My father’s “short cuts” were anything but.  Successfully navigating Atlanta traffic requires two things.  Impeccable timing and an encyclopedic, google-like knowledge of alternative routes.  For my father, the latter was his go-to.  We always took the “short cut.”  But by short cut, he never meant ‘the faster way.’  Indeed, for my father, the short-cut and the scenic route were synonymous.  We never got anywhere quickly, but we saw all the sights.

For most of us, we only take the scenic route when snarled traffic causes our GPS to reroute from the interstate onto the old US highway.   Buc-ee’s, Pilot Travel Centers and that exit with the Chik-Fil-A give way to courthouse squares, Wally’s Fuel Stop, and the Old Dutch Kitchen.  Grand vistas too perilous for the interstate to negotiate take away our breath just a few miles off beaten paths we’ve traveled all our lives. 

We are always in a hurry to arrive.  Always seeking a new personal best.  Stressing to shave two minutes off a twelve hour drive.  Invariably choosing the most boring of three GPS alternatives because the dark blue line tells us one is a minute faster.   In our rush, we often fail to heed Moses’ admonition in Psalm 90 to “number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  And fail to grasp that ‘arrival’ may be more about the ‘getting there’ than the ‘being there.’

Perhaps Robert Frost concluded it most memorably for the generations of children who memorized his poem, “The Road Not Taken.”

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Twelve wanted “to arrive.”  They wanted greatness.  They wanted recognition.  They wanted a short, fast drive to the place of glory.  But Jesus pulled out the map of God’s Word and showed them that the disciple’s path to glorification is the scenic route of sanctification.  A scenic route with the twists and hairpin turns of sorrow, disappointment, and loss. A route slowed by frustrating intersections, construction zones, and quirky characters.  But a route that boasts vistas of grace seen only as we wind our way through green pastures, still waters, the deepest darkest valleys, and the dangerous terrain of enemies, within and without. 

In Mark 9, Jesus turns toward Jerusalem.  Toward betrayal, suffering, and death.  But also resurrection and glory.  It is no easy path.  Luke tells us that he “set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem.” His is not the “fast path to glory” spoken of by his enemy, Satan, but the scenic route ordained by his loving Heavenly Father. 

But Jesus’s followers are also called to take the scenic route, the road less traveled.  Jesus taught. “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  But like us, we read that the disciples “did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask.”  Taking a small child in his arms, Jesus declared, “if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And then from a series of practical situations Jesus instructs the Twelve and us what it means to be “last of all and the servant of all.”

Following Jesus is a scenic route, a road less traveled.   But it is the path that makes all the difference.  What path are you on?  Join us as we examine Mark 9:38-50 and consider the landscape of discipleship we find on the scenic route of following Jesus. We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.