After the parables of the last few weeks, we come to a collection of sayings, which seems oddly placed. While Jesus and his disciples are still on the road to Jerusalem, the religious leaders are absent for the moment. So, Jesus begins to address life in his church post-resurrection and ascension. What will his disciples be known for after his departure? When Jesus’s presence changes from immediate and tangible to universal and mystical, how will they live?
Jesus begins with two topics: causing vulnerable disciples to sin and forgiveness. Neither of these sayings is easy or comforting. They’re hard to do—particularly forgiveness. How difficult forgiveness can be and how easy it is to hold a grudge! Jesus stretches out the command to forgive to the limits of absurdity: “If the same person sins against you seven times a day and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent’, you must forgive.”
Of course, different situations—such as cases of abuse—may require different approaches to forgiveness. Victims should not feel obligated to remain in harmful situations. Yet, Jesus’s words remain clear and direct. No wonder the disciples respond with, “Increase our faith!”
This plea from the disciples highlights the true challenge of discipleship. There’s an old heresy out that tries to bypass this challenge: “As long as I believe in God and try to be a good person, I’ll go to heaven when I die.” Mere belief in God and mere attempts to be good don’t make disciples. What does is summed up in one of the most unpopular words in the English language: “obedience”.
We hate obedience in America, don’t we? We’re a proud, freedom-loving people, after all. We don’t let anyone push us around or tell us what to do! It was disobedience to the English crown that founded this great nation. Jefferson laid it all down in the Declaration of Independence, with a great recital of the king’s crimes against the people. There is also a long tradition of civil disobedience in this country, going from Henry David Thoreau to MLK to Rage Against the Machine. It also doesn’t help—at least for me—that we often associate obedience with dogs!
But perhaps we’re more obedient to ungodly forces than we’re willing to admit. For example, all of us have a worldview driven by an ideology which draws upon many sources. These can include cherry-picked scriptures, certain news sources, certain voices on social media, and especially our own upbringing. Such worldviews, while natural, can all too often drive a wedge between us and our neighbors. That is especially true in our polarized age. If someone from a preferred news source or social media personality says a person or a group of people are bad, we’re very likely to believe that. We often neglect proper obedience to God to obey someone or something who isn’t worthy of it.
And Jesus knew this. Jesus knows that his disciples will face temptations to false obedience. They may be tempted to obey their own feelings instead of his divine word. They may be tempted to exchange their priceless treasure in Jesus for the rewards and status offered by Empire and Temple bureaucracies. They may be tempted to ignore their calling for something that is familiar to them, like fishing (which seems to have happened in John chapter 21!).
On top of this, Jesus doesn’t promise them special rewards for following their call! He says, “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”. In other words, “Don’t expect anything special for doing what you were supposed to do!” Stunning. Jesus is calling them to follow in the way of his cross. He is calling them, as the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, to “come and die”. “Why in the world would anyone want to be a disciple, then? Why would anyone risk it all?
The answer, as always, is pure grace—a grace that makes us whole. But not a cheap kind of grace. Not a grace that lets us remain as we are. This is costly grace won through Jesus’s perfect obedience. God in Jesus Christ descends to our realm, taking on the vulnerability of human flesh. God in Jesus was born to a Jewish mother, grew up in a backwater town, preached the nearness of God’s reign, chose a group of twelve very unlikely disciples, healed the masses, cast out demons, confronted religious leaders, and ended up on Roman cross outside Jerusalem. This costly grace brought us life and salvation. In Jesus Christ, the one who is truly obedient to God, who lives by his faithfulness to God and neighbor, we are brought into a new family of faith. And we are changed into children of God.
That life-giving transformation is the cost to us. Grace is free. We do nothing to earn it. God gives us everything. But God promises that this grace makes us His children. When we follow Jesus, we can’t remain as we were. We don’t remain worshipers of false gods like our own worldviews. We don’t obey them anymore. We obey God and his gospel of mercy, love, and forgiveness. The disciples pleaded with Jesus to increase their faith so they can obey. Jesus’ verbal response is simply about the power of faith, which implies that they will receive all the faith they need. And in the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the same Spirit present in our baptism, God in Christ gives this faith. We receive all the faith we need. And we dare not discount such faith. When that God-given faith is worked out in our obedience to His Word, it has the power to do great things.
Obedience has never been a popular idea. But it is at the heart of genuine faith. God help us to continue to follow Jesus’s way of obedience, in which we find lasting freedom. Amen.
© 2025, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit given.