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A Sacrifice for a Worthy Cause
A sermon based on Luke 9:51-62
Sunday, July 4, 2010 -- Pentecost 6C
Today we celebrate the freedoms that we enjoy as citizens of the United States. And we take time to honor those who made great sacrifices in order to obtain and and maintain those freedoms. While names like George Washington, Thomas Paine, Sam Adams, and Patrick Henry will live on as long as liberty does, there were many others who made even greater sacrifices for the cause of freedom.
For example, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin never bore arms on any battlefield. But the thousands of farmers who did and who survived their wounds paid for their courage the rest of their lives: the primitive state of 18th-century medicine condemned them to chronic pain, and maimed manual laborers often slipped into poverty. Nor did the public honors and recognition that hailed Jefferson or Franklin soften such suffering.
In some ways, those unknown hordes were even more dedicated to freedom than the Big Names. They served long terms of service that sometimes lasted for years. Wounds, disease, and capture menaced them all the while. And some even gave the ultimate sacrifice, giving their very lives. But they made those sacrifices, not for the honor or fame it would bring, but because they believed in the cause. And they knew the cause was more important than even life itself.
Likewise, our Savior made the ultimate sacrifice for us. He suffered much worse than any Patriot or war hero has even endured. He endured the torment of hell itself as God the Father turned his back on him in disgust. But Jesus made his sacrifice, not for the honor or fame it would bring, but because he believed in the cause: Liberty, not from some earthly king or political tyrant, but from sin, from the death it would bring, and the from the hell that was sure to follow. For he knew the cause was more important than life itself. So he gladly made that sacrifice for us.
Now, we too gladly make our own sacrifices for the sake of this worthy cause: to maintain our spiritual freedom from sin, death, and hell, and to win that freedom for others. And so, this Independence Day we celebrate the freedom our Savior won and we rededicate ourselves to the worthy cause of the fight for freedom from sin, death, and hell, no matter what the cost.
Listen to Luke 9:51-62...
51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
"I used to be indecisive. Now... I'm not so sure." That's the way some of Jesus' disciples were. They wanted to follow Jesus, but they weren't so sure they wanted to give up the comfort, the convenience, the ease of doing their own thing. "I will follow you wherever you go." ..."But first let me secure some nice housing. "I will follow you wherever you go," but "...first let me go and bury my father." "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."
It's not that there's anything wrong in securing housing, burying your loved ones or saying "good-by." But the priorities of these men were out of whack. Something other than Jesus took first place in their lives. So Jesus said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head... Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God... No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
Last week we heard Jesus tell his disciples that they would be called to make some serious sacrifices, taking up their crosses, giving their very lives, to follow him. But this week, he asks to give up a lesser sacrifice. Give up your home. Give up your family. Give up your history and follow me.
So what about us? Are we willing to sacrifice our lives, but not the smaller things? "Jesus, I'll give my life to you, but follow the speed limit? Well, that's asking a bit much." "I'll take up my cross, by don't ask me to cross the street to share my faith." "I'll sacrifice myself for you, but don't ask me to save myself for marriage." "I'll give my life for you, but I don't really want to give my dollars. Times are tight. You understand."
Are we willing to sacrifice ourselves for Jesus? Jesus said in Matthew 10(:32-33) "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." (Matthew 10:32-33)
In the Revolutionary war, troops could be whipped or even hanged for losing their loyalty and deserting their posts. Likewise, losing our loyalty for Jesus, for failing to give up house and home, friends and family, work and money for Jesus, for our misaligned priorities in putting temporal things above eternal things, we deserve to be disowned by Jesus to face the wrath of God forever in hell.
But we don't get that. Why not? Because of what Luke wrote in verse 51: "Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." Jesus, knowing full well what await him in Jerusalem, gladly set out for it anyway. He went to Calvary. He went to suffer. He went to sacrifice his very self because he knew the cause to be a worthy one. He would sacrifice himself in our place to pay the penalty our sin, our desertion, our bad priorities deserve. He was disowned by the Father so we will never be.
Now, because, "Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem," our sins are forgiven. Jesus will not call down fire from heaven to destroy us. But rather he will reach out with the Gospel to save us. He will make sure -- at any cost, at any sacrifice -- that we are saved from hell and set free from sin and death. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1) Because he was willing to sacrifice himself to rescue us from hell, we are saved. Now, in thanks to him, we are eager to sacrifice our very selves for him...
Now, we aren't as concerned about having beautiful homes or big salaries or earthly comforts. We aren't as concerned about serving any human relationship as we are about serving the Lord. And when faced with the decision between serving Christ or some earthly duty which needs our attention, it's a no-brainer. We gladly choose our Savior over our earthly comforts. We gladly choose our Savior over family. We gladly offer our wholehearted and undivided attention to serving Christ and make any sacrifice for him in thanks for the sacrifice he made for us.
Now we put our hand to the plow and don't look back. Or, perhaps a more modern equivalent: We drive forward without looking out the back window. We press on toward what's ahead. We don't look back to all the good things in our lives like family and friends, comforts and satisfactions, or "successful" programs. We don't look back to all the sins in our lives, which have been forgiven by Christ. We don't wallow in our past sins or boast of our past successes. But we live to serve Jesus in thanks.
And so we are Eager to give up any hope of a permanent home in this present world. As we live to thank our Jesus for the sacrifice he made for us, we gladly sacrifice all that this world has to offer. For this world, so full of sin, cannot be a permanent home for us. Our permanent home awaits us in heaven. If home is where the heart is, our real home is in our Father's House in heaven.
You know, some of the Patriots lost not only their homes, but even left family and friends. Some were alienated from family for choosing the side of liberty. But they gladly made that sacrifice, sometimes fighting against their own cousins, or uncles, or even brothers, because they knew the cause of freedom to be a worthy one.
Likewise, you, who have experienced the freedom that Christ won for you, from sin, death, and hell, know that it's a cause worth fighting for. And so you too are eager to make any sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel.
Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
And so, more than just sacrificing our stuff here on earth, we are even willing to give up any family ties on this earth. We are willing to make ourselves outcasts to the ones we love for Jesus as we witness to his love.
We are eager to sacrifice our time, our family, our relationships, our dollars, even our very lives to the cause of sharing Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us that paid for our every sin. We may be among the ranks of unknown hordes and not among the Big Names of the Apostle Paul, of St. Augustine, of Martin Luther.
But we, like those thousands of farmers in the Revolution, don't serve for the honor or the fame it would bring, but because we believe in the cause of sharing Christ crucified and his sacrifice for us. And so we will sacrifice everything: wounds, disease, or capture, even our very lives for the sake of the Gospel, because we know that the cause is more important than even life itself. For it will last not just a year from now, a century from now, or a millennium from now, but for eternity. So we gladly sacrifice all for a worthy cause: For sharing the freedom from sin, death, and hell that we all enjoy. In Jesus' name, dear friends, amen.
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