The Gospel According to Luke 9:51-10:2 [NLTse]
9:51 As the time drew near for Him to ascend to Heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for His arrival. 53 But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because He was on His way to Jerusalem. 54 When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from Heaven to burn them up?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 So they went on to another village.
57 As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
58 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay His head.”
59 He said to another person, “Come, follow Me.”
The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
60 But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”
61 Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow You, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”
62 But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
10:1 The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places He planned to visit. 2 These were His instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord Who is in charge of the harvest; Ask Him to send more workers into His fields.”
Sermon
I believe the Lord is fulfilling this plea among us today…
Our reading this morning marks a turning point in the Gospel of Luke: From the Lord Jesus’ ministry around the Sea of Galilee to His journey towards Jerusalem. A turning point and a journey that would end in the Lord Jesus’ suffering and death. It was a journey which could have been accomplished in two or three days, yet it seems to have taken Him about five months!
Luke’s and John’s gospels together present a picture of a Jesus with a vast program to fulfill and with only a limited amount of time in which to do it. He was set on making a great appeal to the entire nation before He came to Jerusalem for the last time. So the picture here is the Lord Jesus moving from place to place to place, always surrounded by crowds of people, so that all the country which had not yet heard Him in person (especially the more remote parts of Judaea) might have opportunity to see and know that the Messiah, the Son of God, was in their midst.
A part of Jesus’ itinerary brought Him through Samaritan territory, as Sue Ann read. Luke writes, “He sent messengers ahead…to prepare for His arrival.” And Luke 10:1 goes on from there reporting, “The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places He planned to visit.” Now the assumption is often that these messengers were to prepare accommodations for His arrival, but the words could just as easily mean that that they were to prepare the various townspeople for His arrival.
And I think that that is more likely what Luke had in mind. And as Holy Week and Easter Sunday draw near, I believe that, likewise, the Lord is sending us out to prepare our various friends and neighbors and coworkers for Jesus’ arrival.
Before I go on I’d like to ask you all a question: Who here is here because of someone else in the Sanctuary? I mean, someone else here invited you and so you came and have kept coming? Or you knew that so-and-so came here and so you decided to try it, too, and you’ve kept coming? Or something like that? …
Doesn’t it feel good to know that you’re the reason someone’s come to Christ, or come to enjoy the life in Christ’s church that we have here? … Yeah, me too!
I bring all this up because in American culture, going to church on Easter is something many people do by tradition. It’s a societal norm. The majority of Easter visitors aren’t seeking God, and they’re not looking for a church to join. They’re doing what Americans do on Easter:
1) They give their children presents on Easter morning.
2) They hold an Easter Egg Hunt.
3) They attend church.
4) And they eat a nice meal together as a family.
I don’t say this to judge people, I just say it to describe people. For many Americans, attending church on Easter morning is simply the third item on their list of Easter things to do.
Now, you and I know that these people are sinners and broken and need Christ. All people are sinners and broken and need Christ. So there’s every reason for them to Worship with us on Easter Sunday morning, find Christ here, and want to return! Yet, because they have no intention of returning (because they’re not looking for a church to belong to, they’re just looking for a church for Easter), because they have no intention of returning, if we hope to reach them across Holy Week or Easter Sunday morning we may have to prepare them for Jesus’ arrival.
Now, an important part of preparing them is preparing for them. And I think of when my wife and I invite guests to our home. Amy’s always so good at thinking of ways to make others feel comfortable and thinking of what they might enjoy doing with us while they are over. So when we know they have young children, for instance, we get out our kids old toys and ask our kids if they would look after and entertain them so that their folks – our guests – can relax and enjoy their time with us. Amy’s always careful to find out what people can or cannot, like or don’t like, to eat… And I think of the same thing around here: What might discourage a visitor from returning? And what might encourage someone to do so?
One thing that has already come to my mind is parking. I want to ask all of us, for the next two weeks (because next Sunday is Palm Sunday and then Holy Week and then the next Sunday is Easter) for the next two weeks I want to ask each of us to not park directly in front of the church or in front of the Ann Street doors. Please park across the street in front of The Diner or over in the Wells Fargo lot or farther up or down Ann Street. Let’s save the very best parking spots for visitors for these holy days.
Greeters: I want to encourage you across these next two weeks especially to keep the doors open (if it’s warm enough) or to stand outside the doors, to help people find their way who may be coming for the first time. Of course, we all want to be friendly, but remember that new people want to feel welcome, not accosted!
I want to ask you all to walk around the church buildings – outside and in – asking yourselves, “What might discourage someone from coming back? And what kind of change might encourage them to do so? (You can bring what you’ve noticed to Elder Marilyn Neel or myself, and we hope you’ll also bring your willingness to join us in addressing whatever it might be.)
A second thing we can do to help prepare the people around us for Jesus’ arrival is to pray for them. Have you ever heard that we should talk with Jesus about our friends before we talk with our friends about Jesus? Yeah. I want each of us to write down the names of seven people we hope would come to Christ this Easter. They can be local people or people who live far away: Friends, family members, favorite teachers, coworkers, … (Of course, it would be great if at least some of them were local people so that you could also reach out to them.) But pray for these seven people every day between now and Easter Sunday (at least). Ask God to prepare them for Him. And then invite them to church. (At least those ones who live around here.)
Now, inviting seven people to church can be a lot of people to look out for, so, take advantage of Holy Week and invite one next week to Palm Sunday, a different one to our Maundy Thursday Seder Dinner, a different one to Good Friday night Worship, and a different one to Easter Sunrise or Easter Sunday morning Worship.
It’s a lot of services to attend all in one week. But Holy Week was the most important week on Jesus’ calendar, and it provides us with a richly diverse opportunity to both worship and reach out to those around us!
The Lord Jesus said, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord Who is in charge of the harvest; Ask Him to send more workers into His fields.” We don’t have to be great preachers or evangelists to prepare people for Jesus’ arrival; to help our friends and neighbors know that the Messiah, the Son of God, is in our midst; or, to be the ones who in future years people look back on as the one the Holy Spirit used to bring them to Christ. It can be as simple as inviting those around us to church. Palm Sunday, the celebrations of Holy Week, and Easter provide us with multiple opportunities to do so!