“Three Little Parables”
Luke 9:57-62

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost—June 26, 2016

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Earlier in my ministry I served at Concordia University Wisconsin, one of the ten universities operated by our Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and the largest Lutheran university in America.  It is an enormous, sprawling campus.  Because of the administrative position I held, I was one of just a few people who had a super-master key for the entire campus.  There were thousands of different doors, classrooms, offices, library, chapel, labs, cafeteria, dorm rooms, probably a couple thousand closets alone, and on and on.  Thousands of different doors, but my key could open every one of them.

That is why Jesus so often spoke in parables.  Jesus was preaching to large crowds of people, with different levels of spiritual understanding, and each with unique individual problems, for which they were seeking solutions, and questions, for which they were seeking answers, from the Master. 

Parables have an open-ended character that compels the hearers themselves to ponder the meaning, to take Jesus’ teaching and apply it to themselves and their situation in a personal way.  This open-ended nature of parables makes these seemingly simple stories like a spiritual super-master key, that allows Jesus, with the same parable, to open all these different doors to his hearer’s hearts.

But, the “Three Little Parables” in today’s Gospel Reading are different.  For, these three parables are not given to a large crowd of people, each with their own varied problems and questions.  Instead, each of these “Three Little Parables” is specifically directed by Jesus to one individual, a unique key, crafted by our Lord specifically to unlock the door to that particular person’s heart.

The Gospel of John says, “He did not need anyone’s testimony about a man, for he knew what was in a man.”  When these three potential disciples approach him, Jesus knows their hearts, he knows what in particular is holding each of them back from true discipleship, exactly what specific key is needed to open the door to each of their hearts.

“As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’  Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’”

Jesus sees in the heart of potential disciple #1 that his problem is MATERIALISM. 

There are thousands of people working feverishly right now on the campaigns of the presidential candidates.  Many of these hope that when their candidate wins, their faithful labors on his or her behalf will lead to a position in the new administration.

Jesus was actually looked upon, both by his friends and his enemies, not primarily as a religious, but a political figure, the leading candidate for the kingship of Israel.  That’s because many, if not most, people—including initially his own apostles—misunderstood Jesus’ mission as the Messiah.  They thought he had come to lead a political revolution, to overthrow and drive out the Romans occupying their land, and establish a new earthly kingdom of Israel, with himself as King Jesus. 

That’s why the Gospel of Matthew reports that, when he was crucified, “Above his head they placed the written CHARGE against him: ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’”  Even though Jesus plainly told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world,” nevertheless the false charge for which he was wrongly crucified was not a religious offense, but a political crime, supposedly leading a rebellion to make himself an earthly king, in opposition to Caesar and the Roman Empire.

It seems that Jesus could see in the heart of potential disciple #1 that HE had this misconception of Jesus’ mission as the Messiah.  Like those working now for presidential candidates with the hope of someday getting a job in the new administration, it seems this potential disciple thought that becoming a disciple of Jesus was a good career move, the path to personal power, prestige, and prosperity. This potential disciple, as the old saying goes, wanted to “hitch his wagon to a rising start”—Jesus’’ rising star. The apostles themselves reflect this attitude in the verses just before our text, when Luke reports, “An argument started among them as to which of them would be the greatest,” meaning the greatest earthly official in King Jesus’ earthly kingdom.

Like their misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission, which even the apostles had at this stage, potential disciple #1 expects that when Jesus is installed as king he will be rewarded, as one of Jesus’ followers, with a good government job.  Jesus knows the key that will open the door to this man’s heart: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  With this little parable, Jesus is saying, “Don’t follow me because you think it will be easy.  Following me will sometimes be hard.  And the rewards for following me may not be found in this life.  Indeed, in this life you may actually suffer for following me.”

We aren’t told how this potential disciple responded when Jesus’ bluntly debunked the idea that following him would lead to power, prestige and prosperity.  Was he like the rich young man, who went away sad when Jesus similarly confronted his materialism?  Or, was he like Matthew, who left behind his tax collector’s booth, and Peter, James and John, who left behind their valuable boats and nets, and followed him?

“He said to another man, ‘Follow me.’ But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’”

Jesus sees in the heart of potential disciple #2 that his problem is PRIORITIES.

When we read this comment of Jesus in English, it seems very harsh and out of character for our loving Lord not to allow this man to first bury his own father.  But, still today in that part of the world, burials take place IMMEDIATELY upon death.  If the father of potential disciple #2 was already dead, he wouldn’t have been there talking to Jesus, he would have been right then at the funeral.  So, this is not a request for short-term compassionate leave.  When Jesus says, “Follow me,” this potential disciple objects that he must stay at home—for an open-ended amount of time—until sometime in the future his father eventually dies.

The man probably thought the loving Master could not possibly reject such reasonable request, to stay at home until after his father has died, however long that may be.  But, Jesus could see in the heart of potential disciple #2 that this request was only a pretense.  He really had a problem of PRIORITIES.  Now, it was, “First let me go and bury my father.”  After that, there would be something else, and then something else, and then something else.  There would always something else, taking priority over serving the Lord.

As I said in the children’s sermon, the way to true joy is found in the letters “J-O-Y,” which means making your priorities in life, “Jesus, Others, You.”  But, instead of “J-O-Y,” putting Jesus first in priority, potential disciple #2 had it backwards, “Y-O-J,” putting himself and others above Jesus.

Jesus knows the key that will open the door to this man’s heart: “The man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’”

“Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’  Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”

Jesus sees in the heart of potential disciple #3 that his problem is COMMITMENT.

A very enjoyable part of my work at Concordia University Wisconsin was helping to recruit pre-seminary students for the pastoral ministry.  Many a time I sat around a kitchen table talking with a high school student and his parents. It really surprised me that well over half the time the parents were actually trying to talk their son OUT of becoming a pastor.  They considered it too great a commitment, with relatively less earthly rewards.

Martin Luther’s father sent him off to university to study law, so that his son would make a good living.  He was very upset when Martin switched to theology, and instead of a rich lawyer, became a poor priest and monk.  Even after Luther launched the Reformation and became world famous, his father, to his dying day, was never happy about it.

I started out at St. John’s College in Winfield preparing to become a parochial school teacher.  I myself remember well coming home from college during my freshman year, sitting with my parents around our kitchen table, and telling them that I now felt a calling to become a pastor.  My parents were very faithful and active church members.  Dad would just rotate through being chairman and elder, and all the other positions in the congregation, and then start over again.  All three of my sisters had already become parochial school teachers.  So, I thought they would be thrilled when I told them that I was going to be a pastor.  But, instead, I was quite surprised when my father’s reaction was: “Are you sure you want to be a preacher?  I think that would be really tough.”  But, unlike Luther’s father, my father’s concern wasn’t me earning a living.  That wasn’t why he thought being a preacher would be tough.  “You don’t know how things work in a congregation,” he said.  “Everyone’s always MAD at the preacher, about something.”

I’m very thankful to say I have NOT found that concern of my father true in my ministry.  But, I do know very well the scene that would have played out when potential disciple #3 went back home to say good-by to his family, and Jesus did too.  When this young man announced that he was leaving behind his family, his home, his prospects, everything he had, to follow the famous Rabbi Jesus, they wouldn’t have been excited and proud.  But, like Luther’s father and, to some extent, my own father, would have tried to talk him out of it.

Jesus sees in the heart of potential disciple #3 a lack of commitment, that he will be swayed by his family, and talked out of following him.   Jesus knows the key that will open the door to this man’s heart: “‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’  Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”

Materialism, priorities, commitment.  Jesus could see those were the problems of these three potential disciples, keeping them from true discipleship.  So, he crafts for each of them a little parable, a special key to unlock the doors to their hearts.

Materialism, priorities, commitment.  These “Three Little Parables” also speak to our hearts, for we must confess that we too often have problems with materialism, priorities and commitment, hindering us from true discipleship. 

Our problems with materialism, priorities and commitment are really only symptoms of our underlying spiritual problem: sin.  For the privilege of following him into eternal life, Jesus demands a perfect discipleship that we, because of our sin, could never attain. 

But, the Good News is, Jesus himself was, for you, the perfect, ultimate disciple that he demands.  In your place, on your behalf, he was for you the perfect, ultimate disciple, giving up everything for you, even his life.  As Paul says in Philippians, “He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!”

“For the Son of Man came not be served,” Jesus said, “but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  His own perfect, ultimate discipleship is the ransom that pays for your sin, makes up for your failings, and makes you worthy to follow him into eternal life.