Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 26, 2022: I will follow you wherever you go...

I will follow you wherever you go…

What must we do to follow the Lord?

    When, in the First Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah is told by God that he must anoint Elisha as prophet to succeed him, Elijah sets out immediately and, finding Elisha in a field, throws his cloak over him, investing Elisha with power and authority, as God had requested. In recognition of his kinship responsibilities, Elisha states, please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you. Burning his own plowing equipment to cook a meal of his oxen, Elisha knows he has experienced God’s call and there’s no turning back now. You are my inheritance, O Lord, Psalm 16 proclaims. Elisha recognizes God’s call and gives up everything to embrace the future God offers. 

    As Jesus begins his journey to Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel, he is not alone: his disciples walk alongside him. When one claims, I will follow you wherever you go, Jesus’ responds: Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head. On this final journey, Jesus has no shelter, no place of comfort or security, and his followers should not expect the journey to be comfortable, either. Discipleship is not about a place but a way of being, a means to finding one’s home in the good news of Jesus Christ. As such, discipleship must come from the heart. 

    Then, in a gesture reminiscent of Elijah, Jesus invites one of his entourage, Follow me, but this time, when the man asks, Lord, let me go first and bury my father, Jesus’ response seems odd: Let the dead bury their dead. If you’re going to be a disciple, in other words, you have to be all in: it’s time to proclaim the kingdom, here and now, and that kingdom is very much alive. We can’t look to what is left behind, at what we might be losing; if we are to follow Jesus, we must look forward to what will be, and be defined by his cross. 

    As Paul tells the Galatians, For freedom Christ set us free. Through his death and rising, Jesus freed us from Mosaic law, that we might follow him and his law of love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, Paul continues: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. To be a follower of Christ is to know the depth of his love for us and to be changed by it; we must thus live by the Spirit, serving one another through love. Once we recognize this, there’s no turning back – we have to be all in! 

This post is based on OLMC’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com