It’s probably because of this incident that these two brothers got the nickname Boanerges – ‘Sons of Thunder’. But later in life the surviving brother, John would get an opposite nickname, the ‘Apostle of Love’.
What About Us?
So, what about the people who approached Jesus as they continued on their journey? 57As they went on the way, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 59He said to another man, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61Another man also said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those at my home.” 62Jesus told him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
As we said at the outset, Jesus’ responses to these men leave us with some questions: Do His answers apply only to called workers? Was he just talking to those individuals at that time or is He talking to all disciples of all time? Do we have to forsake family in order to be followers of Jesus?
Well on another occasion, Jesus said to a whole crowd, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:37–39).
All Jesus is asking for is 1st Commandment loyalty: “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” God must always be first. Jesus is God. Jesus has told us that following Him has costs. He’s also told us that following Him has indescribably wonderful rewards. He’s asking all of us to be COMMITTED TO HIM THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN.
Jesus doesn’t call perfect people. If He did, He’d have no disciples. We fall down on the job in the commitment department, don’t we? We can’t do otherwise because we are frail human beings. But we turn back to Jesus each time we fall, and we renew our vow, because we’re committed to Jesus through faith. Luther wrote in the very first of his 95 Theses that the entire life of the Christian is one continual act of repentance. We need—each of us—to repent of not putting Jesus first. We need to trust He forgives us. Then we need to take up our crosses and follow Him with single-minded determination.
In answer to the questions we began with—namely is Jesus telling each of us to avoid our parents’ funerals, for example—it’s important to remember Jesus knew each person’s heart and spoke to each individual according to what He saw there. It’s like when He told the rich young ruler to sell everything, give it all to the poor and then come follow Him. Jesus knew that young, wealthy, man needed to hear just this message because Jesus knew he was trusting in himself and his wealth, and Jesus knew that in his case, his love for himself was standing in the way of his salvation. In the case of the man whose father had to be buried, what did Jesus see in just this man’s heart? We’re not told, but it’s safe to say Jesus saw that family ties were a barrier between him and Jesus.
Back in the days of the Civil War young recruits enthusiastically stood in long lines to sign up. Most wanted to join for the glory. To them enlistment meant a dapper uniform and parades down mains street with adoring, cheering crowds—not buckshot, starvation, gangrene, amputations or death. They needed to be told what war really involved. Jesus was simply telling these men what to expect as His followers.
Jesus is the only One who ever kept the 1st Commandment perfectly. You saw it in the very first line of our text: Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem. Jesus was determined to trust His Father fully and perfectly. Jesus was committed to perfectly carry out His Father’s will, culminating in His death for the sins of the world. It’s because He did, that we can be His followers. It’s through faith in Him alone that we can vow to put Him first in our lives again and again each day, knowing He will lift us up when we fall.
Finally, take note of this in Luke’s wording: 51When the days were approaching for him to be taken up, Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem. Normally we’d expect, as elsewhere in the Gospels, ‘When the time came for Him to go to Jerusalem to die.’ But Luke, writing a number of years after Jesus had ascended, puts the crown of life at the center. When we realize following Jesus is not ultimately about this life but about being taken up into heaven, it makes perfect sense to be COMMITTED TO JESUS THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN. Of course there are hardships, a good deal of tribulation, and a heaping helping of hard work involved in following Jesus as His committed disciples. But there are such profound blessings, culminating in being “taken up” to the eternal joys of heaven! Therefore, let us be COMMITTED TO JESUS THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN, determined to go up with Jesus to New Jerusalem. Amen.

Pastor Timothy Buelow
Our Saviour Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lake Havasu City, Arizona