Follow the yellow brick road! Name the movie (The Wizard of Oz). Can someone tell me what the great journey was in that story? Where’d they start and where’d they stop? (Might say: Started in Munchkin Land followed the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City) We can tend to forget that getting to Emerald City was just the beginning. Emerald City isn’t the destination—Home is; Kansas is. The Yellow Brick Road isn’t the last lap; it’s just the warm-up. The real journey is wherever Dorothy goes after she gets to Emerald City.
Today’s lesson from the Gospel of Luke tells one small part of a much larger story. We can call it On the Road to Jerusalem. And, just so we all remember, what’s waiting for Jesus in Jerusalem? (Point to the crosses) This story begins four chapters earlier at Luke 9, when Jesus (after his Transfiguration) “Resolutely turns towards Jerusalem.” It ends 10 chapters later in Luke 19 when Jesus humbly rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.
So here we are today, almost exactly halfway through this 10-chapter story Luke tells within the larger Gospel.
And it’s the perfect time to talk Greek. Last week, Scott introduced us to the Greek word for “Departure.” Does anyone remember? (Exodus) Exodus is a significant term in our Faith history, isn’t it? The Hebrew nation, God’s chosen people, was led on an exodus out of death and slavery in Egypt. But, just like Dorothy’s Yellow Brick Road, we shouldn’t pretend the first leg of the journey was the most important. It was good for the Hebrews to be taken out of Egypt, but their great desire was to eventually be taken into the Promised Land—Canaan—the land of milk and honey.
In chapter 9, when this story starts, Jesus begins an Exodus. He is going to Jerusalem, but that’s just his Yellow Brick Road.
So what’s the next leg? That’s what we should be asking ourselves. For Dorothy, the real trip was getting home to Kansas; the Brick Road was just a step along the way. For the Hebrews, the real journey was going from the Wilderness into Canaan; coming out of Egypt was just the first step.
For Jesus, the real journey might be the short road to the Cross after the long journey to Jerusalem. Or, in Luke’s mind, the real journey could be the spread of God’s Word throughout the World after the event at the cross.
What about us? What’s our journey? The season of Lent is traditionally the time to think about our journey and how we are walking with Jesus. During the last two Wednesdays, we’ve talked about the three disciplines of the Christian life—Prayer, Fasting, and Giving. We’ve discussed the importance of regular practice; if we want prayer to be a powerful presence in our life, well—we’ve got to pray and pray and pray. You can’t go down one run at Alyeska and book your ticket for the next winter Olympics.
There are two interesting words for us to get a hold of at this point—Sanctification and Justification.
Sanctification is the process by which we (along with the Holy Spirit) work to make our lives holy. The Holy Spirit brings us to know and understand the Gospel, and in response we discipline our outer selves to kneel in prayer, open our hearts and wallets to give generously, and keep our lips pressed tight during a challenging time of silence and fasting! The Holy Spirit will work through these moments to change our hearts.
Justification, on the other hand, is the legal declaration made by Christ about us. Justification is us shuffling into God’s throne room with our guilt and sin written all over our faces, Christ banging his gavel and pronouncing us innocent, sinless, Justified.
Over the course of our lives, no matter how well our Sanctification goes, in the end we need Christ alone to Justify us. Two Cups of Sanctification don’t equal one Cup of Justification. Even 100 Cups won’t do the trick. There isn’t enough sanctifying that we could do; we will always need Christ’s Justification, Christ’s death and resurrection.
So, for us, what’s the Yellow Brick Road? (Our Sanctification) This doesn’t mean that sanctification isn’t important just because it’s not the last stop. On Christ’s brick road to Jerusalem, He is healing, preaching, doing the important work of Gospel Ministry. How important can your road be?
A couple of weeks ago our confirmation kids took the road to Brother Francis Shelter. It was Valentine’s Day, and they handed out decorated cookies, cards, and brand new socks. That was a holy time! This stuff is important! The Yellow Brick Road matters—not just the hot air balloon back to Kansas!
But, that is all still just the first leg! Justification is our last lap, and it’s one that we can’t run alone. In fact, we can’t run it at all. In fact, it’s already been run!
See if you can guess who ran it; put on your Sunday School caps! (Jesus)
And he’s on a journey to Jerusalem. The city that kills prophets. A terrible destination. The end of the Yellow Brick Road.
But! The beginning of His Resurrection Road! Jesus journeys to Jerusalem, to death, so that He and His Life can explode out from that center to the ends of the earth! To the end of all time! To your ears in Anchorage on a Sunday morning in 2010. Jesus followed the long, hard road in, and His Saving Word paved a million billion roads out!
And, we have made that second journey with Him, through the cross and on to life. Or rather, He has brought us along like carry-on luggage. In our Baptism, He brings us, drowns us into a death like His. That is what God has promised. (Though it sounds a bit like a threat, doesn’t it?) And we are raised out of the water into His new life. That is our Justification. That is God’s promise.
But God wasn’t the only promise maker in that miraculous moment. We, too, made some promises. Or, more likely, some adult that loved us made promises for us. What were they? (Promise to raise the child in the Community of Saints, promise to put the Word in his/her hands, promise to instruct them in the Faith)
We make a promise to be about the business of Sanctifying our lives and the world around us. Sometimes we miss that connection (between our road and the world’s road). When we are following Christ’s instructions in our lives, we are not the only beneficiaries. Our Yellow Brick Road is one we walk for the sake of others. When we give of our time and money, we will feel good, we will feel liberated from the greed of this world. But, more importantly, someone else—one of our neighbors—will feel warm, will feel fed, will feel the love that they may have forgotten.
Though it’s not a perfect definition, we can think of it like this: Justification is what God does with your life; Sanctification is what you do with your life for the sake of your neighbor’s life. How important is that?!
In today’s Gospel lesson, we see the path that Christ is taking for our sake. He is on his way to Jerusalem, on his way to the Cross, on his way to Death so that our Baptism will be full of life. Christ is taking the hard road, and taking us along for the ride. Thanks be to God for that Justifying Work!
Now that we know He has walked our last great road, let us focus on the Yellow Brick Road beneath our feet today! As he has journeyed for us, let us now journey for our neighbors in joy, humility, and service. Amen.
Intern Mark Dixon