Our Determined Hope

We have gathered today from many different places in our minds and our emotions.  For some of us, it has been a normal week, and for some of us, the week has been full of emotion, fear, and anxiety.  This morning all of us together make up the church.  No matter where we come from or what we bring to this sacred space, let us be one in spirit now as we enter into the preaching of the Word. 

When I worked as a chaplain at a hospital a couple of year ago, I would often carry a Bible as I made my visits.  There were some days when I wouldn’t use it at all as I walked up and down the hallways of the hospital visiting with nurses and patients and loved ones.  Then there were days when my visits simply could not include words, when the only thing I could offer was my presence as a pastor.  And there were other days when it felt like the Bible was all I had to use, when it provided the only words that were appropriate:

Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 

Romans 8: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who love us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life… nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Matthew 11.28: The powerful words of Jesus: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Indeed, Scripture tells us that our God is a God of comfort, a God who is present no matter what we feel and no matter what we travel through.  Surely we worship a God who hears our prayers and we follow a Jesus who invites us to bring our troubles to him. 

But today’s scripture gives quite a different picture of Jesus. 

Today’s text, Luke chapter 9 verse 51 is a turning point in the gospel of Luke.  Before this, the Gospel has been telling tales of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, the wise parables he has told, the restoration and healing he has spread throughout the land, and the table fellowship he has shared with many people.  Then chapter 9 verse 51 brings a change.  Verse 51 says, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  Biblical scholars call this the beginning of the Lukan travel narrative. 

This is where we meet Jesus today, as he begins his journey.  But today’s Jesus isn’t our shepherd Jesus, the compassionate one who cares for all of our needs and invites us to bring our burdens to him.  In fact, today’s Jesus seems upon first glance to be downright insensitive. 

Instead of spreading restoration and healing, he rebukes the disciples, James and John.  And then when he encounters people who are willing to follow him, he tells them that the journey is exceedingly difficult.  To one he says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  To another he says, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  To the third would-be follower he says, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  His demands seem unreasonable, impractical, even scary.  And in fact, they are, because discipleship can seem scary.  Another day we’ll explore this side of the text.

But this picture of Jesus is not the word we need to hear today.  So that means we have to look again.

Let’s go back to verse 51.  Again it says, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  The New Testament text was originally written in Greek, and there are a couple of Greek words that jump out in this section.

First, the Greek word poreumai, which means “to move, to go, or to journey,” occurs five times in these eleven verses.  Second, the word aperchomai, which means, “to go or to depart” occurs an additional three times.  When we dig into the original language like this, we can begin to see that it’s not that Jesus is insensitive or rude but rather that his journey, his movement, his going, is of utmost importance.  He set his face toward Jerusalem, his end, his goal, and he is determined to make it there. 

This raises a question: why would Jesus be so determined to walk this path?  We know how the story unfolds.  We know that the journey is one of rejection and anguish.  We know that Jerusalem brings pain and death.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah gives us words to understand our savior Jesus as “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53.3).  Why would we ever follow him down this road?

The reality is that we have already taken our first steps.  We are well acquainted with grief today here at RBCC.  We are even now walking the road to Jerusalem in all its sorrow.  This, my brothers and sisters, this, oh you followers of Jesus, is the first piece of Good News, for upon this road that we are on, we walk with Jesus.  Oh, this is Good News; if we are to go anywhere, if we are to go with anyone, it should be with him.

My friends, there’s another promise here.  This next piece of Good News we won’t see until later in the gospel of Luke, but we know it already anyway.  The Christian story, which is our story that helps us make sense of the world, is full of deep sorrow.  This story that shapes our lives and points us to the truest reality is a story filled with suffering.  But this is not the whole story.  Pain and suffering, anxiety and abandonment never have the last word, for the resurrection is still to come, hints of it blowing over our hot tears like a cool breeze.  Even in our times of deepest tragedy here is a hope that comes to calm our aches and still our racing hearts. 

The great German theologian Jürgen Moltmann writes about a theology of hope.  He dares to say that the axis that the Christian faith turns upon is not the present moment.  The most important time in our life of faith is never our time of abandonment, loss, or suffering.  Our Christian reality is never defined by oil gushing through the gulf causing vast damage to our land and sea.  Our Christian reality is not defined by long and costly wars and never quenched by rampant homelessness or other injustices or injuries.  Our Christian reality is not even conquered by death itself.  Instead, the axis, the pivot point of our Christian reality is resurrection hope.

This is what Jesus’ relentless journey to Jerusalem is all about.  Hope.  Hope is coming together to worship, to sing hymns and give thanks even when life is hard and the world is scary.  Hope is a prayer chain, a group of people who offer prayers of healing and comfort all week long.  Hope is experienced in the loving kindness of a church community who can rally with prayers and casseroles at a moment’s notice.  This is you – this is us practicing hope. 

We do not sit here alone.  We sit here together with one another and with our God.  We do not spread fear or expect the worst or descend into gossip.  We do not sit here in anguish only, for we know that our souls are filled with hope, and a hope not just in earthly health or wholeness but in the redeeming movement of a journey that transcends all else, even when we can’t feel it, even when we don’t know why, even when we are changed by the journey. 

In his relentless journey to Jerusalem, Jesus shows us the passionate and purposeful way we are to live, pursuing the hope of resurrection and wholeness that comes only through Christ.  We are called to be bearers of this hopeful Kingdom of the reign of God. 

1 Peter 1.3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

May our hope be found in nothing less. 

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