June 29, 2025
Trinity Lutheran Church
Third Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8 C
Sermon on Luke 9:51–62
Luke 9:51–62: “51When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55But he turned and rebuked them. 56And they went on to another village. 57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.””
In the Name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What is the price of following Jesus? What does it truly cost to walk in the footsteps of the Son of God? At first glance, that might sound like a surprising question. Many people would say, “I thought salvation was free — that Jesus paid it all.” And they would be absolutely right — Jesus did pay the full price for our sins on the cross. Eternal life is not something we can earn; it is a gift of God’s grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). But while salvation is free, discipleship comes with a cost. The Gospel is not a call to comfort, but to commitment. There are consequences to following Jesus — and in our passage today from Luke, Jesus does not hide that truth from us.
As Jesus journeys toward Jerusalem — the city where He would suffer, die, and rise again — He encounters three individuals who each express interest in following Him. Through His interactions with them, Christ lays out the cost of discipleship — not just for them, but for anyone who would take up their cross and follow Him.
“57As they [Jesus and his disciples] were going along the road [to Jerusalem], someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”” In the Gospel of Matthew, we learn that this man was a scribe — someone well-versed in the Jewish law and Scriptures, and likely a person of social standing and stability. This man makes a bold statement, “I will follow you wherever you go”, and Jesus’ responses to the man “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”
On the surface it sounds like that Jesus had no home, no place to relax and release the stress of the day. And this is true, Jesus, at this point in His ministry, was traveling from place to place, relaying on strangers for a place to sleep and possibly for a meal or two. This must seem unbearable to the scribe – a man perhaps used to structure, reputation, and a place in society – as we never hear of him again. Perhaps the cost was too high. This verse also points out, not just the transient nature of Christs ministry, but the opposition that Christ and his followers are to face.
When Christ says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He is telling the scribe, telling you and me, that to share in Christ ministry we are also to share in His rejection, in His opposition. Like Jesus being rejected by the Samaritan village, we too will be rejected, hated, and persecuted by this corrupt, sinful World. We should expect hardship. We should expect to be misunderstood, even hated. Jesus warned His disciples in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” Are you willing to pay the price for following Jesus?
Again, Christ met another man on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus said to him “59… “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”” This second encounter is perhaps even more shocking. The man isn’t offering to follow Jesus — Jesus calls him directly. And the man responds, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father”. This seems like a reasonable request, as burying your parents was an act of honoring them, as well as a sacred act of love, respect and dignity.
Jesus responds, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” A socking statement! This goes against the cultural norm of the Jewish people. Is Jesus being insensitive? It is unknown if this man’s father was dead or alive. It could be that the man was asking for an indefinite delay, saying in effect, “Let me wait until my father has passed, and then I’ll follow.” Jesus brushes this aside and stating that there something more important than honoring your father and mother. That is the call of Christ. Nothing comes before you Christ call in your life.
Jesus’ statement of “Leave the dead to bury their own dead” is more than a statement that following Christ is more important than our other obligations. Jesus is telling us to leave the spiritually dead to the corrupted and spiritually dead world. Following Jesus means reordering our priorities and for us as Christians it means to live a holy life. Holy mean “set apart” and in the context of our Christian life, our lives are to be set apart from the spiritually dead world and dedicated to following Jesus Christ. It means that nothing comes before Him — not family, not tradition, not even our best intentions.
Christ wants more than for us to be set apart from the world. Christ tells us “go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”. The call to follow is also a call to proclaim. We are to proclaim the kingdom of God to everyone. Christ says in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” We are to tell proclaim the kingdom of God to the world so everyone they might hear the Word of God and become alive in Christ.
We proclaim the kingdom of God through daily through the way we live, in how we interact and treat others, when we go to church, read our Bibles, tell the Gospel to friends, colleagues, and/or strangers. We to always be ready to proclaim of the Kingdom of God. Are you willing to pay the cost to proclaim the Kingdom of God to the world?
“61Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”” The final man wants to follow Jesus, but asks to first go and say goodbye to his loved ones. Christ response may seem strange if you have never worked on a farm. I have. Preparing a field for planting is one of the most time consuming and important (next to harvesting) job there is. Plowing a field, especially back in the ancient world, was a physically demanding job. Sure, it looked like the oxen was doing all the work by pulling the plow, but it was the farmer who push the plow into the ground and then fought with the plow to keep it straight as the plow was diverted by every compacted dirt, root, and rock the plow ran into. The farmer needs straight plowed rows (furrows) for planting seeds and later making it easier to harvesting the grain.
Jesus is telling us that following Him is like a farmer who is plowing his field. A farmer must keep control of the plow and the oxen and direct them to the end of the field. To look back while plowing would cause the farmer to lose focus and thus lose control of the plow and potentially causing damage to the plow, the field, and/or himself – not to mention that the furrow would be crooked and all that time and efforts would have been wasted.
Those who follow Christ cannot look back. Looking back is to recall our former way of life. It is right for us to regret our former way of life. Looking back though recalls the sins we committed. And though we should feel sad and remorseful for those sins. Too often we look back on our sins and the joy it gave us and regret that we should no longer commit those sins. When we look back on our sins, we lose focus on Christ, and we commit the same sins again. When we look back, we are not trusting in Christ, in His death and resurrection, and the forgiveness of sins won for us on the cross. Jesus calls us to look forward, to fix our eyes on Him, the author and perfecter of our faith. Are you ready to say what Paul says in Philippians 3:13–14 “13…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Are you willing to look forward and not look back?
The cost of following Jesus is high and seems burdensome. Following Jesus cost us our comfort, as we are rejected and despised by the world, our priorities, we are set apart from the world and proclaim Christ into the world, and total commitment, our eye are fix on Christ and the cross never looking back.
In Christ, these burdensome costs are made nothing. For in Christ, we receive sanctification, that is a new desire to serve and to please God. For on the cross Christ has sanctified us with His body and blood given for the forgiveness of out sins. What once seemed like burdensome cost are now made into benefit in Christ death and resurrection. For in Christ are sins are forgiven, made heirs to the Kingdom of God, and everlasting life with Christ in heaven.
Amen.
