The latest Sermon

“To Jerusalem or to Galilee?”

By Pastor Dean Byrom 

As the old King James’ translation puts today’s Gospel: “And it came to pass when the time was come that He should be received up. He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” 

Jesus turned. He went to Jerusalem when He could have gone to Galilee. These are places on a map; they are also places in our souls. Jesus came from Galilee, a place of simple, rural people, home and safety. He spent most of earthly life there without attracting much of the world’s notice. 

The name “Jerusalem” means “peace”, but it did not mean that for Jesus. It was a seething cauldron of blood and death. Galilee meant peace, a haven, home. Jerusalem meant a stormy darkness. 

But He steadfastly set His face. The Greek idiom in the Gospel is “He made His face into hard flint to go to Jerusalem”. Let us look together this morning at that hard-set face.  

If we look carefully at His face, we see there the deep marks of struggle. Don’t think that Jesus was done with temptation in Luke 4 when He came back from the wilderness. He was tempted all the way to the end.  

Two roads diverged - one led back to Galilee, to home and safety; another to Jerusalem and suffering and betrayal. 

Imagine if you had to make that choice. Out there, beyond the green fields, is Nazareth, a quaint village not far from the little Sea of Galilee. (It’s hardly a sea - only 11 miles long}. Surely at Galilee there were plenty of people in need, bodies to be healed, God’s word to be taught, and little children to be blessed. Settle in, settle down in Galilee. But Jesus set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem.  

“Mark” says that when Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem, His disciples “were amazed”. They sensed what awaited Him there. 

Stay out here with the good country people; let the city fend for itself! When Jesus set off, up toward Jerusalem, His friends were said to be “afraid” - afraid for Him, afraid for themselves - what with all those milling, thronging crowds in Jerusalem, whipped up into rebellious frenzy by the coming of the Passover Festival. 

Just a little spark, a too passionate sermon, a wrong word here or there, and the whole thing would burst into conflagration. He set His face toward Jerusalem and His followers were afraid. 

There are two words that we almost never put in close proximity: struggle and spirituality. Spirituality is what you feel when you are at peace. 

“I’m trying to engage in spirituality, to become more centered,” one might say. Yes, that’s the function of faith, to be more centered, more stable. Coming to church - this place, the music, the liturgy help us to settle down and be at peace. 

“Luke” contends that it was not so with Jesus. In Galilee there was time for quiet walks along the lane and for meditations delivered under an olive tree. When He got to Jerusalem He flipped over the tables in the Temple. He prayed with great drops of sweat like blood and with white knuckles in Gethsemane. The word is struggle. 

Jesus didn’t want to go; He had to go. He thereby embodied a virtue not much in fashion among us: obedience.  

I see His hesitating a moment before those road signs pointing in opposite directions - one back to the safety of Galilee, another to the peril of Jerusalem. And then He prayed, “Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done.” 

So now the word is obedience. Whether Jesus knew that He would be killed in Jerusalem, I’m not sure. His disciples clearly thought that it would end that way.  

He just said, “The time is fulfilled.” 

There’s a clear difference between time up in Galilee in the slow pace of agricultural rhythms and time in Jerusalem, the big hustle and bustle, pushing and shoving, city. He set His head down and charged the line, as it were. He gritted His teeth, not in resignation to the mysterious will of God, but in obedience to His Father. The word is obedience. 

No wonder His followers were amazed, or afraid, to have their tomorrows out of their controlling hands and into God’s hands. “Thy will be done on earth.” 

And it was about then, before the week was done in Jerusalem, that another word broke in upon them, opening up struggle and obedience. That word is love.

The greatest sacrifices, the largest risks, the most audacious ventures are undertaken only in the name of love. 

We’ll never explain Jesus’ setting His face toward Jerusalem and His massive sacrifice, unless we use that word, love. 

George Buttrick told this story: Some years ago there was a newspaper account of two men coming down a factory staircase and of one of them flinging the lighted end of a cigarette into what he thought was a fire bucket filled with water. The liquid proved to be gasoline. There was a sudden spurt of flame. 

And one man, instinctively, ran downstairs to save his skin. The other, just as instinctively, ran upstairs to warn the people in the factory floor above them. 

Which self takes over in such a time? The downstairs self? Or the upstairs self? The Galilee self? Or the Jerusalem self? 

When love goes to its deepest level, it tends to become sacrificial. Love is the deepest love when it is given away in behalf of others. Jesus went to Jerusalem, into the breach, into the fray, for love. 

So for you and me, this morning, there are two roads, one north to Galilee, one south to Jerusalem. I know that in God’s goodness, God grants us year after year in quiet Galilee. I also know that in God’s love, God grants us those pivotal turning points when the path diverges, and we are confronted with the possibility of an easy way out - or a time of struggle, obedience and sacrifice. 

Could it be that beginning a time of ministry with Rev. Rebecca DePoe is such an opportunity for such a choice for Coraopolis United Presbyterian Church? 

May God bless you as you choose!