The Costs and
Conditions of the Discipleship and of inheriting the Kingdom of God
Everybody wants to inherit the Kingdom
of God as the ultimate treasure, as the very reward of being a faithful
disciple of Christ.
Jesus certainly
understands this desire of ours. That is why he instructs us how we can attain
this most important reward: the Kingdom. It is the ultimate goal of the faith
pilgrimage for Christians. To put this in the context of Viktor Frankl’s
meaning-focused psychology, the Kingdom is the ultimate meaning of Christian
life. To Christians, it is the source of
hope and courage to endure any hardship on the pilgrimage, similar to how
Abraham and Sarah endured their challenging journey to Canaan to settle, as
well as the way how Moses and his fellow Jews endured the 40 years of hard
journey of Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land.
So, the Christian path to inherit the
Kingdom of God certainly comes with challenges and trials to endure
meaningfully. To make sure that we make
it through our pilgrimage all the way to the Kingdom – until his return, Jesus
teaches us how we prepare ourselves for the Kingdom.
As the path that Abraham and Sarah took
at their old age, and like the path of Exodus that Moses and his fellow Jews
took, came with heavy “costs” to reach their promised lands, our pilgrim path
to the Kingdom of God certainly comes with significant costs and conditions.
“The costs of the discipleship”, to
borrow Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s word, are certainly a part of the costs and
conditions to inherit the Kingdom.
Since the 12th Sunday’s
Gospel reading on, Jesus has been addressing the costs and conditions on us to
receive the Kingdom. In order to understand Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom in
the 19th Sunday Gospel reading better, let’s review main points of
Gospel readings from the 12th Sunday and see how these build up to
the teaching in the 19th Sunday reading. The costs and conditions of
the discipleship also mean the costs and conditions to be entitled to the
Kingdom of God.
In the 12th Sunday Gospel
reading (Luke 9:18-24), Jesus listed Buddhist-like self-denial and Bushido-like
self-sacrifice (carrying one’s own cross – a prospect of martyrdom) as a part
of the costs of the discipleship.
In the
13th Sunday Gospel reading (Luke 9:51-62), Jesus continued on with
the costs of the discipleship, teaching about giving up on the desire to settle
and the immediacy in following him , resembling Buddhist-monk’s imitation of
Shakamuni Buddha’s life of pabbajja and
not delaying a commitment to follow because of the attachment to earthy
matters, including families.
Jesus’ teaching shifted a bit form the
cost of the discipleship to the benefits of the discipleship, in the 14th
Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20).
In this Gospel story, Jesus alluded that the faithful discipleship’s
ultimate reward is to have one’s name written in heaven – inferring to the Book
of Life in the Judgement (Revelations 3:5, 20:12) the book, which is the
register of those who are inheriting the Kingdom .
In the Gospel story for the
15th Sunday (Luke 10;25-37), Jesus’ teaching begins to focus on
inheriting the Kingdom, which is the ultimate reward for the faithfully
embracing the costly discipleship, as alluded in the 14th Sunday
Gospel narratives.
In the 15th Sunday Gospel story, Jesus teaches
that we need to observe God’s command to love God with all our heart, being,
strength, and mind, and our neighbors as ourselves, exemplified by the Good
Samaritan, in order to inherit the Kingdom.
Then, in the 16th Sunday’s
Gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42), Jesus teaches the importance of listening,
which is essential to maintain a good relationship with God. If we love God,
then, we naturally listen to God, as Mary listened to Jesus. And, this
Mary-like listening is an essential part of prayer.
In the 17th
Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 11:1-13), Jesus focuses on prayer – in particular, our
petitions to God. On this matter, Jesus teaches us to be like a persistent
seeker, who will receive and find, to whom doors will be opened on his/her
journey to the Kingdom. The persistency needed in this is like the persistency
of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28, the widow who gets an unjust judge
to listen to her (Luke 18:1-8) and Hanna who persistently prayed for having a
child (1 Sam 1). This teaching on prayer hints that our path to inherit the
Kingdom requires a significant amount of persistence as in our resilience to
fight any setbacks on our journey of faith.
In the 18th Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 12:13-21), again, Jesus
teaches like a Buddhist master, on non-attachment to earthly matter – earthly
treasure, through the parable of the rich fool. Jesus wants us to know that our
attachment (worries) on earthly treasures can keep us from inheriting the real
treasure – the Kingdom.
So, from the 12th Sunday on
until the 19th Sunday, Gospel readings have built up Jesus’ teaching
on the costs and conditions of inheriting the Kingdom through our discipleship,
as the 20th Sunday will deal with a different subject.
With the above overview from the 12th
Sunday Gospel, let’s take a deeper look into the 19th Sunday Gospel.
Vigilance in
Waiting for the Lord Christ’s Return to Inherit the Kingdom
In a nutshell, the 19th Sunday Gospel reading
(Luke 12;32-48) is about the importance of our readiness to inherit the Kingdom at
any moment through our constant vigilance. To put this important teaching of
Jesus in a Buddhist term, it is about mindfulness, as it is what vigilance
requires. In inheriting the Kingdom, it is indeed, “You snooze, you lose”.
Jesus said: “Gird your
loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await
their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes
and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master
finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have
them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And
should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had
known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be
broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do
not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Luke 12: 35-40)
To better understand these words of Jesus in the Gospel
reading for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year C, it is
helpful to interpret this narrative in light of the Book of Revelation 19 – 20.
Revelation tells that we will inherit the Kingdom of God, as
long as our names are written in the Book of Life, upon Jesus’ return, Parousia. Here in this Gospel narrative,
Jesus is teaching what it takes us to inherit the Kingdom upon his return.
Namely, it is our steadfast vigilance.
As said in the 14th
Sunday’s Gospel reading (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20), embracing the costs of
discipleship and serving for God’s greater glory (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam) like the disciples on mission is a way to
have our names written in heaven – written in the Book of Life. This means that providing services
(ministries) to the world’s needs through the power and gifts of the Holy
Spirit is a way to inherit the Kingdom by having our names in the Book of
Life. In the 15th Sunday
Gospel story (Luke 10;25-37), Jesus further goes on to tell that we must serve
the needs of the world as the Good Samaritan did in order to be entitled to the
Kingdom.
Now, the 19th Sunday Gospel
reading further adds that another important condition – besides serving as the
disciples on mission and the Good Samaritan did, as well as listening to God as
Mary did and persistent prayers, we must remain spiritually vigilant. So, to put the 19th Sunday Gospel
reading with the Gospel readings from the 12th Sunday on, we can say
that service (work) through the gifts of the Holy Spirit (i.e. 1 Corinthians
12:1-11, Isaiah 11:1-2), persistent prayers, and constant vigilance are three
necessary conditions to inherit the Kingdom of God by embracing the costs of
the discipleship (self-denial, carrying our cross – a prospect of martyrdom, pabbajja-like simple life not attached
to any earthly matters, and immediacy to follow God’s call in our heart’s
desire).
Now, let’s think of the 19th
Sunday Gospel narratives (Luke 12:32-48) together with the 13th
Sunday Gospel story (Luke 9:51-62).
As I mentioned, the 13th
Sunday Gospel story (also see my 6/30/13 entry, “Pabbajja (pravrajana) in Christianity
キリスト教における出家 - Reflection of the Scripture Reading on the
13th Sunday Ordinary Time Year C”), to become disciples of Jesus, we must act
immediately upon being called. To make
sure we can follow him with such immediacy, we also must denounce all our
attachments to earthly matters, including our personal assets and even families. Of course, this does not mean that we cannot
have any personal assets and we have to abandon our families. Rather, it is to
teach us that our worries about our personal assets and families really hinders
our abilities to follow Jesus – negatively affecting the quality of our
discipleship.
That is why Jesus said at the beginning
of the 19th Sunday’s Gospel reading, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased
to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags
for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that
no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also
will your heart be”(Luke 12:32-34), to set the tone for his teaching on
vigilance.
Practically, if you have so many things
to worry about – your assets and families – your own earthly matters, then, you
are likely to be distracted and become less vigilant. Spiritually, this is a tension between ego
and our servant identity in Christ.
Ever since the Gospel reading of the 12th
Sunday, self-lessness, namely, overcoming our ego, has been emphasized as our
need to be disciples of Christ, because the discipleship means being servant.
Our own big ego compromise our abilities to serve.
So, we have a choice: to revert back to
our ego for our own earthly gain, like the Rich Fool, or to overcome ego and strive to be a better
servant of Christ in order to inherit the Kingdom.
If we prefer the latter choice for the
sake of the better reward: the Kingdom, then, we’d better be a really good
servants– just like the vigilant servants in the 19th Sunday Gospel
reading.
The vigilant servants, who dutifully and
faithfully wait for the return of their servants, are also like the Ten Wise
Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. The
vigilance in this kind of faithful service of waiting is empowered by the same
spirit that enables us to pray with the kind of persistence, demonstrated by
the Canaanite woman’s faith (Matthew 15:21-28), the widow challenging the
unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8), and Hanna (1 Samuel 1). It is also about endurance.
When the Lord returns, he will knock on
the door (Luke 12:36). If we fall off-guard and asleep, we may not recognize
the knock. Not being able to recognize
the knock of the returning Lord indicates not only a compromised alertness but
also our sinful heart.
Christ cannot enter the stone of heart, which
is an image of unrepentant sinful heart. But, as we repent and convert our
heart to open heart, then, Christ can enter. Our heart that Christ enters in
becomes the heart found in Christ.
As
St. Augustine of Hippo said in his “Confession”, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until
it finds its rest in thee”, we remain restless, mired in kleshas, to put this in a Buddhist term,
as long as our heart is not in one with Christ. That is why we may never be
free from worries and other forms of restlessness – until the return of Christ
at the end of time. That is why we have
to remain vigilant. But, this time with unknown length is also a time to make
sure that our heart is repentant and open to welcome Christ in to find our
heart in Christ, upon his return. This way, we can hear him knocking and
appreciate these words of Jesus:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me
(Revelation 3:20).
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