13th Sunday C

13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Readings: 1 Kings 19:16,19‑21  Galatians 5:1,13‑18 

 Luke 9:51‑62

As we settle into the more leisurely routine of summer, today's readings shock us by their blunt demands that we break from the ways of the world in responding to God's call to follow Jesus.  "You are my inheritance, O Lord" (Ps 16).  Only those who can pray the words of today's psalm response are capable of the radical commitment of Christian discipleship.

In the first reading from 1 Kings, the great prophet Elijah calls Elisha, the son of Shaphat, to succeed him in a prophetic ministry which will demand a fearless commitment to fighting against pagan influences in Israel (see 1 Kings 17‑19).   The encounter between the two emphasizes Elisha’s willingness to break from his past life and to embrace his mission.  As frequently occurs in the Bible, Elisha is called out of his ordinary life.   He is plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, the mark of an extremely wealthy family.  Despite his comfortable station, Elisha responds with exemplary eagerness, when invested with Elijah's mantle.  The story tells us that he "left the oxen" and "ran after Elijah."  Although Elisha does ask to bid farewell to his family, his slaughtering of the farm equipment and yoke of oxen represents a complete break with the past and a total surrender to God's will.   Neither wealth nor family ties can keep Elisha from following Elijah and becoming his attendant. 

In the second reading Paul is clarifying for his Galatian converts what he means by Christian freedom.  On the one hand, Christians are "freed" from "the yoke of slavery" represented by adherence to the Mosaic Law as a way of salvation.  But on the other hand, Christians are not called to "a freedom which gives free rein to the flesh," i.e. "fornication, impurity,  licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,  anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness,  carousing, and the like" (see 5:19‑21).   Christian freedom is a gift of God's "Spirit" which calls us to serve one another in love and thus to fulfill the purpose of the law.  In the end, this is both more demanding and paradoxically more liberating than submission to a legal code.  Paul reduces the whole of Christian ethics to the following exhortation: “Out of love, place yourselves at one another's service. The whole law has found its fulfillment in this one saying: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  

This Sunday's Gospel begins Luke's unique account of Jesus' long journey to Jerusalem (9:51‑19:17).  Jesus' fateful trek begins in a solemn way; Luke introduces the section with the portentous phrase, "As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken from this world, he firmly resolved to proceed toward Jerusalem . . ." (9:51).  For Luke, Jesus is beginning his "exodus," his divinely prescribed fate to go to Jerusalem to suffer but also enter his glory by being "taken" into heaven (see Luke 24).  In the course of his journey, Jesus will teach his would be disciples the requirements of "following" him.

The radical demands of being a follower of Jesus are evident in the opening incidents of the journey.  Jesus is not received by a Samaritan village which provokes James and John to request, “Lord, would you not have us call down fire from heaven to destroy them.”  Unlike the prophet Elijah who did call down fire to destroy his enemies (see 2 Kings 1), Jesus lives out his own teaching on love of the enemy (see Lk 6:27‑36) by reprimanding his vengeful disciples and moving on to another town.  

Three subsequent encounters with would be followers provide Jesus with the opportunity to give proverbs about the cost of discipleship.  First of all, the disciples must be willing to abandon their earthly homes, like Elisha in the first reading. "The foxes have lairs, the birds of the sky nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Jesus' followers also cannot delay the call of the kingdom by waiting to be free of normal family obligations.  The man who wants to wait for his father to die before following Jesus receives the challenge: "Let the dead bury their dead; come away and proclaim the kingdom." The final encounter is a direct contrast to Elijah's call of Elisha in the first reading.  To the man who wants to take leave of his family at home Jesus says, "Whoever puts his hand to the plow but keeps looking back is unfit for the reign of God." Each of these proverbs should be heard as a call, rather than a reproach.  Jesus, who is "firmly resolved to proceed toward Jerusalem" where he will meet suffering and death but also enter his glory, is the model for the disciple's commitment.