Luke 9:51-62, What Track Are You On?

Luke 9:51-62 and the Road Less Traveled

Luke chapter 9 verse 51 be reading to chapter to be reading to verse 62 the end of the chapter here the Word of the Lord. When the days drew near for him to be taken up he set his face to go to Jerusalem and He sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.

But the people did not receive him Because his face was set toward Jerusalem and when his disciples James and John saw it They said Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

But he turned and rebuked them and they went on to another village as They were going along the road. Someone said to him. I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

To another he said follow me and he said Lord Let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said I will follow you Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.

Jesus said to him no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. May the Lord add his blessings the reading of his Holy Word. Well, what track are you on, you know You want a career track or a family track or a good times track or something else?

That is you've you've set a course in your life whether you know it or not.

Towards something.

About something and that and that that course you said that determines where you live and what you're doing. Who you're doing it with? That your life will be Mainly about career family the weekend or whatever.

And so if it's career, that's your goal then and if that career Requires you to study somewhere distant. Some college may be far away. So you have to leave home if it requires you to move the career. It eventually does requires you to leave your familiar place and go somewhere where you know, no one else.

But only you know that there is a job there that will advance your career so you do it or Maybe the family track. You want to have a family? So you want to stay near mom and dad and so marriage kids? Being where they are is what determines where you live and what you do.

You study for jobs then that are available in your area.

Of course.

You can see that we have a problem even career minded people often want to have a family and often family minded people want to have a good income that only a good career can give and It's hard. It's not impossible and maybe it's not impossible.

But it's hard for two career track people to be married to each other. Because what happens if the career takes one of them? Somewhere else where the other one doesn't want to go or just can't find work.

Now traditionally the answer to that has been that the men are on a career track so they'll study and they'll relocate to where their career prospects are and the Women are on the family track and they're married to a man who's on a career track and so she's willing to pull up stakes and go where he goes and so he has a family and She has a good income and hopefully everybody's happy now, even if she studies.

You know con is mainly to get an MRS degree. You know what those are, right. MRS degree or maybe. Maybe it's to get a decent job. But it's guys it's it's the kind of job that you can probably get almost anywhere, you know.

You can think what those are while still following the husband if his career took him elsewhere. Now, of course nowadays girls and women are told that they can have it all they can have career and family and maybe they maybe they Can in some places maybe in some big cities where there are lots of different prospects or maybe depending on the career they choose.

But good luck. There's such a thing as luck. Finding a husband who is willing to follow you around. Of course, there are plenty of men who are not really on a career track at all. They're about family too.

And so they would choose to pursue a job that they can get in their area no moving necessary and. Then there are the good time track people if they don't even think about any of that. They just want to think what's most fun for today?

How can I have enough money to spend for this what I want to do this weekend? So if they focus on work at all, it's probably just and you know, it's just about that. What can I do to give me some spending money for the weekends go to that concert?

They want to go to or whatever so they can afford the parties and the vacations and the thrills that their life is all about. But you see that the point is that that there is a crucial decision about what my life will be about that then determines.

So much else.

Now the Christian idea has been lately over the past generation or so I don't really don't know how long that everyone is this implied often. Everyone is supposed to be a family track person now to be willing to sacrifice career for family.

You know never miss a little league game. Even if that could cost you a promotion at your job the family track is The Christian track they tell us and certainly don't be a party animal. Okay, and I agree with that now how many times I've heard of Christians piously say on your deathbed.

You won't be wishing you had spent more time at the office. Well, I'm not so sure. You know, God calls you to excellence at what you do and that will take some time. All right, you want to do a job do it?

Well, that's gonna take you some time. And what if? Speaking of family, what if one way to teach your kids that the world doesn't revolve around you. No, so you don't raise them as these narcissistic self-centered people.

What if one way to teach them the world doesn't revolve around you is. That you don't revolve around them. Well, that's a shocking idea, isn't it? That we don't always have to drop everything. For the kids for the family just because the kid wants to play a twelfth game of chutes and ladders in a row.

Oh. And you've you've got to study or you've got to go to work. Or you want to relax for a little bit doing something you want to do. That doesn't mean you're Christian. Okay, I just gotta play another game of chutes and ladders that maybe.

Just maybe sometimes the family can take a backseat to other things. You know, we make key decisions in our life that set us on tracks. That then determines so many of the other little decisions we make.

Not all decisions are equal. Some of them are crucial. Some of them are forks in the road. They determine everything else. For myself deciding to go to Fuller Seminary in California was a big one. That would set me on a course.

That would take me to Singapore to Ethiopia to Chicago later deciding to pursue the pastorate rather than a career in academics was big and. And so there are these Forks in the road and Robert Frost in his famous poem the road not taken described it superbly.

Let me read it for you. There's two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler long. I stood and looked down one as far as I could. To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other as just as fair and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted where though as for that the passing there had warned them about the same and. Both that morning equally lay in leaves.

No step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day yet knowing how Way leads on to way. I Doubted if I should ever come back I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood and I I Took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.

Well, here we are.

It a fork in the road. In Luke the Lord Jesus takes the one less traveled by and Then he tells us to follow him. We see that here in six parts. First there's the determination then there's the rejection and third there's the condemnation.

Then there's the deprivation There's the obligation and finally there's the condition. Now first There's the determination. Notice that verse 51 says Jesus The time is coming. A crucial time is coming for him and it says to be taken up and he sets his face To go to Jerusalem.

So the time is coming to fulfill what he said in in verse 22 of the same chapter just earlier What he remember. What he said he must do. Suffer many things. We looked at that on Good Friday. And so we determined to go to Jerusalem.

To do.

That very thing. What an odd thing, isn't it? Yeah, he had to determine. To suffer many things. That's that's the opposite of what we do. We we we determined To avoid suffering to avoid our crosses. We pray to be relieved of them.

That's what Psalm 6 is about really praying to be relieved of whatever suffering we're having. There's not and there's nothing wrong with that often. But we just just the way we constantly are we're constantly determining to avoid suffering.

So we'll spend a lot of money we'll do whatever we have to. But of this affliction this burden this irritation, whatever it is to have this lifted off of me. What Psalm 6 is all about and maybe people are determined to be healthier.

So they you know, for example, they would they would they will work out or they'll pay for gym memberships. They'll take supplements and herbs that they want they don't want to suffer being flabby. That's their cross and the health problems are embarrassment that that causes maybe they're determined maybe they're determined to have a better income.

They have a debt that's weighing on them. So they determine they're gonna be relieved of that. So they can afford more they can afford a better life. They can be relieved of this debt and nothing wrong with that.

I'm not criticizing these things. Or so they maybe they travel to North Dakota so they can get that. What they need to be relieved of this debt. They have to determine to do that or maybe they decided they're gonna go to such a career.

So they have to determine to go to college to study for it. Maybe they move across the country or halfway across the country or around the world. Because of this determination. And so there's a crucial moment in all these decisions in which we set our face.

You may consider it for a while. You may play with it for a while. Then there comes a moment you set your face. I'm going to do it. When I was 22 a senior in college I set my face to go to California.

To Fuller Seminary and so from then on every everything I did was about that. The summer job is saving money the planning my route the packing planning everything.

Determination.

Consumed me. And maybe you make crucial decisions. Go to North Dakota for a while. What water where to study. Maybe to get married and then you set your face to do it. It's a fork in the road. It's a new track now.

You might think at the time. You can go back another day if you need to and we hope Geraldine can. But in the reality is that often with these crucial decisions way leads on to way one thing leads to another.

You're on a course you set yourself down a track. You're really not making a lot of little decisions about your life, but you're making a few key critical ones. Like a rocket in space. You know the engine of your will.

Ignites.

Your trajectory is is fixed and from then on You're on your way. Launched to your target. Whatever it is career or family. Something else you've set your face down a trail and it might lead you to all kinds of unexpected experiences.

Some good some bad. Way leads on to way and even if later you need to take another road. You really often you really can't go back to where you first stood where the two roads diverged because you are you are now a different you and.

The other road is different, too.

Way.

Leads on to way. Now here Jesus as we saw is at the pinnacle of his he's popular. Thousands of people will go far out of their way just to see him. Everybody is saying good things about him. The local king is curious about him.

He's given a preview of his glory and yet he determines not to stay on the mountaintop with Moses and Elijah. But to go down to the way of the cross. Talk about a road. Not taken. We set our face Toward our comfort our enjoyment.

What serves us best. The career and the family whatever it is the good times?

He.

For the joy set before him Determined to give up all the popularity the success of this great ministry. He has here in chapter 9, you know All the power the glory the comfort here and now that he could have turned this vast.

Following he has remember what he has in his hand the success. He's at right this moment. He could have turned it into something for himself popularity he could have harnessed this support and turned it into into mansions and armies and to victory.

Now.

But instead He sets his face Determined to suffer many things to go to the cross and Way leads on to way well the determination leads to the rejection and It doesn't take long does it notice immediately verse 51.

He sets his face to go to the cross and What's the first thing that happens? Well, you remember he's he's now in Galilee. It's where most of his ministry has been not all of it now in Luke In which is in the north of in Israel and he's gonna go to Jerusalem which is in the south and he knew exactly What the way to Jerusalem leads to in just a few chapters in a few chapters in Luke in chapter 13 verse 33.

He's He says he's going on this way. To Jerusalem as he says because it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. But between Galilee in the north and Jerusalem in the south in the middle there Between is Samaria.

Now the Samaritans are foreigners who were transplanted into Israel several centuries before after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel and and they intermarried with a few kind of leftover Israelites and they developed their own religion kind of mixing their old pagan ways with Some of the old Israelite religion and they were regarded by the Jews as heretics and half breeds.

These foreigners who came in polluting their land and the Samaritans Return the bad feelings. Often harassing Jews who were traveling through their territory going to Jerusalem. Now this was such a problem that usually Jews from Galilee like Jesus Took a longer route instead of going straight.

They would go they would cross the Jordan River by the way there's no bridge I'm not talking about across I mean like wading through the river and Traveling and then they would travel on the other side down east of the Jordan River and then cross it again.

The Jordan River turning west back toward Jerusalem. That was the road most traveled a lot more distance a lot more trouble but worth avoiding the unfriendliness the hostility sometimes the danger of these Samaritans now superficially.

This kind of you know, what's happening here is that Jesus is choosing the literal Road not taken he's going through Samaritan territory. And so we send out messengers in verse 52 to the villages ahead of him let the people there know, you know.

It's not just him. We got a large following with him. Let him know they're coming in. They're rolling into town be prepared for Jesus and his followers, you know, bake some bread. They would expect that their culture usually be hospitable to travelers through usually.

But instead they rejected him. They weren't going to host him the restaurants weren't gonna be open for him. No public restrooms. Okay, no happy faces. No welcoming committee nothing and all this inhospitality.

Hospitality because he is going to Jerusalem. But I think we're meant to see that just as the final journey. I don't know is this kind of superficial hostility to Jew going to Jerusalem, but something bigger than that going on.

See, it's his he's starting his final journey. As this is it commences to the cross that it is the way of the cross.

That is opposed.

Now sure the Samaritans didn't understand that they didn't know about the he was going to the cross. But there are greater forces here at work than just the ignorance of the Samaritans. Jesus is choosing the road less traveled.

Here literally to get to Jerusalem and yet he suffers rejection for it. And that's the way. The way of the cross is. It has obstacles. It's misunderstood. Opposition to the way of the cross is part of the way of the cross.

Jesus has set his face and way leads on to way and part of what it leads to here is rejection and We're to follow Jesus and take the way of the cross and deny ourselves and lose our life for him suffer shame for him.

If we do that we can expect like Jesus here some rejection some opposition and Often from people like these Samaritans who have kind of a mixture of true religion with self-serving paganism now many people.

Today in and now we'll understand it. They'll support a religion a churchy anity. That's about helping you on whatever track you have chosen. Family, you know helping you to focus on the family help you raise your kids make them nice and polite.

Maybe maybe even a Helps you on your career give you advice on how to win friends and influence people. You have the power of positive thinking. They'll use the Bible for that the habits of highly effective people.

So that you can prosper at your career use the Bible for that. Maybe make the church a place where you can assert yourself. You can you can get honored you can get recognized. Your will can be done. People like a religion.

It's all about that making them successful family people or career people. And of course it must certainly be out. Church service must be over by my tea time. I'm teeing off soon or so that we can have our Sunday afternoon family reunion dinner or or or it should make me Feel good about myself my will Should be done here.

That's the self-serving religion now almost everyone loves a religion about that, but if you're following Jesus on the way to the cross. You you do what he does evangelism. Devotional life that prayer Bible reading listening to sermons or or church commitments.

They that that starts to take time away sometimes from family. Family events you can't always be at every one of them maybe from business. You can't always make the tea times or the family meals or keep the shop open on Sunday mornings.

Your offerings mean you can't afford the fantasy vacation. Or you have to settle for a more modest car than you were hoping for or maybe you don't always get flattered there. At church, they're not always telling you how great you are.

In your way is not always done. Sometimes you have to actually give in to others. Can you believe it now that kind of life the way of the cross. That'll get you rejection. It did for Jesus and Next he encounters condemnation.

And this time it comes from his own Apostles. Now James and John see the Samaritans, you know barring Jesus from their villages and telling him rudely. You know, we don't serve your kind here and they're incensed.

They're angry.

You know, how dare these foreigners.

These foreign squatters no less tell us.

To go.

How dare they reject Jesus they deserve?

Condemnation.

Not long before this they had seen Elijah remember not long. They'd seen Elijah and so they maybe that gave him an idea. Hey, you know, I remember Elijah. He called down fire probably lightning called fire from heaven to destroy Companies of soldiers that were sent by the Wicked King to get him get Elijah in 2nd Kings chapter 1 now.

They probably think hey if Elijah did it we can too. And so they asked Jesus in verse 54. It's good thing. They ask at least they asked got to give him that Lord. If you Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

They were sure that these rude Samaritans deserve condemnation as though they the disciples Had not lived in a way that deserved judgment, too. That never occurred to them. Did it? To consider the Condemnation they had earned, you know, they think it's it's them.

They deserve it. That's the way condemning critical people are. They're consumed with anger about what others have done. Especially to them how they get really angry when it's them that have gotten the shaft while not at all aware of what they have done of how they were on a track to destruction before Jesus was gracious to them.

And imagine here Jesus is going to Jerusalem to take the condemnation of the sins of his people. That's what all this is about. This way he's just started to go is to take condemnation not to dispense it.

He's going to take the sins of his people of all kinds of people even if Samaritans. And yet these disciples are So unaware of the path they are on of where this road they're on is going where it leads to.

They asked Jesus to do the very thing That he did not come. This first time to do condemn. So Jesus face set toward Jerusalem Turns to rebuke them. The same one who rebuked demons and fevers and storms Now has to rebuke his own disciples.

Jesus condemns their spirit of condemnation. Their failures are still continuing on the road to Jerusalem. But because of what Jesus would do there John and James would be different. Not not just rebuked.

But they would be on a whole new course a new track of life. In Luke second book acts. John same John here is sent to Is sent to you know where? He sent to Samaria. To preach the gospel there to pray for them to nourish these new churches That have arisen among these very same people that he wanted to have destroyed.

What a thing what a strange thing. So this the same angry hot-headed Condemning young man who wanted to destroy people with fire from heaven Is now building them up encouraging them praying for them and with him and James his brother a little later Would be the first Apostle to follow Jesus all the way to death.

He experienced. James did just like Jesus condemnation for himself not others. The same Herod who mocked Jesus and sent him back to Pontius Pilate had James executed with the sword. That's that's why Jesus is taking this road not traveled to make people like John and James different.

This road Makes all the difference. Jesus has now faced rejection and condemnation Because of his determination to go to the cross. Now he will encounter three wannabe disciples. He meets along this road.

Notice before think about it before when he called it other people named Peter and then Matthew and he said follow me and They dropped everything and they followed him. That's before he started this road.

Now though.

He's taking the road not taken. You know the way we never go. And suddenly things are different. Rejection condemnation and now deprivation obligation and conditions. In verse 57 he meets a volunteer.

Well, this is good. The man's volunteering. He's taking this. This volunteer is taking the initiative. I will follow you wherever you go. Well, that sounds great, doesn't it? You know not even Peter volunteered.

Peter told me go away at first. Matthew didn't volunteer. Matthew had to be called this man's Wherever you go. If anyone came to Jesus in prayer saying that now we would pronounce him certainly saved a saint.

This man after all vows to follow Jesus.

Wherever.

But will he really? Maybe he was on a career track and Wanted to follow Jesus at the height of his religious career, you know, that's where Jesus is right now. He's at the top. Maybe he wanted to follow Jesus to power and success.

Like today people want to follow Jesus to have their best life now. It's no surprise when people say they'll follow Jesus when they think he's gonna give them everything they want. What what surprises there to that?

But will they and will we follow him if it means being deprived of comfort. This man can't see the cross. It's at the end of the road. But Jesus can show him His lodging for the night ahead. You know foxes have holes birds of the airs have nests.

The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head and That means here. The Holiday Inn is not letting us check in. The sign at the Marriott says no Jews. We're sleeping on the ground tonight with a rock for a pillow.

All because of this road not taken. Are you willing to pay that price? Now this man loved to pledge allegiance to Jesus. He probably would love to sing. I have decided to follow Jesus. I've probably one of his favorite songs, you know, you'd be weeping the tears would be streaming down his face.

But he hadn't counted the cost.

He says.

He wants to be a disciple. He volunteers to do it. But he can't even make it to the first night of deprivation of being unpopular being rejected. I'm not having a comfy bed for the night. Just as we have people today who's who love the idea of commitment of relish the feeling of pledging themselves to Jesus, but If it means having to break up with a non-christian boy or girlfriend if it means being called a bigot because Because you believe what the book says means being Ostracized because you challenge their sin.

Having less money maybe.

Now.

Unable to afford the luxury vacation because you gave some of your money to the church or to missions if that's the track you're on. Deprivation depriving yourself. I Think I'll go back and take the other way.

Next. Face set to the cross. Jesus encounters obligation. This time in verse 59 Jesus takes the initiative of this man, you know, like he had with Peter and Matthew. He invites the man follow me. Now instead of the man dropping his nets or walking away from a profitable career as a tax collector. He says I Got obligations.

He's not rude about it. He even addresses Jesus as Lord very respectful. We'd say today well, he's still saved he's just being responsible. He's a family man after all family first. Let me first go and bury my father.

He says now whether the man's father is still alive. But on his deathbed or has just died and he the man needs to attend the funeral. That's really not important here. But both situations would be considered by by us and but especially by people of that time to be serious.

Obligation totally reasonable, right. If not even we'd say the Christian thing to do. Now here's a man who simply wants to attend to his father whether he's near or even past death and Jesus says shockingly.

No.

Follow me and leave the dead to follow to bury their own dead. That is leave the spiritually dead who have no higher calling In this life than to attend To the obligations of this life. Leave that to them.

The spiritually alive have a calling that far surpasses Funerals and weddings and family reunions or sports or patriotic gatherings or dates? Jesus's face is set toward the cross and So he has high demands.

Starkly put. Now if this was a Jesus. Imagine if this wasn't Jesus. If we didn't know this story and someone came up and told us so-and-so. Made this demand of his follower. Someone came up to him and said I want to go bury my father and he said no.

Wouldn't we howl in protest? You know, we have obligations. Family and friends and career and business. We've got to keep the shop open on Sunday morning so we could pay the bills. We got to make money family above all.

What kind of irresponsible Cultic leader would say no to that. Something is wrong with the one who made the demand. We'd be sure that wouldn't wait. Oh. It's Jesus. Oh. So we'll ignore it and move right along.

We wanted Jesus who nicely fits into our agendas. We'll take a backseat to our other more pressing obligations. So we'll call him like this man Lord. We'll say we're gonna follow him. But wait. Something just came up.

Just got a call an obligation. Here the death of one's father. Now today we probably can't understand. We can't fully understand how much of an obligation funerals were. The duty of burial took precedence over in their culture.

The study of the law of the temple service of the Passover all of that. You know if your father died it was excused to get out of any of that.

Family first.

It's probably as important to them. Maybe the closest we could get today is as romance is in our culture, you know today. It's the relationship. That is the obligation. You know everyone today knows that.

There's there's nothing more important than that, you know, the boyfriend the girlfriend the marriage it's it's an obligation and so surely We can put Jesus on hold while we chases the one. Surely we can say to Jesus but first yeah, I'll follow you.

But first let me go get married. So we have people today in the church. You really can't imagine that we would call people to a discipleship that would put any crimp in their social life. We would tell Christians that they shouldn't be dating non-christians.

That's crazy. We think Dropping the church you've been committed to to regularly go with the boy or girlfriend elsewhere. That's kind of that's understandable. I get it we think You don't really expect the Lord to be a speed bump on my dating life.

Do you? We think True discipleship means Jesus is more important than every other relationship or activity. Jesus still comes and says follow me and leave those who have nothing better than this life.

To be consumed with this life. Jesus has high demands starkly put and for this man Jesus was calling. Not only don't keep your family obligations. But here's a new obligation. It's more pressing. Go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

In other words be on a kingdom track. Now, I don't believe every Christian is called to be a preacher like this man. There's none though. You have to literally follow exactly that go every one of us is supposed to go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

But we are we are all called to take our part whatever part that may be in the churches proclaiming the kingdom of God. Make God's will and reign known. That's our mission as a whole. Now. How are you a part of that?

Is your most pressing? Obligation. Now there's a type of man particularly around here. Who wants to preach they may like that last phrase go I'm gonna proclaim the kingdom of God likes to preach but can't imagine relocating.

Going.

They like to preach part but not the going part. Can't imagine studying for years and then living away from home. Can't imagine making proclaiming the kingdom of God an obligation. Now they'll do it on the weekends in the same way.

Some men pursue golf, you know. It's like that preaching golf, which which hat. What's hobby they want to take up. Or it's something they take up in retirement, you know. Instead of fishing they preach.

They might be on a family track. They want to stay around the kids and grandkids. But they want to preach some on the side. It's their hobby. They have less commitment to proclaiming the kingdom of God than most career track people do to their careers and.

Tell me how that impresses anyone. That's not what Jesus is calling us to. He's calling us to a kingdom track. Well finally on the way to the cross Jesus meets conditions. And we have another volunteer.

Kind of like the first. The first guy who wouldn't suffer deprivations. This one though. He calls Jesus Lord like the second. The second guy who wouldn't suffer who wouldn't buck social obligations. I will follow you Lord.

Now, maybe he'll be better.

But.

He comes with conditions. Let me first say farewell to those at my home. Well, that sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Go home and tell mom and dad and brothers and sisters, you know where he's going and keep in touch forwarding address all that.

What could possibly be wrong with that? What's wrong is that this is the condition for following Jesus and Jesus does not want conditional discipleship. You must be all in.

In.

No hedging. No thinking, you know, if this doesn't work out this narrow road less traveled. Maybe I can go back to that fork on the road and take the one most traveled. You know that broad road. Maybe that everyone else's that everyone else likes so much.

Jesus responds with high demands starkly put. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. If you start out after Jesus and you look back you're like a farmer, okay.

Looking back and your row gets crooked because you've not been fixed on where you're going. Distracted by something back in the old life someone like that a volunteer. Call Jesus Lord and start out but there's something behind him.