Sermon - Midweek Lenten Worship - March 7, 2007

Text - Luke 13:31-35

The Road of Danger

The Rev. Greg Busboom, Trinity Lutheran Church, Carthage

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

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

“Get away from here,” warn the Pharisees, “for Herod wants to kill you” (13:31). It would have been so much easier for Jesus just to listen to them. So much safer. So much cleaner. So much less required. No suffering. No cross. No death. How much easier it would have been for Jesus to run and to avoid God’s will for him. How much easier to take the well-traveled road of safety and security. However, Jesus never was one for doing that which was easy or popular. No, Jesus is much too faithful, much too obedient, much too in tune with God’s will for him to run away and so instead he challenges Herod to bring it on, saying to the Pharisees, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem’” (13:32-33). Instead of running away, Jesus seems to run to the danger that awaited him in Jerusalem, knowing all too well what would be required of him there. Instead of choosing the road of safety and security, Jesus chooses the road of danger, a road that requires boldness rather than timidity, a road that promises risks rather than sure bets, a road that leads straight to the cross!

Jesus is not alone in his calling to choose the road of danger over and above the road of safety and security. We, too, Jesus’ disciples in the world, are called to follow him down that same dangerous road. “If any want to become my followers,” teaches Jesus, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (9:23-24). The road of Christian discipleship is the road of danger, a road that requires us to daily lay down our own needs and desires to take up the cross of Christ, the cross of suffering love poured out on behalf of the poor, the weak, the innocent, the oppressed. How much easier it is for us, both as individuals and as congregations, to choose the road of self-serving rather than the road of self-sacrifice. How much easier it is for us to choose the road of playing it safe rather than the road of taking risks for God’s kingdom. How much easier it is for us to stay right where we are rather than going where God wants us to go. And yet, to choose the easier road is to deny Christ and thus to lose our life. However, to choose the road of Christian discipleship, though a dangerous road paved with many trials and challenges along the way, is to choose the road that ultimately leads us to life.

The story is told of two seeds that lay side by side in the warm, fertile spring soil. The first seed said to the other, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil and drink in all that life has to offer. I want to thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust and reach toward the sky. I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners that announce the arrival of spring. I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the cool of the evening’s dew on my petals!” And so, the first seed grew!

The second seed, however, said, “I am afraid. If I send my roots into the dark unknown, there is no telling what I might encounter. If I push through the hard soil, I might well find that the world is hostile and scary. And what if a cut worm devours my tender shoots? What then? Perhaps the sun will be scorching rather than inviting. No, it is much better that I remain here where it is safe.” And so, the second seed waited. All seemed fine until one day a hen was scratching around the yard and saw the tiny seed that chose not to grow. The chicken promptly ate the seed.

How tempting it is for us Christians to, like that second seed, choose the road that appears to hold the least amount of risk. How tempting it must have been for Jesus. And yet, as the story well illustrates, such is not the road that leads to growth and life, neither for our lives as individual disciples nor for our life together as a congregation. In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches with words that echo words we’ve already heard him speak in Luke, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also” (12:24-26). Jesus chose the road of danger, the road of the cross. If we are to follow him, not just in his dying, but also in his rising to new life, we, his disciples, must do the same. Which road will you choose? Will you risk going to Jerusalem?

God’s Peace