Fair-weather Faithfulness

I think it’s safe to say that most of you here are either Packer fans, Brewers fans, or Bucks fans, probably fans of all three. And that makes sense because most of you are from Milwaukee or somewhere else in Wisconsin. You have this hometown pride, so to speak. So, how would you describe your level of commitment, your level of fandom? Do you try to watch every game? Do you own expensive merchandise, maybe expensive jerseys? Perhaps you actually own stock in the Packers. You’re not some fair-weather fan now, are you? No, of course not. You support them no matter what. But let’s just say, for argument’s sake, let’s just pretend for a moment that the Brewers, the Packers, the Bucks, let’s just say that they would never win a game ever again in their respective leagues. Yes, I know, it’s outrageous. But let’s just pretend for a moment. If that were to happen, would you still support them? Would you still be all in? Or would the shame be too much to handle? Okay, so maybe you don’t follow MLB or the NBA or NFL, but I’m willing to bet that you’re a fan of something. Maybe it’s a band or a singer, an author, a movie director, a historical figure. But what would it take for you to stop supporting that said person? What if they started producing things that you didn’t like? Or what if you found out something about that person that didn’t sit well with you? Would you give up on supporting them? Would you stop being all in? Now, if you know me, you know that I don’t really follow MLB or NBA, or the NFL. But I do understand sports fandom to a degree because I do follow the sport of boxing. And one of my favorite fighters to watch is a guy named Junto Nakatani. And he has an impressive record of 31 wins, zero draws, and zero losses. And most of his wins are by knockout. He’s an exciting fighter to watch. But if for some reason he stopped being an exciting fighter, he became boring, or his losses way exceeded his wins, or he became a jerk, and he stopped being this nice, humble guy, then I would probably stop supporting him. I would not be fully committed. Now, of course, this is all fun and games, but what about something that’s more important than sports and authors, and movie directors? What about things like marriage? For those of you that are married, I don’t know that you would call yourself a fan of your spouse, so to speak. It’s not like you walk around wearing a t-shirt with your spouse’s face on the front. Or maybe you do, I don’t know. But you are, in a sense, a fan of the union that God brought together, right? You’re committed, or at least you should be. But what about when things aren’t going smoothly? What if you have troubles? Do you give up? Or do you work through it? Do you seek outside help, spiritual guidance, and professional help? But what about something even more important than marriage? What about our relationship to God? How would we describe our commitment level to Jesus? Are we fair-weather fans of Jesus? After all, He promises suffering and persecution and sacrifice. Life won’t always be pleasant as a follower of Jesus. We see in our Gospel reading in Luke’s account how Jesus was rejected by the Samaritan village. And you, because you call yourself a Christian, you also will be rejected by people. People will be mean to you. They will be rude to you. They might even try to kill you. Are you okay with this? Are you okay with not having all of the nice things that maybe other people have? The first man that comes up to Jesus and says, “I’ll follow you,” we’re told in Matthew’s parallel account that this man was a scribe. A scribe was kind of like a modern-day attorney, except that they were experts in God’s law, and they were highly esteemed by the people. Now, he wasn’t necessarily wealthy, but it’s safe to say that this man wasn’t poor either. So knowing that detail allows us to make more sense of what Jesus says to him. He says, “Okay, but just know that you might not have a place to lay your head at night if you follow me.” This undoubtedly would have made the scribe think more deeply about his level of commitment to Jesus. The second man to approach Jesus says, “First, let me go and bury my father,” which we might think is a reasonable request, but we need to keep certain things in mind. At that time in first-century Jewish culture, it would have been a great dishonor to not bury your father. And back then, they would do burials right away. They wouldn’t leave a body lying around. So if this guy’s father had actually died, then he would have been buried already. He wouldn’t be asking Jesus to do what he was supposed to do already. So the implication is that this guy’s dad wasn’t dead yet, but he was using the excuse of burial obligation to not follow Jesus right away. The other theory is that this man might have been referring to something like a re-interment. So back then, around the region of Jerusalem, it was common to bury a body like normal, but then you would wait a whole year because that was the time for the flesh on the corpse to rot away, and now only the bones are left, but that would take a whole year. But then the family would come back, take the bones out, put it in a special box called an ossuary, and they would put that box inside of a wall of a family crypt. So that man could have been referring to that, but again, that would take up to a year or more. So if that’s the case, it makes sense why Jesus was rebuking him for wanting to wait upwards of a year. Now, what about that third man? He says, “First, let me go say bye to my mom and dad.” After all, Elisha, in our Old Testament reading, he asked Elijah the same thing, and Elijah let him go back and say bye to mom and dad. So what’s the difference here? Well, the difference is that Elisha went back to sever ties, while this man in Luke’s account looks like he was going back to procrastinate. What did Elisha do? He went back home and he burned all of his farming equipment, and then he slaughtered all of his cattle, and then he made a feast for all the people. He made it so that he could not go back to his old way of life, even if he wanted to. Those farming tools and all that cattle that was worth a lot of money. There wouldn’t have been any way for him to recoup his losses. So he was all in. The only way was forward. This reminds me of the historical account of the famous Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés. In 1519, he landed on the coast of Mexico. So he had sailed from their base in modern-day Cuba, and they sailed to the coast of Mexico. And he had strict orders from a higher command to only survey the coast of modern-day Mexico and perhaps trade with local tribes. But he didn’t listen. Instead, he tried to convince his men to go into the heart of Mexico to try and find the grand Aztec capital that they had heard rumors of. The problem was that most of his men were afraid to do this. Number one, they were afraid to disobey a military order. Number two, they were afraid of going into the Central American jungles where disease, danger, and starvation awaited them. Furthermore, they had formed alliances with some of the local tribes, but their alliance was rocky at best. And they were afraid that those tribes would turn on them at any moment. So what does Cortez do? Well, he has the ships taken apart and sunk into the ocean. That way, none of the troops could escape back to the safety of Cuba even if they wanted to. Now the only way was forward, fully committed. Unfortunately, I think that more often than not, we tend to act not like Elisha, but like the man in Luke’s account. We make excuses for why we can’t be committed to Jesus. And that’s an issue because the Bible refers to us, you and me collectively, as all believers, it refers to us as the bride of Christ. And so if you and I are the bride of Christ, if we’re Mrs. Jesus, so to speak, then shouldn’t that be reflected in our life of commitment? After all, Jesus was fully committed to us. So are we merely flirting with the idea of following Jesus? Or are we married to Him? After all, God was fully committed to you and me. Luke’s text says that Jesus’ face was set toward Jerusalem. In other words, He was fully resolved to enter Jerusalem no matter what. Why? Because Jerusalem was the city of destiny. It would be the place where He would die on the cross, rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven. Jesus knew better than anyone what it was like to leave things behind for the benefit of others. Jesus left behind His heavenly kingdom for a time so that He could live as a human being under God’s law, amongst sinful men, amongst people who did not appreciate Him, and then die for their sins. Yes, Jesus was fully committed. And what kept this focus was the end goal. And the end goal is for you and me to be with Him forever in the new heavens and the new earth, where there will be no pain or suffering or sin ever again. That is what kept Jesus focused on His mission. So, how would you describe your level of commitment to God? Are you all in? What’s your why? Why do you keep following Jesus? Maybe you’ve realized that, you know what, I can do more. I can give more of myself, but I haven’t. What’s your why? What’s your motivation? And Jesus was addressing these men in our text. The issue wasn’t belief. These men believed in Jesus. The issue was their lack of full commitment. It was about just doing the bare minimum. Now we don’t do these things. We don’t commit ourselves to earn God’s favor. Jesus already did that. But we commit because He first committed to us. And so now our ascended Lord, who rules everything for our benefit, He works through us, empowering us, working through our commitment to bring as many people as possible to the knowledge of the truth. So what’s your why? What keeps you going? Well, servants always follow the lead of their master. And Jesus, our master, yes, He was focused on getting to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem was not His final destination. Jerusalem was just a temporary stop on His way to heaven. That’s where Jesus was headed. Because this world, this earth, was not Jesus’ home. And nor is this world our home for us, His followers. So just like Jesus, we’re focused on the final destination. There is something more than this messed up wicked world. So keep your eyes looking forward and don’t look back. Amen.