I don’t know if you know, but Jesus was not always a nice guy. In fact, sometimes he appeared to be downright abrasive. It is we who tend to mold and reshape him in our own image and make him into "sweet Jesus," "nice Jesus," or "respectable Jesus." We domesticate him and make him more palatable. Well, not in today’s gospel, and for that matter not on a whole lot of days. For example:

*Remember the time (Matt 12) he was teaching in a house packed with people and someone came to him and said, "Your mother and your brothers are outside and they wish to speak to you!" And he responded tersely saying, "Who are my mother and my brothers anyway? Those who do the will of God are my mother and my brothers!" We are a bit stunned by his response!

*Or that time (Matt 15) he responded to the Canaanite Gentile woman who came pleading for him to cast out a demon that had gripped her young daughter. "Have mercy on me, son of David, my daughter is tormented with a demon!" she cried out. At first he ignored her. And then, when the disciples wanted to send her away, Jesus seemed to agree and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs!" Hey, I know an ethnic slur when I hear one! Again we are shocked at such a response.

In today’s gospel, we see Jesus at it again, this time driving a very hard bargain. He and the disciples were approaching a Samaritan village and some went ahead to make preparations, but the Samaritans would have nothing to do with him. Of course, the offended disciples were ready to call down fire from heaven to consume the insolent Samaritans, but not Jesus. He would have nothing to do with their retribution scheme and he rebuked the disciples.

Immediately following this display of amazing grace toward the Samaritans who had shown him no hospitality, Jesus issued a couple of invitations. To one man he said "Follow Me!" And the man replied, "O.K. but let me first go attend to my father's funeral arrangements. He just died!" Bitingly Jesus replies, "Let the dead bury their own dead!"

Another potential follower said, "Fine I'll follow, but I need to go home and say good-bye to my loved ones, tell them where I am going so they won't worry about me." To this man Jesus said, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God!"

We say, "Holy Cow! How insensitive and unreasonable can you get?

But you see THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT! Jesus often responded to people in ways that shocked and astonished. In our shock we are forced to ask, "What is Jesus all about?"

As I dig in and wrestle with this, what I see Jesus doing is unmasking our most cherished self-deceptions, and we are always offended and defensive when that happens. What Jesus is doing is exposing the places that WE HIDE OUT FROM GOD. Yes, I believe we hide out from God and we are very good at it. You and I hide out from making a clear and firm commitment to Jesus Christ. It’s not that we don’t want to make a commitment to Jesus Christ, but we want to make it on our terms. We want to follow Jesus, but we also want to retain as much control as possible.

And what do we do but often hide out in plain view in respectable places, right under the light!

What could be more respectable that burying your father or saying good-bye to your family? But the point that Jesus is making here is that it so easy to get lured away from our commitment to Jesus Christ, especially by respectable things.

If Jesus would have been around in the flesh last Friday and issued the invitation to follow he might have heard something like, "I will follow you Lord, but first I must go stand in line all day so that I can spend $600 and get one of those new Apple IPhones. You must understand Lord, if I don’t do it today they will be gone, and I might have to wait several weeks or even months to get one." I wonder what Jesus would say to that? Maybe something like, "No one who pauses to their put their finger to a touch-sensitive-screen is fit for the kingdom of God?"

And isn’t that just it! Jesus knew the power of the things of the world and the power of our own desires to consume us; to lure us and ensnare us; to take our attention off of God; to totally screw up our priorities and our sense of what is really important; to compromise our commitment to Jesus Christ. He knew the power that even respectable things and respectable places have, to not only take our focus off of God, but even replace God -- as we elevate these things to the status of God. Oh, we still may pay lip service to Jesus the whole time, but in reality our allegiance is fractured; our commitment is compromised, watered-down and impotent.

There are lots of respectable hiding places, places to which we retreat when faced with the RADICAL CHALLENGE OF FOLLOWING JESUS CHRIST. We pastors are well acquainted with these hiding respectable hiding places, for they are thrust in our faces all the time. People may think we are easily duped, but we are not nearly as naive as many think, and are not as deceived as it may appear. The greatest deception of all is most often self-deception.

There was a painting that hung on the wall for many years, in plain view, in Venice's San Salvador Church. For decades it was considered to be nothing more than a rather poor copy of Vittore Carpaccio's 15^th century painting, "Supper at Emmaus." One day somebody took a closer look and discovered that is was not a poor copy, but the real thing. It's just that there were several layers of over-painting on the surface. A project of restoration was launched, and the relatively worthless copy that hung in plain view for decades is now estimated to carry the value of over $60 million.

I believe that perhaps the SADDEST LIVES are lives spent hiding out from God; hiding out in respectable hiding places... possessed and controlled by the busyness of work... or leisure... or making money... or achieving security... or even nurturing family... and leave God in Christ far down the list, if on the list at all.

Today we hear Jesus calling for a clear and firm commitment; not a half commitment; not a part-time commitment; not a commitment without sacrifice; not a commitment where you retain most the control, but a commitment where the Lord leads and you follow – period!

The first line of the gospel says, "When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem." The Greek word used there, (sterizo) means "to be firmly fixed" or "to be absolutely determined." Jesus knew what was going to happen in Jerusalem. He knew what was in store for him. He knew there was a cross waiting for him with his name on it, BUT HE KEPT GOING ANYWAY – WITH DETERMINATION – FIRMLY FIXED. Nothing was going to deter him – certainly not the disciples thirst for retribution for their feelings being hurt by a few Samaritans. Jesus was on a mission of mercy, THE GREATEST MISSION OF MERCY EVER - and it wasn’t sweet, it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t nice. It was going to be bloody, messy, disgusting and filled with suffering and death – the death of a cross.

His mission of mercy was for those Samaritans who rejected him, and for you and me who have rejected him with our half-hearted and compromised commitments, and a world that rejects him everyday! He died for you - he rose for you. He's given you the eternal gift of his love - God has made you his highest priority - there's nothing more important to God than you!

As God has put you first, he desires for you to put Christ FIRST in your life, not in order to spoil your fun or dominate you in an oppressive way, but to set you free from needing to hide out in plain view; set you free from your own self-deception; set his love into motion in your life, and in so setting empower your most authentic self to emerge and explode in the world, on fire with a passion for the same mission he was on.

He calls us to follow him, without compromise, to be disciples whose hearts are on fire, who have no fear, who speak the truth in love no matter what the consequences, who are willing to follow Jesus wherever he leads. He calls us to be filled with passion and gratitude, to be people who are simply unable to get over the amazing grace of God?