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“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

You might think that’s describing a moment near the end of Jesus’ story. But it’s not. The author of the Gospel of Luke (who likely also wrote the Book of Acts) has a lot more story to tell. But in their account of Jesus’ life, this is a turning point, a moment when Jesus turns from an itinerant ministry of preaching and healing to purposefully teaching discipleship and how to follow the way Jesus taught to live. After his departure, that’s what the followers of Jesus called themselves, the People of the Way.

I say his departure because that’s what the author of Luke is referring to here. Not specifically the city of Jerusalem, not his death or resurrection, but his being “taken up” - the ascension, a part of the story only found in Luke and Acts. When Jesus is physically gone, the disciples will need to carry his message. So he “set his face to go to Jerusalem” with purpose, intent on a journey of making genuine disciples, disciples who will be Jesus in the world when he’s gone.

The very first steps on that journey are a series of vignettes setting the most basic requirements of discipleship. They may seem almost dismissive at first, but discipleship is challenging.

Jesus is rejected by some Samaritans who offer him no hospitality. (He was headed to Jerusalem, and Samaritans believed Mount Gerizim was the holy place, not Jerusalem. It’s one of the reasons Jews hated Samaritans, making them a key part of the Good Samaritan parable which is just a few verses ahead.)  The disciples ask if they should "command fire to come down from heaven and consume them.”  Of course not, says Jesus. Right from the start, he warns against intolerance. There are many ways to God.

Then they meet someone who wants to follow wherever Jesus is going, to which Jesus replies “foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus is on the move, God is at work in the world.

He calls another who wants to first bury his father and Jesus replies "let the dead bury their own dead." The rituals and structures of society need to change. Letting go of conventions and routines is part of the journey to letting love in.

Yet another wants to say goodbye to his family first and Jesus replies that “no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Forward, the Way is forward. Looking back can only offer learning, looking ahead is where we must go and where we must live. We can’t live in the past or make it be again.

So following Jesus entails more than just the practical, finite trip to Jerusalem. It means living a life in which the teaching of Jesus, "the way," is the way of living.  It's not easy, and that means some structures will change, that we may need to let go of what is dead in order to find new life, that we may find that no matter how hard we try to hold on to each moment, there will be another one right away. It's a journey, after all, and putting up walls and having a home just isn't the same thing.

Life’s a journey. Jesus invites us to travel together.