Proper 18 (23) – Year C

Welcome to the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s text, Jesus’ popularity is building and the momentum of his grassroots movement is on the rise. It’s a perfect time to cash in. Instead, Jesus speaks a series of hard words designed to awaken the “large crowd” to what’s really happening. He ends with these words, “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” This must have seemed like an odd request, given that the crowd Jesus attracted had little in the way of personal possessions. What’s happening here?

It helps to remember that Jesus is wary of “crowds” throughout the Gospels. Yes, he teaches them, and feeds them, and has compassion on them, but that’s because crowds, by their very nature, are fickle and easily possessed by the mood or spirit of whatever is happening around them. Crowds shout “Hosanna, Hosanna” one day, and “Crucify him, Crucify him” the next. It remains a great irony that those who lead groups easily become the puppet of the group’s desire — possessed by the ever-changing desires of those they lead. This is why Jesus is wary of crowds, regularly retreating to pray in deserted places where he can detox from the crowd’s desire and become reacquainted with the Father’s desire.

In this text we see a rare instance where Jesus confronts the crowd as a whole. His challenge to the crowd is summed up with the urgent instruction to “Give up all your possessions.” Surely, Jesus is referring to more than just material things, like houses, cars and toys. He is speaking about anything, including our own families, tribes, ideologies, culture, and traditions, that possess our hearts and hold us captive. Ignatian spirituality calls these “inordinate attachments,” which are a form of possession. What we are witnessing here is more than an ancient form of group shock therapy. We are witnessing the beginnings of a group exorcism. Jesus wants to cast out the legion of desires that hold the crowd captive, inviting the “crowd” to become an authentic “community” who follows Jesus, dispossessed of all that keeps them from participating in the ongoing act of Creation.