Matthew 8: 18 – 22 (NLT)
The Cost of Following Jesus
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.
19 Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
21 Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.” (or – “Let the dead bury their own dead”)
Jesus is very blunt here about commitment. When one religious teacher said he would follow Jesus wherever he went, Jesus basically replied that meant he would never have a home. This idea that we might have to give up possessions is rather scary. To actually say I am willing to give up my well-paying job, my lovely home, the city where I was raised, my friends, leave behind my extended family – that is definitely frightening and a huge challenge. Yet Jesus is saying we should be ready to do that if we are truly committed to him.
Then there is disciple who says he wants to bury his father. Jesus’ reply seems so harsh. I looked up some commentaries about that statement, because honestly, I thought it seemed harsh. In Jesus’ day, there might have been a couple of ways his hearers would have reacted to that statement. First, the man may have been asking for a postponement to following Jesus until after his father died. At that time in history, sons were expected to care for their fathers in their old age. This man may have been asking Jesus to wait until his father aged and died. That could have been years. It was highly unlikely that if his father had died a day or so before, that the man would have been out listening to Jesus. It was a culture where burial was done immediately, and then there followed many days where the family did not leave their home but stayed inside during a mourning period. So, another thing this man may have been saying is that he would follow Jesus after a year or so. Tradition then had family visit the tomb one year after death, and that was considered the final obligation. (information from Intervarsity Press online commentary)
In either case, Jesus is telling the man that commitment to following Jesus starts right now. You can’t put it aside for other family obligations. Again, that is a huge challenge to us. If we feel God calling us to go somewhere away from family, that is a hard decision to make. In both these cases, Jesus is saying that commitment to him was more important than anything else. Wow! So … do I realize that in my own life? That is a challenge I think we would all have to take on our knees in prayer. Where is my top priority commitment?
Our song for today is I Will Follow by Chris Tomlin.