The Trail That Leads to Life
This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost on June 21, 2026.
Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It is worth noting up front that this is a challenging text for Father's Day, and it just kind of worked out that way. "Whoever does not love Jesus more than father or mother" seems like an odd thing to talk about, but maybe not today. Maybe there is a good reason to talk about this today.
On one hand it does seem as if Jesus is downplaying the importance of fathers and mothers, but I do not really think that is the case. It is really more of a question of what our highest priority is, who really leads us. It is a question of who it is that we are going to listen to, whose voice ultimately wins out, or who we are going to serve.
Jesus tells us right in the beginning of our reading from the Gospel today that he does not come to bring peace to the earth, but instead he comes to bring a sword. It is really intended here as evidence that the world will oppose those who truly seek to follow Jesus Christ.
Take a moment to look at your bulletin. You might have been wondering about this very strange image I have for you on the bulletin this morning. This is a fresco found in a church in Kosovo that was painted in the 1300s. Beautiful, except you might have noticed that the eyes seem strange. What is going on?
Well, it is proof that the world will oppose the things of Christ, because the Ottoman Turks came into southeastern Europe to conquer in the name of Islam. When they did, they found this particular fresco, and they gouged out its eyes. The world will oppose the things of Christ. You can see that they did make an effort at trying to put it back and fix it up, but they left it imperfect, I suppose as a reminder of the text behind the particular image that was being painted there.
This text also, though, is evidence of the best of the work that fathers do. We live in a society that has certain expectations around Mother's Day and Father's Day. I try to buck those trends, because I do not think it is fair. On Mother's Day we are supposed to talk about in church how wonderful mothers are and how good they are and all the things that they do. Literally, the smell like roses all the time, right ladies?
On Father's Day the expectation is the pastor is going to get up and shake his finger at the dads and tell them to work harder and do better and earn more. I do not believe in that. I think that our passage today shows us that there is the best of the work that fathers — about making hard choices and in doing the right thing, being more than just a provider for their children and their families, but being an example.
The Call to Discipleship
Christ calls all of us to do the hard work of discipleship, to take up our crosses and follow him. Do not underestimate how serious, painful, and heavy a burden that can be. To bear a cross is to carry a load that will eventually kill you.
Would it not be far better not to do that? Would it not be much more comfortable and easy to carry a load that will not eventually lead to your death? But this is the example that Christ sets before us! This is his greatest work! When faced with the option to run away, to recant all the things that he said about himself, to lie, to save his own skin, instead he decides to willingly go to trial, knowing he will bear his cross to the place of his execution, and he chooses to do it for you and me.
He knows that in his death our death will die. In his rising to new life, not only will he be vindicated that he really was who he says he is, but that by his promise you and I also will rise to new and eternal life.
The great irony of this world is that if we seek after the standards of success that the world lays out in front of us, (and men, I think we are especially susceptible to this) we will find instead eternal death. If we try to make the world happy instead of following Christ, we will die. But if we seek success from Christ's point of view, which is to say that we die to ourselves and live for those around us — live ultimately unto Christ — we instead will find our truest and best purpose. We will find eternal life.
The Choice Before Us
This seeking of success, I think, is what St. Paul is talking about in Romans 6. He says this:
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
St. Paul is telling us, instead of gratifying ourselves, we place ourselves under the discipline and authority of God. Or as the great secular prophet Bob Dylan once put it, "Everybody's got to serve somebody." So the great choice is placed before us: will you be disciplined by God, as by a good and gracious Father, the one who will give you the things that you need and lead you in his ways, or will you gratify yourself?
Or St. Paul puts it in even more stark terms: will you be a slave to sin, or will you be a slave to righteousness for the sake of sanctification — of your being made whole?
No one likes the idea of being a servant or slave of anybody. But as Dylan said, "everybody's got to serve somebody." Or to put it another way, the way that St. Paul puts it at the end of his passage today:
So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
It is sort of like hiking in the woods. You can follow the narrow trail that God has given you. It is not necessarily the shortest distance between point A and point B, but it may be certainly more scenic, certainly more pleasant, and an easier trail to follow. It might take you a little longer to get where you are going, but you will probably see some things that you ought to see while you are out in the woods, beautiful things, and certainly you will not go wrong.
Or you can abandon the narrow trail that he has set out for you. You can go off in a random direction. Perhaps you think you can shortcut this and go from point A to point B directly. Perhaps the trail will be easier, perhaps it will be harder. Maybe it will take you where you want to go (it ultimately won't), but when you live by your own freedom you become a slave to the thorn bushes and the poison ivy that you won't see until it is too late.
St. Paul puts it this way:
The wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The wages of sin is death. In other words, you will get what you earn, what you deserve. You will sin and you will die.
Or you can seek the free gift of God, which is eternal life in Jesus Christ. Live instead for him. Make him your master. Serve him single-mindedly. Seek after his purpose, his will, and confess instead of "My will be done," but as we say in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done." When we do, we find the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
So may you submit yourselves to the best and highest good, your loving Heavenly Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. May he guide you this week, and may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord, to life everlasting. Amen.
