TITLE: LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING
SCRIPTURE: ST. LUKE 14:25-33
I want to lift up this morning as a thought – Look Ways Before Crossing. This has always been sound advice. Matter of fact it is one of the earliest recollections of instructions that I have as a child. I can recall hearing the instructions to Look Ways Before Crossing. The advice was drilled into me and my siblings as children, it was repeated to us over and over again. I must admit that it is some of the soundest advice I ever received. This same advice was been repeated down through the generations.
• Much advice given has changed over the years
• Much advice changes with culture and with time
• But this particular advice is a Constant
• This advice has always remained the same
Although the advice is sound, we did not always take it to heart. Children riding bicycles – Skateboards – Crossing the Street – did not take heed and landed themselves in Crisis, or near disaster. Even driving our automobiles we have not always taken heed. We did not look both ways before pulling into traffic and landed our vehicle in the body shop. Simply because we did not heed to that age old advise Look Ways Before Crossing.
Sometimes those lapses in concentration span years or decades. I recall a conversation I had some years ago with a Minister friend of mine as he was sharing with me the many health challenges he was experiencing. He was always a relatively BIG GUY. His body was beginning to break down on him and his health was failing. He mentioned his regret for being TOO SEDENTARY and CARELESS with his food choices, the weight had crept up over the years exposing him to- HEART PROBLEMS – HIGH CHOLESTEROL - DIABETES. He admitted that he had been lax in looking after himself. HE HADN’T Look Ways Before Crossing.
Sometimes our ATTENTION BECOMES SO FOCUSED IN ONE DIRECTION that we fail to acknowledge other realities. The sharp hike in OIL PRICES has focused the attention of anyone who uses energy, and that would be all of us.
• We have known for years now that oil is a non-renewal resource
• Yet over the years no serious steps have been taken by anyone to anticipate the day that has now arrived
• We will continue to pay exuberant prices at the pump
• While no real research being done to help the consumer
• A failure to look both ways
In our text this morning we find the importance of Look Ways Before Crossing. We find the disciples caught in dialogue with Jesus, they are receiving STRONG and SOUND Words of Counsel. We consider the disciples to be FAITHFUL and ADAPTIVE men who followed the Lord. The gospels tell us that these were men who essentially DROPPED EVERYTHING they were doing to follow Jesus.
• From the time we were children in Sunday school the twelve disciples have been portrayed as heroes to be emulated
• From the time we began to read the Bible for ourselves, the disciples were Heroes of the Faith
• The Disciples took Jesus’ call very seriously
• Fact of the matter is they are deserving of our respect
• But they were not perfect
• A fact that was most consistently demonstrated in one basic area
• Their eyes were in most instances set on glory
• Even as the eyes of the Lord were set on the cross
The message and words of Jesus were always on Point and Clear, however; the disciples did not want to hear it – Look Ways Before Crossing.
• In their minds’ eye they saw opportunity
• The coveted prize of sitting at the Lord’s right hand and his left in glory
• The disciples had convinced themselves that they would stand in the first rank at the awards banquet in heaven
• They had aspirations for themselves
• But those aspirations in very important ways didn’t align with the Lord’s
• They failed to Look Ways Before Crossing
I remember in the early 1970’s we were stationed in Panama, I was just a kid then. There were some boys in my class who were in the Cub Scouts. Looked cool in their blue uniforms with yellow scarf and different patches. I wanted to be a Cub Scout too. Mom made the proper contacts and I became a boy scout had my little outfit with the short pants, Panama warm climate - had my scarf thought I looked pretty cool.
• Then I found out we had to go camping
• Then I found out we had to go to the woods
• Then I found out we had to be outside to bird watch
• Needless to say my Boy Scout career was very short lived
• I liked the comfort of the house with the air conditioner on
• If I have to be away from home, that’s why they made Hotels
• I liked keeping my hands clean, preferably indoors
• Give me a good book to read, not birds to watch
• I didn’t LBWBC
I did not realize what I was getting into. It was more than just the Cub Scout Uniforms. Duties and responsibilities came along with it. I enjoyed the meetings when the Scout mothers provided all the COOKIES, CUPCAKES, and JUICE. I enjoyed the various meetings held in the fellowship hall of the local Chapel. I enjoyed reciting the Cub Scout Pledge. I enjoyed being with my friends when we were all in our uniforms. But I did not consider the whole picture before desiring to join. Nothing at all wrong the Cub Scouts, it is a great organization that is so needful in the life of our boys, however; I did not Look Ways Before Crossing.
A basic caution it may be, but “LOOK BOTH WAYS” is the kind of advice that is easily forgotten when EGO NEEDS OVERCOME PRUDENCE.
• It is only human, after all, to focus on the positive
• To commit to personally rewarding ambitions and projects
• That, of course, pertains to the decisions we make both as individuals, and those made in collectives such as businesses, governments, or churches
• We have the tendency to look only in one direction – what’s in it for me
• We look in one direction – how will it make me look
• We look in one direction – will others view me with esteem
Have you looked both ways? The challenge issued from Jesus repeatedly. “Have you looked both ways?” “Are you really ready to follow me?” During Jesus’ earthly ministry all sorts of questions swirled around him concerning his Identity. Who was this guy, anyway? Some, particularly those in authority positions in the synagogue or the Roman occupying forces that ruled in Palestine, regarded Jesus as a THREAT TO BOTH RELIGIOUS AND DOMESTIC ORDER.
• The synagogue leaders were wary of him
• He was a peasant outsider - not one of them
• Claiming to be prophets - others like him had come and gone
• In the end they always tripped up
• Wait long enough and this so-called prophet would do the same
• They come in and build mega-churches - eventually they fall
• They come in starting their own ministries - eventually they get caught up in self
• They come in and their churches start to grow – eventually fall by the wayside
The ROMANS and the JEWISH AUTHORITY viewed Jesus in one particular light. Discounting any claims that He, or persons speaking on his behalf, might make concerning his authority as a religious leader, the Romans and the Jewish leaders scoffed at any idea that he might be DIVINE. Jesus was a possible troublemaker who bore watching. ANOTHER GROUP TOOK ANOTHER VIEW. It was among this latter group that speculation spread that Jesus might be the long-anticipated Messiah, heir of King David, who would usher in God’s kingdom on earth.
TROUBLE MAKER OR DIVINE HERALD of God’s kingdom -- allegiance to each position grew as Jesus’ reputation grew. In time, Jesus, aware of the differing opinions circulating about him, confronted his disciples, “WHO DO MEN SAY THAT I THE SON OF MAN AM?” The disciples could of course, tell Jesus very little that he already didn’t know. Opinions were all over the map.
• Some say you are John the Baptist
• Some say that you are Elijah
• Some say that you are Jeremiah
• Same say you are one of the Prophets
• Even the men who daily traveled with him and saw him in action were of a divided mind
WHEN THE SUBJECT IS JESUS, YOU BEST BE ADVISED TO LOOK BOTH WAYS.
• The church states that Jesus is Human
• The church states that Jesus is Divine
• Yet the specific question of how both natures can co-exist within a single person has been, and remains, a question with which the church has grappled literally from the first century
Though a divine mystery incapable of being fully explained, we Christians believe on the basis of the biblical revelation that what God has revealed in his incarnate son is the most complete revelation of who God is. At the same time the revelation often challenges us to set aside our pet notions of who God is and what God expects of us. The revelation, in other words, challenges us to - Look Ways Before Crossing.
TROUBLE MAKER OR SON OF GOD - the community was split. If we found our self numbered with those who viewed Jesus as the Son of God we would be one of those people who believed that Jesus was a WALKING – TALKING – EMBODIMENT OF GOD. Suppose now that JESUS THREW YOU A CURVE. That, of course, is exactly what Jesus did in this Scripture text for examination.
This is really RADICAL STUFF that Jesus throws at the disciples in our text - “IF ANY MAN COME TO ME, AND HATE NOT HIS FATHER, AND MOTHER, AND WIFE AND CHILDREN, AND BRETHREN, AND SISTERS, YEA, AND HIS OWN LIFE ALSO, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.”
• These words have challenged interpreters for eons
• What does that mean to hate
• I thought Jesus said we are to Love one another?
• That word “hate” presents us with a real interpretative challenge
• Through a challenge softened somewhat if we define hate to mean, as many commentators do, “being willing to live without”
WHAT AM I WILLING TO LIVE WITHOUT? I have found myself asking that question more frequently in the last few weeks. Perhaps it’s a product of reaching a certain age and realizing, I am not a Young Man well past being considered young and have an AARP card to prove it.
• I have found myself asking serious questions about the choices I have made
• I have found myself asking serious questions about the choices left to be made
• I hear Jesus in the gospel calling me to make certain choices, choices that will bring my life more perfectly into alignment with His
• But is that what I really want?
• Is there enough in what he offers to persuade me to live without some other things to which I have grown attached?
• That is my ongoing struggle, and perhaps the same holds for you
• Am I willing to Look Ways Before Crossing?
• Am I willing to stop going to places I am accustomed?
• Am I willing to let some people go that should not be there?
• Am I willing to make Christ the first priority in my life?
I would venture to say that all of us have experienced some type of STRUGGLES along life’s journey. The DISCIPLES who lived with Jesus STRUGGLED. The disciples struggled right up to the time of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. Did they really want what Jesus was offering? Judging from the fact that they abandoned him when his need was greatest, you would have to say that they really didn’t want what Jesus was offering, not, at least, if it meant SUFFERING. Suffering was no less difficult for Jesus’ disciples then it is for us. They were only human. And we are only human.
I don’t know about you but I marvel that God continues to come back to us even when we look for fulfillment in all the wrong places.
• We press those around us to make a decision to follow Christ
• Christ is asking us to make a decision for Him
• Yet, He knows enough about our human heart and our human nature to know that any decision we make concerning Him can be very Provisional
• There are some in the church who preach for decision
• Salvation is the reward offered to those who decide for Christ
• Damnation to those who fail to make that decision
• Neat and Tidy - In or Out
Life, of course is not neat and tidy, and the decisions we make are not neat and tidy, and yet Jesus keeps coming back to us. Not pushing us to make some FINAL – DECISIVE DECISION to follow him. While Jesus was with his own disciples they never made a final decision to follow him, yet by the GRACE of God you would have to say that they did a lot of things right, though it took them much trial and error before they got things right.
• They pledged their love and commitment
• They said they would never leave Him
• They said they would fid to the end for Him
• But when the Soldiers came
• When Jesus was carried from Judgment Hall to Judgment Hall
• When the crowds cried Crucify Him
• Look Ways Before Crossing
Jesus isn’t asking more from us than we are capable of giving. Not, “DECIDE RIGHT NOW OR BE DAMNED!” What He is asking is for us to make a start, to cultivate habits that will help us experience his gospel with greater clarity.
• Truth be told most of us when we gave our life to Christ continue to stumble along the way
• Truth be told most of us when we gave our life to Christ we did not completely sell out
• Some have been saved a long time and we still struggle with contrary issues
• Some have been saved a long time and still fight with our personal demons
• Some have come up and down the isles of the Church week after week still waiting for a breakthrough
• Lord is simply saying Look Ways Before Crossing
I want to leave you with this simple message this morning – Look Ways Before Crossing
--If you are only an occasional worshiper, make it less occasional
--If you are occasional in prayer, make it less occasional
--If you are occasional in the Bible, find it, read it - Start with the gospels
--If you are occasional in sharing your time and talents with the church, try a new approach
--If you have questions, ask them
--If you have doubts, challenge them
-- Look Ways Before Crossing
--I have had to challenge myself as to where I have been looking for answers
--Where have I really been looking and seeking answers
--We may have failed along the way
--We may have let the saints down here and there
--But the Lord continues to say, Follow Me
--We will be challenged on many occasions and on many different levels
--But the Lord continues to say, Follow Me
--God’s Grace is Sufficient for Each and Every one of Us
