He set his face to go to Jerusalem

Luke 9: 51-62
51"When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" 55But he turned and rebuked them. 56Then they went on to another village.
57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." 59To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." 62Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Here we have the “Purpose Driven” Jesus. Jesus is singled minded, courageous, steely, steadfast and resolved to go to Jerusalem. What does it mean to “set one’s face” to something ? William Willimon writes, Two roads diverged, one led back to Galilee (peace, a haven, safety, a home) and another to Jerusalem (suffering and death). Can you see him hesitating a moment before those divergent roads ? The choices of safety and peril ? He was tempted all the way there. His face, hard set, met inhospitality, rejection and suffering. So what drove him ? What would drive any of us to follow where Jesus calls us ? Could it possibly be love ? Crazy..divine love ? Willimon shares a story told by George Buttrick: Some years ago there was a newspaper account of two men coming down a factory staircase and of one of them flinging the lighted end of a cigarette into what he thought was a fire bucket filled with water. The water proved to be gasoline. There was a sudden spurt of flame. And one youth instinctively, ran dowstairs to save his own skin. The other, just as instinctively ran upstairs to warn the people working in the factory floor above him. Which self takes over in such a time ? The self-preserving downstairs self ? Or the upstairs self ? The Galilee self ? Or the Jerusalem self ? My instinct is like those in the text… “First let me…..then I will follow.” Is this divine, sacrificial love so powerful so as to include me ? Is grace and faith sufficient enough to help me put my hand to the plow and not look back long enough to take the easy way out rather than to face the struggle…the cross ?

Legion - That’s like a whole bunch, isn’t it?

Luke 8:26-39
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me"-- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. " So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

This is one of those texts that has so many possibilities I begin to feel immobilized at the thought of where to go with it. There are so many directions one can follow

- demons - tombs - “opposite Galilee” - bound - legion - healed/in his right mind -
- reject Jesus - “seized with great fear” -

All that, not to mention the pigs, nor, for that matter, what might be most interesting, the man begging to go with Jesus, and Jesus giving him a mission with those very people who had marginalized him. . .
Mary W. Anderson has a real nice sermon on that, titled: “Stay and Follow”
Read that. I can’t top it. http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=645
I wonder if my sense of being overwhelmed by the homiletical task here might mirror the sense of being overwhelmed that we all have in our lives. There are so many choices, so many directions to go. We become caught up in lives of busy-ness, and fail to live the lives we desire, or the lives to which God calls us. The options/possibilities/challenges are legion.
I’m not sure we need to de-mythologize the possession of this unfortunate man all that much.
“What ails you?”
“Where do I begin?” “Legion”
Jesus steps into our lives of quiet desperation, and casts out
- what -
alienation, fear, death and the devil...
Jesus doesn’t stop there.
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. . . “
As Forde liked to say The real question isn't "are you saved?" it is "What are you saved for?" For your neighbor.