Choices

Our Christian life is full of choices. In fact, God made us to have the ability of moral choice. I believe the image of God within us is the ability to choose and to be responsible for our choices and their consequences. The tree in the garden, with the command to not eat thereof, was the activation of our moral choice. Instead we made a consumer choice. Big mistake.

Jesus, second Adam and image of God, came along with the same ability to choose. He came not only to atone for our poor choice, but to show us how to make the right choice. First he faced the devil in a wilderness contest where the adversary presented Jesus, weakened from a forty-day fast, with tempting choices. Unlike the first Adam, he didn’t take the bait. Instead of taking the tantalizing consumer choice, he chose the more difficult path, and left the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit. He went on to embrace probably the most difficult choice of all: he chose to take up a Roman cross and give his life to atone for our poor choices.

It should be no surprise that Jesus leads us into the same situation. In today’s lectionary text, Jesus left the region of Perea after several testy confrontations with religious leaders. Healing on the Sabbath and hanging out with “sinners” appeared to them to be the wrong choice, and they told him so. Not one to be too concerned about the good opinion of the Pharisees, Jesus did what he needed to do. Of course the Pharisees were fit to be tied, but the crowds loved it.

So when Jesus decided to leave that area and continue the journey to Jerusalem, many of his new fans came after him. They wanted to follow a rabbi that stood up to the Pharisees on their behalf and did such wonderful things for people. But instead of the warm welcome they expected they got a stern warning … about their choices.

Stopping dead in his tracks, he turned to them and said, “If you come to me and you cannot choose between me and your family, you cannot be my disciple. If you cannot bear your own cross, you cannot be my disciple. If you cannot forsake all you have, you cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:25-26, 33).

That is strong language. A tough challenge full of difficult choices. Far from consumer choices, the decisions Jesus requires here are loaded with difficult, life-changing consequences.

Deciding between Jesus and family was a huge deal. In first-century Israel one’s first obligation was to one’s family. To breach that obligation was unthinkable, yet necessary in Jesus’ kingdom.

Luke tells of another time when Jesus invited a young man to follow him as disciple. The man replied, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” What he meant was, “Let me wait until my father dies and my obligation to him is finished.” Jesus replied tersely, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” Another fellow signed up but asked for a few minutes to hug his mama goodbye. Jesus rudely said, “If you look back you are not fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:59-62). Jesus is serious that there is a price to pay for following him.

Taking up a cross was equally threatening. Everyone in the Roman-occupied world knew the horrors of the cross. It was state-of-the-art torture and execution reserved for those who would challenge the authority of the Roman state. Anyone caught resisting Caesar in any kind of uprising would be made an example of what happens when one resists the Caesar. Victims were forced to carry a heavy cross through a crowded street of jeering, spitting spectators toward the execution site. There they would be nailed to it and hung a few feet off the ground. Nails penetrated the main nerves of arms and feet, causing severe and unrelenting pain. After several days of hanging that way the victims would finally suffocate to death.

And Jesus said followers must be willing to take up the cross. Two things jump out at me. First, one must go against the grain of accepted thought and behavior for Jesus. We don’t follow Jesus the same way we follow a popular fad. Jesus is not a consumer choice, he is an against-the-grain lifestyle. Second, one must be willing to face painful consequences for following Jesus. Unfair treatment, brutal torture, jeering spectators, and slow agonizing demise.

Forsaking all is not a pleasant thought. It refers to the radical renunciation of all possessions. It means setting aside all things that would hinder from following Jesus. “You can’t serve God and mammon,” Jesus said several times. All must be surrendered.

All these things … family, life, and property … must be laid on the line to follow Jesus. It is a high cost to be carefully considered. Underestimating here brings heavy consequences in itself.

Jesus illustrates: A man plans to build a tower in his vineyard, but underestimates what he will need. The unfinished tower reduces him to the role of village idiot and brunt of all jokes. A king goes to expand his territory by declaring war on his neighbor, only to discover that his neighbor’s forces greatly outnumber his own. He winds up losing his kingdom to the one he hoped to supplant, and that without a fight.

There is no room for presumption in the serious matter of the kingdom. We cannot afford to be consumers, for we’ll wind up like Adam and Eve, considering the benefits of the fruit we’ve been offered. Following Jesus cannot be the latest fad, as it became in Perea when Jesus stood up to Pharisees and befriended common folk. It must be seriously considered, and seriously carried out.

The multitudes came after Jesus because it was the popular thing to do. It would be fun to follow him, they thought. Not so fast, said Jesus. Have you considered what this means? Are you ready for these consequences? Your choice …

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)