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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will we or won’t we? Will we or won’t we, as a congregation, build on our new lots? Will we or won’t we, as a country, take military action in Syria? With our congregation’s brainstorming session for the use of the lots’ coming up in two weeks, and with our country’s legislative branch’s debating action in Syria this week, our hearing today’s Third Reading and not thinking of such future construction or war may be difficult. Perhaps that difficulty is as it should be, for we all know that there are times when one needs to first sit down and consider things. In the Third Reading, Jesus uses that common knowledge to teach about our being His disciples. Thus, this morning we reflect on the Third Reading under the theme “Being Jesus’s Disciple”.
Today’s Third Reading again picks up St. Luke’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account a few verses from where last week’s Gospel Reading left off. Apparently still in Perea, Jesus is continuing to journey to Jerusalem. Great crowds are accompanying Him, and He turns to them and speaks about not merely accompanying Him but more-closely coming to Him and following after Him as His disciple. Jesus says that no one is able to be His disciple who does not “hate” his own relatives and life, who does not bear his own cross, and who does not renounce all that he has. And then, as St. Luke uniquely reports, Jesus with two illustrations elaborates on the need to give lengthy and serious consideration to those so‑called “costs” or “conditions” of discipleship: one illustration is about building a tower, the other illustration is about going to war.
Now, let us be perfectly clear: Jesus is not talking about our deciding to come to Him or follow after Him as a disciple as some understand “deciding” to follow Jesus. The great crowds already were accompanying Him; they already had heard His call to faith that raised them from their death in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). In today’s Third Reading He is challenging those accompanying Him as He challenges us: to count and to deliberate the “costs” or “conditions” of being His disciples. Such lengthy and serious consideration is necessary—that is the main point of both illustrations! No one is going to begin to build without having enough to complete the building, and no one is going to go to war if his force is outnumbered twenty-thousand to ten-thousand. Anyone building or going to war may have to be willing to renounce all they have, and so, too, we must be willing to renounce all we have, if we are to be Jesus’s disciples.
Are we or aren’t we? Are we loving Jesus more than we love our parents, spouse, children, and even our own lives? Or, do we sometimes let them stand in the way of our being Jesus’s disciple? Are we bearing our own crosses? Or, do we sometimes refuse to endure what Christians have to experience living their faith in this world? Are we renouncing all that we have? Or, do are we clinging to someone, something, or some other aspect of our lives to which we simply refuse to bid farewell under any circumstance? In fact, none of us are perfect disciples in these ways or in any other way. Because of our fallen, sinful nature, we cannot cover the costs or meet the conditions of being Jesus’s disciple. Our spiritual situations are such that on our own we have nowhere near enough to complete a tower as if to heaven or to marshal a force sufficient to meet the King coming as a righteous and all-powerful judge. That there will be such judgment is abundantly clear already in the Old Testament, as in today’s First Reading (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). Those who do not obey God’s commands will surely perish—here in time and in hell for eternity. Yet, we need not perish; we can repent: turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better. When we so repent, then He forgives our sin, for Jesus’s sake.
As St. Luke tells elsewhere, Jesus eventually completed His journey to Jerusalem, and there He bore His own cross to die for you and for me. The perfect life He lived and all that He suffered makes peace between us and God. That we of ourselves cannot meet the conditions or cover the costs of being Jesus’s disciple does not matter: true God in human flesh, He has met every condition; He has paid all costs. And, He calls us to faith in Him. We despair of ourselves, and we rely entirely and only on that faith in Him, in His death and resurrection for us. Through faith in Him, we have forgiveness: forgiveness for our failing to love Him most of all, forgiveness for our not bearing our own crosses, forgiveness for not renouncing all that we have—forgiveness for all our sin, whatever our sin might be. He not only calls us to faith and forgives us, but He also enables us to be His disciples. Our spiritual situation becomes as if He builds us on the foundation He has laid (1 Corinthians 3:11), as if He wins the battle for us (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Of course, Jesus does not call us to faith, forgive us, and enable us to be His disciples in just any way, but He calls us to faith, forgives us, and enables us to be His disciples through His Word, in all its forms, forms including Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. At Baptismal fonts like this one, we die to ourselves and rise to God. There He makes us part of His family, giving us new family ties to all those who are baptized and believe, now our brothers and sisters in Christ. When a particular sin troubles us, we, who are baptized, seek out father confessors, first to hear our private confession and then to individually absolve us, as if Christ our dear Lord were dealing with us in person Himself. So absolved, we come to this rail, to eat from this altar, bread that is Jesus’s body and wine that is His blood, given and shed for you and for me, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. When we so come to Jesus, we never hunger or thirst but instead find peace and rest. (We will hear more about Jesus’s eating with sinners when next week’s Gospel Reading picks up where today’s Third Reading leaves off.)
Today’s Second Reading (Philemon 1-21) gives us pretty much all of St. Paul’s letter to Philemon, minus his final greetings. Lost in translation is a possible meaning of the name “Onesimus” as “profitable” or “useful” and so lost also is a bit of a play on words when St. Paul says that the man was formerly useless to Philemon, since apparently he had run away, but now useful, as a spiritual son (or convert) of St. Paul. God alone can make such a transformation and bring benefits from it, and that fact may relate to today’s Third Reading. In today’s Third Reading, Jesus concludes His call for those accompanying Him to consider the costs and conditions of being His disciple with a somewhat obscure statement about salt. Commentators are divided as to whether or not Jesus in speaking of salt losing its taste is referring to something that He thought actually could happen, but commentators generally agree that, even if some ancient salt lost its taste, restoring its saltiness would be impossible for anyone but God. The conclusion reinforces the point that Jesus makes us His disciples, and it brings to mind our roles of giving flavor to and in some sense preserving the earth (Matthew 5:13). As we with ears of faith hear all that Jesus says, we love Jesus most of all; we bear our own crosses; we renounce all that we have. And, when we fail to do those things, as we will fail, we live every day, with repentance and faith, in the forgiveness of sins.
As we have reflected on today’s Third Reading under the theme “Being Jesus’s Disciple”, we have taken note of His call for us to consider the costs and conditions of being His disciple and so for us to realize that we on our own are not able to be His disciples but that He graciously calls us to faith, forgives us, and enables us to be His disciples. Time will tell whether or not we as a congregation will build on our new lots, and time will tell whether or not we as a country will take military action in Syria. Time will also bring what Jesus arguably describes elsewhere as the chief benefit of our renouncing all things now: namely, time will also bring eternal life (Matthew 19:28-29; Mark 10:29-30; Luke 18:29-30).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +