Jesus sets His gaze on Jerusalem, the city where He will be “taken up.” “Taken up” is shorthand for dying for the sins of the world, rising to life on the third day, and then returning to the Father in heaven. Jesus does this all for you and your salvation.
So, He goes forward without wavering. He fixes His eyes on the target: Jerusalem, the place of sacrifice. Jesus travels through Samaria to make His way there. He goes to the city of sacrifice to become the saving Sacrifice for the world. Jesus also goes to die for the Samaritans, but they reject Him. Why? Their place of worship was Gerizim, not Jerusalem.
The Samaritans had their self-created ideas about where they should worship God. Why bother with Jerusalem? Gerizim is a lot closer! Why go and listen to the preached Word or receive the Sacraments? Why sing doctrinal hymns, even if Scripture says they are to teach and correct me (Colossians 3:16)? I can stay home with my Bible and have God on my terms, which is way more convenient. Hey, it doesn’t matter as long as you “believe in God,” right?
Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem, for no other place exists in the world for the Lamb of God to offer Himself in sacrifice. God said so. God allowed for no alternatives, no convenient bypasses, no having it your way. With forgiveness, life, and salvation, God gives it to you in His way—or you don’t have it.
The Samaritans didn’t want Jesus because He was making His way to Jerusalem. They only wanted Jesus on their terms. What’s the result when you want Jesus on your terms? You don’t get Him. For only the real Jesus saves—not the Jesus we’ve brewed up inside our minds.
Remember that truth the next time you want to mold your faith based on your own Jesus. Oh, He is for you and your salvation—but only in the way in which He chooses to give Himself to you. Now, you may think you know better, but you don’t. So, if you follow your heart in the way of salvation, you will be wrong, for sin infects your heart and will set you on the wrong path.
The real Jesus goes to Jerusalem to die and rise. He later commanded His Apostles to “disciple the Gentiles by baptizing and teaching” (Matthew 28:19-20). He gave His Supper to the Church, telling them: “Take and eat; this is my body. Drink of it: This is my blood of the New Covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28, Luke 22:20). Jesus also told His Apostles, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven” (John 20:23).
Jesus is present in His Church through His Word and His body and blood. Any other Jesus, who comes by any other way, is not the real Jesus, no matter how “religious” He may seem or what feelings may stir within you.
The Samaritans rejected Jesus, but He did not reject them. In response, James and John seek revenge. They want flames to fall from heaven to consume these ingrates. Give them the Sodom-and-Gomorrah treatment. Teach them a lesson, Jesus! Ever catch yourself saying the same? James and John presume—on their own—the power to judge and call down fire from heaven. Did Jesus give them such authority? No.
Jesus will later tell James and John to retain the sins of others (if needed), but He never told them to wield the sword of earthly judgment. God calls His New-Covenant Church to a different role. So, Jesus rebukes them. He shows us the way of the disciple is the way of the cross, the way of Jerusalem.
As Jesus walked, three would-be disciples apply to become followers of Jesus. In those days, such behavior did not make you odd or strange. People approached rabbis, seeking their instruction; it was part of the culture. All three, however, want something, which is holding them back, keeping them from being wholehearted.
“I will follow you wherever you go,” one of them asserts. Does he know where Jesus is going? Does he realize the path He is taking? Jesus clues him in: His road does not come with comfortable rest stops or fluffy pillows under your head at night. Foxes and birds can go home. Not so with the Son of Man, the Messiah, when it comes to our salvation: He even lacks a pillow. Do you want to follow Jesus? Prepare to be uncomfortable.
Another would-be disciple tells Jesus, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” It was the honorable and compassionate deed to do—but if you come to Jesus with preconditions, He will reject you. You only receive Jesus in His way, not your way.
What is Jesus’ way? He is going to Jerusalem to die. “Let the dead bury the dead.” Death is about to meet his match in Jesus. Death’s word is not the final word; the Word Himself, Jesus, is. In His death and resurrection, He will bring us into His kingdom—but if you come with preconditions, you disqualify yourself.
Another person also wants to follow Jesus—also with preconditions: “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to those at my house.” A simple goodbye. What could be wrong with that? Jesus teaches, “No one who takes up the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
You can’t till the ground, looking back over your shoulder, and not get it wrong. Ask a farmer and he will tell you. You can’t plow ahead when you are pining for the past. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt, a monument testifying to what happens to those who look back from the way of salvation.
Jesus set His eyes on Jerusalem, on the cross looming before Him. He does not crane His neck back at what was. No, Jesus looks ahead to what is to come. He alone is “fit for the kingdom.” Salvation is on His terms. Harsh words! They are hard and demanding. They must be, for preconditions with Jesus is idolatry, testifying to trusting in something more than Him. With the salvation He gives, Jesus does it all, or you don’t have it.
To be Jesus’ disciple starts with—not with what you do—but what you don’t do. Disciples with preconditions don’t receive what He wants to give them. Their clenched hands, grasping something else, are closed to His grace, not open to receive His gift.
Jesus does not compromise. Remember, He fixed His face toward Jerusalem. And each of these three want-to-be disciples, each in his way, belittles the cost Jesus will soon pay for the world’s salvation.
What does it mean to follow Jesus? Must you follow His rules to make yourself right? Moses had rules, and we can’t keep them. So, another set of rules to follow to try to make ourselves right with God is a useless effort. We won’t obey those rules either; if we think we can, we’re either delusional or lying to ourselves.
To follow Jesus is to give up on your rules. Don’t you see? Preconditions are your rules overriding what Jesus does for you. Only when all your stipulations are gone, do you then die and rise with Jesus receiving what He gives to you, in the way He gives it. Jesus’ death becomes your death, and in so doing, you live (Romans 6:3-5).
Jesus walks this road to Jerusalem alone. Oh, His disciples are next to Him, but the road He treads is His alone. Jesus is faithful Israel reduced to one Man. So, He bears the cross alone, and the world’s salvation is His alone. He put His hand to the plow of salvation, for the joy of saving you from sin and death. For the joy of your salvation, so you could be His own, His fixed His gaze on Jerusalem.
Even so, the disciples’ focus is on Jesus, who begins and completes our faith. Is He not the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 1:8, 22:13)? Yes! So, we don’t look to ourselves. When we do, we go awry. Preconditions are looking to yourself. We, instead, fix our gaze on Jesus, not looking even toward Jerusalem.
Jerusalem doesn’t save, but only testifies to what Jesus came to do. So, focus your eyes on Him. He begins your faith through the Spirit He sent. He will complete your faith on the Last Day when He returns. He rescues you from your sin-condemning works, yielding to you the life of the Spirit.
Fix your eyes on Jesus. He focused on Jerusalem so He could become your focal point, the place of salvation for you. Life presents you with innumerable distractions and worries, which can all keep you from the one you need for life and salvation. Jesus’ salvation becomes yours when you die and rise with Him. So, like a runner pushing toward the finish line, fix your eyes on Jesus.
So, how do you look to Jesus and not Jerusalem? Luther wrote:
Christ has won [our forgiveness] on the cross… [But] if now I desire to have my sins forgiven, I must not run to the cross, for I do not find it distributed there…. [I, instead, go] to the Sacrament… where I find the Word, which distributes, delivers, offers, and gives to me such forgiveness which was won on the cross. [Luther’s Works, vol 40, pgs 213-214]
So, fix your eyes on Jesus—and where He comes to you. He comes in baptism, washing away sin, giving you birth from above. In His Supper, He brings you the gift of Himself in His body and His blood, the fruits of His Cross. So, fix your eyes on Jesus. In His perfect life and saving death, He makes you fit for His kingdom. Fix your eyes on Jesus, who set His eyes to Jerusalem to give you life, life everlasting. Amen.
