Come and Die

Thirteenth Ordinary Sunday Year C

One of the preliminary questions posed during the rite of marriage is this: “Are you ready, freely and without reservation, to give yourselves to each other in marriage?” The couples usually have no problems answering this question in the affirmative, but I doubt whether they fully understand the enormity of the demand made of them – that this irrevocable promise is unconditional (without reservation). I think the best analogy which could be used to stress the weight of this promise is to liken it to the couple volunteering to join a cruise on the Titanic. There’s no turning back. There are no life boats. There is no emergency reset button. You either sink, swim or drown together. That’s what it means to have no reservations, no regrets!

Most people would consider this example as hyperbole. No one really expects you to ‘burn your bridges.’ In fact, "not burning your bridges!" is often a piece of advice given to people who are going through major changes and significant moves in their life. Caution demands a tentative commitment - we need to have an ‘insurance policy’, a ‘Plan B’, just in case things don’t work out. It’s playing it safe and having a fallback. And that is often good advice when it comes to most matters. Whether you’re talking about employment, family, or money, the old adage applies. Don’t burn all your bridges. Keep your options open.

But, conventional wisdom is turned on its head when it comes to Christian discipleship. Those who are called by God, are often asked to burn their bridges. They are not called to do the safe thing; they are called to do the risky thing. There is no retreat. It’s taking the “leap of faith.” Following Jesus is like skydiving. Once you make the jump, you are totally committed! Those who are called by God are not called to do the easy, safe thing. They are called to burn their bridges. They are called to board the Titanic with their Master whom they have decided to follow. And it won’t sound as nice as Celine Dion’s classic song: “My heart will go on!”

And sometimes that feels more like judgment than Salvation. The first reading is about the call of Elisha to succeed Elijah as God’s prophet. God told Elijah to anoint Elisha as the next prophet of Israel. So Elijah found Elisha in the field, ploughing. Elijah then placed his cloak upon Elisha as a symbol that God had chosen Elisha to be Elijah’s successor. Elisha knew exactly what this meant. It meant that he would have to leave his job, his family and his friends to follow Elijah. And so, Elisha asked if he could perform a symbolic action of cutting off his connexion to the past by bidding farewell to his parents. Elijah agreed. But, Elisha did more than just say goodbye to his family. He had a barbeque for the whole community. He slaughters his oxen and uses his plough to fuel the fire. The cost of discipleship was high for Elisha. This was not just a meal. It was a symbolic way of accepting God’s call. He literally burned his bridges; he burned his only means of making a living in order to move on to a new way of life. It was a costly and risky thing to do. There is no going back for Elisha.

If you believe that this demand made of Elisha was severe, wait till you hear what the Lord does in today’s Gospel. A far greater demand is made for those who wish to be Christ’s followers – they have to risk homelessness and be deprived of family support. Our Lord had earlier outlined the meaning of discipleship. If anyone wanted to follow Jesus on the Way, our Lord wanted to make the consequences clear. They would have to take up their cross. They would have to share the sacrifice as well as the glory. Discipleship has a high price tag. When the disciples of Jesus take up the mantle of faith, they also take up a cross. The cross and the resurrection are always within the vision of Jesus. He knows what He faces, and He knows that anyone who goes with Him, must be totally committed. They too must be prepared to face the same odds. He will be rejected and His followers will be rejected as well. There is a foreshadowing of this rejection in today’s Gospel – Jesus is rejected by the Samaritans, as He will be rejected by the chief priests, the elders and religious leaders at Jerusalem.

It is not only the fear of what lies ahead that serves as an obstacle to us following Christ. The Gospel now focuses on what lies in the past, that hinders us from making this radical step of committing to discipleship. It boils down to the question: what are you prepared to give up? Is it our time, our income, our security? Is it our fear of commitment? Is it our fear of rejection by others or objection from our loved ones? The call of God overwhelms and overshadows everything else in the lives of Christian disciples. God’s call takes precedence not only over the worst things in our life but also, it takes precedence over even the best things in our life. Even life’s most important duties are nullified by the call to follow Christ.

Most of us dread that moment. We think that it would be better to have a faith that does not require so much of us. We think that it would be better to have a faith that allows us to remain comfortably entrenched in our old way of life. We would prefer a soft version of the Gospel. The Lord tells us this is not possible. He says that if we put our hand to the plough and then look back, we are not fit for the kingdom of God. When one is ploughing, it is always important to keep a fixed point that is far ahead of you in your sight. In this way, you are able to plough a straight furrow. The words of Jesus are another way of saying that disciples must always keep their eyes fixed on Him. As Pope Benedict reminded us in his first encyclical, God is Love, "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” Jesus is our new horizon, our destination.

And like Him we are encouraged to look beyond the shame and frustration of the moment, to the eternal hope of the Resurrection and Salvation. Remember the road to Jerusalem is not only about a crucifixion but also a resurrection. That was true for Jesus, and it is true for us as well.

The call of discipleship is often stark, demanding, and uncomfortable. Going with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem is always dangerous. Going with Jesus will change us and change is always painful and frightening. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran theologian who gave up a safe asylum to teach in New York in order to return to his homeland to be imprisoned and executed once said, that when Jesus calls us to follow Him, what He's really saying is "come and die". And yet, despite the challenge, it is a journey worth taking. St Paul reminds us in his letter to the Galatians, that the call of Jesus is a call to liberty – Jesus by calling us to “come and die”, means to set us free from the “yoke of slavery” to sin, to liberate us from our addictive ‘self-indulgence.’ It is only through the long and difficult personal struggle to follow Jesus that we learn this paradoxical truth: “For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.” To follow Jesus means that we have to burn our bridges – no turning back, no turning back.