Lk 9:51-62
51When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, [Jesus] resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, 52and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, 53but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. 54When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” 55Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56and they journeyed to another village.
57As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” 59And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “[Lord,] let me go first and bury my father.” 60But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” 62[To him] Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
WITHOUT LOOKING BACK: In the New Testament, Paul’s writing is the most autobiographical. In the proto-Pauline or his undisputed letters, we have a glimpse of the man in flesh and blood, not retouched by the idealization of his disciples and admirers. We see an itinerant artisan who has to struggle to get money for food; a missionary trudging along the roads, carrying his limited possessions in a sack; a passenger on a cargo boat eating his meager provisions; a preacher talking to people at a place by the riverside or in tenement houses because he does not have the status to command a place in a public building. He is mocked by the sophisticated Greeks as a ragpicker of ideas and looked upon by the Jews with alarm because he preaches to the Gentiles and stirs up trouble. Added to these difficulties that he shares in his Corin thian correspondence (2 Cor 11:23-29) is his anxiety for the churches he founded.
Why did Paul subject himself to all this grief? What happened to him that he now considers his illustrious upbringing and his past life as so much “dross”?
Paul traces this to a discovery that goes beyond his previous imaginings: “The supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8). Luke, in Acts, calls this Paul’s conversion. Paul himself speaks of being “taken over” by Christ who “has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20).
Because of this grace, Paul cannot be defeated: “We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor 4:8-9).
Paul’s resoluteness in preaching the Gospel is but an echo of his Master’s. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem. This is his response to a conversation with Moses and Elijah on the mountain of the transfiguration, when the two spoke of the exodus that he would accomplish in Jerusalem. In that city of his destiny, Jesus would accomplish his Passover: to suffer, die, and rise again to deliver the people from their slavery to sin and to grant them a new life in God.
Where does Jesus’ “resoluteness” come from? It comes from his total love and dedication to the Father. In John (4:34), to do the will of the Father and to finish his work is Jesus’ “food,” that which sustains his life and guides his activity.
The road to Jerusalem is long and tortuous. The travel is defined by encounters, events, and stops.
The first hindrance is put up by the Samaritans. They refuse to receive Jesus and his disciples into their village because they are seen as a group en route to Jerusalem. James and John want punishment. Jesus, however, is not deterred and continues his journey on another road.
Then follow the encounters with individuals who wish to follow Jesus. Through his replies that appear cruel and in contradiction to works of piety, Jesus announces a principle that applies always and everywhere: prefer nothing to the love of Christ. Nothing can keep one from announcing the reign of God.
If we give absolute priority to Jesus, just as he has put priority on the Father, we cannot pretend to “follow” and “serve” him without renouncing everything, including our past. This is what Paul understands when he proclaims: “I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil 3:8-9).