No Turning Back

Today’s reading is from Luke 9, and it is the first of a months-long series of readings from Luke as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem. Here Jesus invites certain people to follow him, and this passage lays out something of what it means to follow Jesus. As he travels through Samaria he is not welcomed, and, when two of his disciples ask whether they should punish those rejecters, Jesus says no. There are other curious exchanges in this passage, all of which are instructive about what it means to follow Jesus. As followers of Jesus we are called to look at every situation through the lens of Christ, even if it means discomfort.