The great Yogi Berra liked to say: “When you come to the fork in the road, take it.”
For St. Luke today, this is Jesus’ “fork in the road” moment.
Thus far, Jesus has been tempted and rejected; gathered and sent disciples; healed and taught; performed miracles, was transfigured and predicted his own death.
He had spent nearly all of his thirty-three years in the backwater outskirts of Galilee, and today, he comes face to face with a decision— where there will be no looking back.
And “when the days for Jesus’ being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.” 9:51
What we have here is a purposeful and single-minded Jesus, who wants to do something very much and won’t let anything or anyone get in his way.
Think back in history.  What have been some of the greatest journeys of all time; journeys that have changed the world? 
We might think of Christopher Columbus risking to fall off the face of the earth in sailing across an ocean to the New World. 
Or we might think of the great journey of Apollo 11 to the moon: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” 
Or we might think of Martin Luther King, Jr., and hundreds of others, black and white, walking in their Sunday best across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
On this Sunday, we think back to the greatest journey of all time, a journey that was made in a simple pair of sandals. 
 
Jesus took the first step toward Jerusalem, some eighty miles and four days south.  He could have stayed in Galilee.  He could have had a comfortable and respectable life as a teacher. But he chose to risk it all.
 
And in the next ten chapters, St. Luke will tell us all that happened on that journey: the parables and the sayings, the unforgettable encounters, the stories and dinners.  And through all of these events that took place on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus was teaching what it means to be his follower. 
Someone once said, “If following Christ doesn’t scare you to your core, you’re not doing it right.” 

Any of us who dares to follow will also know rejection as Jesus knew it. 
Anyone who dares to follow will know deprivation as Jesus knew it. 
Anyone who dares to follow will have to put some very important obligations, even family ties, down to lower priorities.
Anyone who dares to follow will have his or her life plans upended and left in tatters, because the kingdom of God comes first.

Following Jesus is not something that we add to our lives on our own terms.  It is something that takes us over completely.  We don’t shape our faith to fit the lives we’ve already planned; instead, the call to follow Jesus trumps our agenda and re-shapes our lives. 

It is the greatest journey a person can take; the greatest adventure anyone can ever have.  It will sometimes be painful, but it will never be boring. It is a journey worth throwing yourself into completely, without ever looking back.

As motivational speaker Anthony Robbins likes to say: “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.”