Set Your Face

How many of you have ever given something up for Lent? I never gave something up for Lent until I was in seminary, and when I did, I gave up pop. Now, you have to realize that I was dirt poor at the time, and my pop consumption was pretty low. I would buy a Pepsi from the machine at the Laundromat for $.35 when I did the laundry, probably about once a week. But the second day of Lent that year, I went to a seminar, and in the intermission, they had a table set out with all kinds of free snacks and free Coke and Cherry Coke… and of course, I had given it up the day before.

I still remember and kind of groan about it, and, upon some reflection, I think I know why. My focus was off. I was focused on myself and what I was giving up. The whole reason I gave it up was because I felt like I was supposed to give something up for Lent. While I have fasted and have seen that discipline help me, I admit that there are times when I have done it for the sake of fasting. Or even because everyone else was doing it or because as a pastor, I figured that everyone expected me to.

The problem is we can practice Christian disciplines without experiencing Christ. Sometimes we aimlessly go about our daily routines without thinking of where we are headed. In Luke 9, we find some remarkable stories. The chapter starts with Jesus sending the 12 disciples out on a teaching and healing journey. He told them to go without supplies for the journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. I can sort of relate to this!

Jesus was making a clear point: trust Me to provide for you. I find it a little remarkable that when the disciples returned and they were debriefing, the crowds found them and came for teaching and healing, but the disciples got all riled up because there wasn’t enough food for everyone. 

Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (Luke 9:12-13)

And so Jesus, using five loaves of bread and two fish, feeds five thousand men (plus women and children). Following this, Luke records several events: Peter’s “great confession” that Jesus is the Messiah; Jesus predicting his death; the transfiguration on the mountain; Jesus healing a demon-possessed boy who the disciples couldn’t heal; and Jesus predicting his death a second time. Even as Jesus is doing all of this, his disciples don’t understand. They are now seen arguing over who would be the greatest.

There is so much going on, but I want to look closely at one verse in the midst of all of this. It is Luke 9:51, and Joel Green, whose class on Luke I took in seminary, called this verse the turning point in the entire gospel. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Luke 9:51

From now on, everything in Luke’s gospel points to the cross. Jesus wasn’t playing around before, but now he is resolutely set out toward Jerusalem and the cross. I like the way the King James Version puts this: he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Now, we are presented with all sorts of things we know we ought to do. Especially after our vacation (and anyone who has been on a cruise can give me an amen), I know I ought to go on a diet and lose a few pounds. As a student, you know you need to stay in and study, but when the Spring air turns warm, it gets hard. As a parent, there are things we all need to do with our kids or teach our kids to do, but sometimes it’s easier to just do it ourselves. We all have chores we ought to do.

Besides the things we know we ought to do, but sometimes don’t do, there are also things we wish we could do. As a kid, I thought I might become a college basketball player. I had a wicked hook shot and was generally a better player than most of my friends. But unlike my friend Blaine who religiously worked on his basketball moves and his jump shots and free throws, I didn’t practice all that much. So combine this with a lack of natural talent and add a less than optimal height, and all this equals someone who didn’t make the seventh grade team. I wished I could be a player, but I didn’t do anything about it, and although Disney doesn’t want you to believe this, there are wishes that don’t come true.

There are also things in life that we want to do and work at… for a while. Sometimes what we give up for Lent falls into this category. We know that there is a time limit, and we can do anything for a while. New Year’s resolutions are often in this category, where we know we ought to do them, and we really want to do them, and we do them for a while, but after a while, we trail off. I remember belonging to a gym; January was a crowded nightmare, as was the week before Spring Break (hint: if you took months to gain that weight, you aren’t going to be in bikini shape after a week of workouts). But other than that, it was pretty empty.

But what we see Jesus doing here was none of those. Jesus resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem. There is no question that he knew what he was in for. He already told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die. But Jesus set out to accomplish that which he had been sent to earth to do.

Jesus knew that the road he was walking was no vacation or pleasure trip. He wasn’t going to Jerusalem for fun and games. He wasn’t going for entertainment. He wasn’t going because the people were neat or because he liked the music. He wasn’t going for the history or the architecture. He wasn’t going for a better job opportunity. Jesus was going to Jerusalem for one reason, and one reason only. Jesus was going to Jerusalem to die.

I want you to let that sink in for a moment. Jesus resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem when he knew that his mission in Jerusalem was his death. Jesus told his disciples that “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Luke 9:22) He wasn’t speaking allegorically. He wasn’t speaking hypothetically. Jesus was speaking the plain truth.

But he also had some plain truth for his disciples. Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:23-26)

We are used to being pretty comfortable in our Christian lives. We do whatever it takes to keep us comfortable. I had to laugh in a former church I served because decidedly more people sat on one side of the sanctuary. I found out that they used to have padded seats on the one side. The pads had all gotten old and nasty and had been thrown away, but that’s where people sat. It was more comfortable. That’s something that in the big scheme of things is unimportant – sit where you are most comfortable in the worship service. But when it comes to important things, sometimes we treasure our comfort and our personal taste over what God treasures.

Jesus asks, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” (Luke 9:25). In everything we do, we are called to evaluate to determine if what we are doing is moving God’s kingdom forward or not. Even some of the good things we do end up getting in the way of doing the best thing, the thing which God has called us to do, the things that God prepared in advance for us to do [For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10]

Most of us have come to the place where we have said to Jesus, “I will follow you.” In our baptism, we have made a clear declaration that we will follow him; not only is Jesus our Savior, saving us from our sin and guilt and death, but Jesus is also our Lord. We, who pride ourselves in our independence and freedom, have voluntarily become slaves to Christ.

Yet we hold a lot back. In the scripture I read earlier, Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road, and someone comes along and tells Jesus (in Luke 9:57) “I will follow you wherever you go.”

This sounds like a good thing. Jesus has asked us to follow him. This person is not only answering that call, but he tells Jesus that he will follow him anywhere. No matter what. But instead of graciously accepting him into the fold, Jesus offers this response: (Luke 9:58) Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Is he saying this to discourage the man? Does he not want someone to follow? No, that’s not the case. But Jesus wants the man to know the cost of following him. Sometimes we evangelicals, in an attempt to get people to the altar, paint a rosy picture of what it means to be a Christian. If you accept Christ, everything in your life will be perfect. You will get rich. You will be restored to full physical health. You will get your dream job. Your children will obey you. You’ll win the $1 billion dollars for a perfect NCAA bracket. Life will be easy. You will be in-right, outright, upright, downright happy all the time. But Jesus says, “Do you want to follow me wherever I go? I am homeless. Are you willing to be homeless?”

There is a cost to follow Jesus. If you have never had to give something up for the sake of Christ, I would suggest you do some evaluating. Or, better still, ask the Holy Spirit to do that evaluating. I’m not saying that you’re not a Christian if you haven’t given something up; that’s not my place or my intention. But I am suggesting that Jesus doesn’t call us to a comfortable, easy, self-sustaining life where we never have to depend on God for anything.

Let me put it in real terms. When I went to seminary, I asked a friend to write a recommendation. Before he would write it, he asked me, “Is there anything else you can do? Anything at all?” He wasn’t trying to discourage me, but he wanted me to know that if there was anything else I could do, I should. I shouldn’t go into the ministry for any other reason than that God was calling me to it. It’s the same with our missionary journey to Zambia. We aren’t going because we think it’s going to be easy or comfortable. We are going to Zambia because that’s where God is telling us to go. We are going to have to depend on God like never before.

As I was thinking about those words, “depend on God like never before,” I realized how wrong that is. It is wrong to think we will have to depend on God when we are in Africa as if we don’t have to while we are here. We have to depend on God in every moment, no matter if we are here or there.

So, does the would-be disciple continue to follow Jesus? We don’t know. I think Luke purposely doesn’t tell us. He left it open-ended to invite every would-be follower to evaluate: how will following Jesus effect our lives? Are we willing to live with the ramifications, no matter how difficult?

But Jesus isn’t finished. In Luke 9:59 and 61, we find two more would-be disciples who cite family obligations: burying one’s father and saying appropriate goodbyes to another’s family. He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” / Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

It would seem that these are reasonable requests, even falling within the scope of the Old Testament Law. Burying the dead father and saying goodbye to the family would seem to fall under the heading of “Honor your father and mother.”

Listen to Jesus’ responses to what sound like reasonable requests: in Luke 9:60 62). Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” / Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

This sounds unreasonable and harsh. But Jesus will later say (in Luke 14:26): “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” What does this mean?

It means that Jesus has not only radically reordered life, but it demonstrates the seriousness of the demands of the discipleship journey. Jesus doesn’t want half followers. Jesus doesn’t want cultural Christians who won’t follow when the going gets rough. Jesus wants fully devoted followers.

For some of you, this doesn’t seem like good news. Maybe you are beating yourself up because you’d be back, burying your father, saying a long goodbye to your family. Maybe looking at the total picture like Jesus did, the demands seem too great. It is too hard. And my response is, yes, it is too hard. We cannot do it on our own. Even Jesus’ disciples couldn’t do it on their own. When Jesus was arrested, they scattered. It wasn’t until the day of Pentecost when things changed – when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

And we are post-Pentecost people. We live in a world where God has sent the Holy Spirit to live in us, to empower us, to lead us, to comfort us, to guide us. On your own, maybe you’re one who can’t take a step of faith at all, but with the Holy Spirit, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).

Also, God doesn’t call you to take the whole journey in one step. God just calls you to take the next step. Yes, our next step is to Zambia. But it is just the next step for us; we have been taking “next steps” for a long time to get us there. So what is your next step? Is it around the world, or across the street? The Holy Spirit will guide you if you let him and obediently follow.