The Road to Jerusalem

If Jesus has seemed more pointed, more demanding or even more somber over the past few Sundays, we must remember that we have reached the section of Luke's gospel in which Jesus has "set his face toward Jerusalem." Jerusalem and Jesus' imminent death there cast a shadow over all Jesus' words and deeds. He is well aware of what will happen at the end of this road, and he wants his disciples to be aware of it as well. Like the man building the tower or the king who set out to face his enemy, they must be aware of and prepared for the cost of following him.

Jesus understood - and we must understand - that even though his cross was something he would have to shoulder alone, even to the point of feeling abandoned by God, his disciples, if they were to grab hold of the salvation it offered, would have to themselves have some share in that suffering. And the first step on that journey is dropping everything else and everyone else.

Jesus' words in this weekend's gospel (Lk 14: 25-33) are so strong that they often bounce off us without much of a reaction. There seems to be no practical way of applying them to our life. Jesus cannot mean that we must turn our back on our father and mother whom we are commanded by God to honor. Even worse, it would be a scandal to abandon our spouses and our children!

But, if we were to look honestly at our lives in the light of Jesus' words, there is a truth we must recognize.

Our family may not always be around. Our parents will eventually die. We had a life before knowing our spouse, and it may happen that we will eventually lose our spouse. And our children will eventually grow up and move away.

No matter how many people we live with and no matter how many people are around us, we are ultimately alone.

The only relationship we can never lose is the one we have with Jesus. Though it seems the least tangible of our relationships, it is the most real. Any other relationship only has meaning if it deepens our relationship to him.

Jesus is challenging his listeners - us - to understand the cost of following him. We were created by God to follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to take up our Cross and join our suffering to Jesus' suffering so we can also rejoice in his victory over sin and death. That is the meaning of our lives. And everything else and everyone else in our lives has value in as much as they help us on that journey.

Once we grasp this, we don't become less attentive fathers, less loving mothers, dead beat husbands or distracted wives. When we order our relationships along the lines of Jesus' call to follow him, those relationships actually take on deeper meaning. When I see my marriage as a gift, I no longer take my spouse for granted. When I see my children as a mission, I no longer try to live vicariously through them. And instead of blaming my parents for all the dysfunction in my life, I am grateful that they did their best to give me all I have.

There is no getting around it. If Jesus is our Creator made flesh and our Redeemer perfected in suffering, then we must follow him despite the cost. Each of us will live Jesus' words in a different way. But the road will lead to the same place -- to Jerusalem, the city of God and the place of our salvation.