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

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. It determined 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 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 at 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. 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

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 determine 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 going to 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

Kind of 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

Now 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 into 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 in 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 cross. 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 he sends out messengers in verse 52 to the villages ahead of him let the people there know, you know

It's not just him as 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 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 in hospital

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 the 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 entity

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 helped 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 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 2nd 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 is the same angry hot -headed

Condemning young man who wanted to destroy people with fire from heaven It's 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 of 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 chase 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 no, 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 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 something back there keeps looking back at Don't start to work and Then remember something else

That you think is more important even if just for a minute if you do Jesus says in verse 62

You aren't fit In other words, you don't have a place you don't fit in and the kingdom of God God's kingdom is not a place you fit into if you're looking if you're looking back

You have conditions. I'll follow Jesus if He'll give me a marriage if I can still have lots of money if I can be respectable

But Jesus doesn't negotiate conditions. And so if you have them Living in the rule of God Isn't for you way leads on to way

If you want to start down this road after Jesus Don't be glancing back

Wistfully thinking what if I'd taken the career track I could be rich by now What if I'd taken the family track

I could be having a family reunions every around the dinner table every Sunday afternoon Maybe the party track.

Yeah, that might have been fun the problem with this last man is that he had the way of Jesus right in front of him and Yet he wanted to go back

Back to the family back to the career to something even if just for a visit But if you have the kingdom of God in front of you

You have the perfect rule of God where Jesus puts all your enemies under his feet It gives you eternal blessed life.

You have that in front of you How can you be distracted?

You should be Because it's so great. Really you you must be determined to go that way

Fixed you set your face Way leads on to way

The way of Jesus the road less traveled leads to the cross

Sometimes embracing the very things we hate Rejection Condemnation for ourselves not others

Deprivation Sometimes not having some nice things The scorn of walking away from what society says our obligations

Sometimes the way of Jesus means sacrificing Sometimes just in part sometimes in whole the things that other people give their whole lives to family career money business good times relationships

Way leads to way and the way of Jesus leads to the joy set before you