Hear a Hard Word from Jesus

Those are the people whose job it is to explain away every controversy, to advise the candidate what to do, where to go, and what to say in order to woo the most people.

Jesus words and deeds confound all of the politically expedient ways of doing things.

He had no “handlers;” the disciples have to be instructed what to do just as much as anyone else.

Luke begins this section of his book with an interesting observation: “Now large crowds were traveling with him....”

None of them knew the full import of was going on with Jesus, but somehow, they sensed that this was the best place for them to be at that moment.

And it is all happening before electronic megaphones and public address systems.

How would he be attracting large crowds out in these little country villages in Galilee?

There are no electronic media telling them what is important, and Jesus has no advertising budget.

All he has are people who have heard and experienced Good News from him and are thereafter willing to tell someone else.

But it takes time for this to sink into the hearts and minds of those who hear him; for some it takes far longer than for others to begin to understand what Jesus is and what he does.

Luke is not introducing us to a Jesus who says “There, there now; it will all be OK, you don't have to change a thing in your life.”

Many of the stories that follow the section we heard today result in controversy, where it gradually becomes clear that everything about the lives of those who listen must be changed, right down to very reason for living.

In a section of John's gospel that is comparable to what we hear from Luke, where so many who initially follow after Jesus are confused or annoyed, the Gospel-writer observes: Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. [Jn.6:66]

I have seldom been excited about church advertising campaigns.

Often one can spend lots of money with no discernible result.

Twenty-some years ago we had one locally, where, if I'm remembering correctly, the initials TGTS were prominently displayed on billboards, stickers, ads, flyers, etc.

At length it was revealed that the initials stood for Thank God this Sunday.

I cannot recall one single person being so overwhelmed by that campaign that he or she came to new life in Jesus in any of our local congregations.

We are so inundated with advertising every day in every media that it is hard to get through the tough shell we have developed.

And beside that, we have nothing to sell in the usual commercial sense that would be susceptible to ads.

Where we do have success is when one person realizes that Jesus is offering us a different basis and goal for our living, and the person is then willing to share that truly Good News with someone else, a friend, a neighbor, a family member.

Jesus is not interested in our usual worries about statistics.

He knows that by the end, by the time he gets to the cross, all in the crowd, including his closest friends, will have fallen away.

It will not be until folks have a chance to see and hear the whole story that they will begin to come to faith in the promises he makes.

With a few dramatic exceptions, the growth of the church after that will be one person or family at a time.

More often than not, when people hear that Jesus is asking for their whole life, they will decide that it is too high a price, and turn away.

I'll never forget the conversation I had with an east German woman soon after the wall fell, talking about what it had cost her and her family to remain a part of the church.

When they went ahead with Confirmation for her teen, he then faced a dim future for education or employment in the old communist scheme of things.

What a harsh decision, much more difficult than the “inconvenience” complaints that parents in the US give their pastors about catechetical study.

In a far worse situation are the many people around the world who endure ostracism, shunning by their families, and often facing murder at the hands of family or neighbors if they are so bold as to say “Jesus is Lord.”

That is the reality faced by Christians who were formerly Muslims, Hindus, North Korean communists, and others.

We have been hearing one or more of those names week after week for years in the Prayer of the Church; and this is a real cost, very often the full cost of a life.

Jesus was being more realistic than his disciples ever imagined when he said that one would need to chose him over any family relationship, any economic arrangement, any number of possessions, perhaps with death as the price.

This is not the Lord in pastel tones, whispering sweet nothings; this is the Lord speaking truth that the crowds (and us right along with them) do not want to hear.

In our Morning Prayer readings several weeks ago we heard the story of Gideon, who was called by God to lead his people against the marauding Amalekites, etc. [Judges 6-8]

He starts out with 32,000 soldiers, but the Lord tells him that this is too many and he should send home any who are fearful...so 22,000 leave.

Then those who are not alert at all times, even when they drink water, and all of the rest except 300 are sent home.

Finally the 300 are divided in three groups, and Gideon at the head of one of those groups takes on the unnumbered thousands of Amalekites, and a great victory is won.

The point was that it was not that Gideon was so great, so wise, or so capable; the point is that the Lord God willed a great outcome, and arranged the circumstances for it to occur.

A few persons could be at the center of great things, by the will of God.

It seems that Jesus is proceeding along those same lines, when he realizes that many in the crowd are merely curious, or are looking for a cheap thrill, or are expecting him to work wonders for their amusement, or are expecting that he will be the one to drive out the hated Roman occupation army.

He says those shocking things about family relationships and cross-bearing as a way of whittling down the crowd to far fewer than Gideon's 300, all the way to the foreigner, the single Roman soldier who at the cross says “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

I'll say it directly: Jesus is not here to fulfill our needs; the pastor is not here to fulfill our needs; the congregation is not here to fulfill our needs.

We get off-track every time someone starts down that road.

We are here to praise God and thank him for what he has done, is doing, and will yet do in enticing us into a loving and caring relationship with him, and through him, with others.

What a contrast with a college which some time back had an advertising campaign around the slogan, “We've got what you want; so come and get it.”

As the college chaplain ruefully observed, “Much of what college students think they want is either immoral or illegal; and that's what we are to provide?”

Often we do not know what we need, and what we want is off-base.

Praise God that Jesus does not stop talking, that he keeps on trying to reach us, to loosen our grip on the things that we think we want, and to listen more carefully for the gifts that he offers, the gifts that are more precious than any others.

Forgive the pastor, forgive the church, if we do false advertising, if we ever imply that Jesus will make life easier for us, that Jesus will fix everything that is wrong with us, that Jesus will put a lilt in our voices and a little sunshine in our lives.

Chances are, he won't.

But he can do better than that; He can make us disciples.

Let all who would rejoice in this gift say ...Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.