What it means to follow Jesus

Matthew 8:18-22

a. The cost to follow Jesus (Matthew 8:18-20)

b. The decision to follow Jesus (Matthew 8:21-22)

1. INTRODUCTION

a. Jesus starts the next section dealing with discipleship. As we all know, discipleship is important in the lives of all believers. We understand discipleship with discipling each other, but in order to disciple others, we must first be disciples. This is why Jesus explains to us, primarily, what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. What does it call us to do?

b. In this message, Jesus makes it clear that if we are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must first understand the cost to follow Jesus and secondly, we must decide to follow Jesus.

2. BODY

a. The cost to follow Jesus (Matthew 8:18-20)

i. Jesus starts this section in verse 18 where He just healed a lot of people. It said in 8:16 that it was evening, and it could be understood that it is still the same day. Mark 4:35 helps us to understand the full picture of what was happening. As Jesus was healing, the crowd started to get bigger and bigger. At this point, Jesus tells His disciples to get ready to depart and go to the other side of the sea.

ii. Now we can just read verse 18 and not think much about it. But verse 19 helps us to get the context of the significance of this phrase. As they arrive on the other side, a scribe comes up to Jesus and says, I will follow you wherever you go. Now this is an interesting phrase. Why would this man come up to Jesus and go wherever He goes?

iii. Let’s think about this scene. Jesus had just finished doing miracles, healing people of all types of diseases. Previous to that, He just preached the best sermon that anyone has ever preached so much to the point that the people who heard Him were amazed with His authority.

iv. So as we come to verse 18, it’s clear that many people were following Him and coming unto Him. They wanted to witness more miracles. They wanted to see and receive the gifts of God. This is where Jesus calls His disciples to leave.

v. Jesus gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. Why would Jesus do this? After all, they can generate wealth and fame. People would know of who they were, possibly make some money doing this. What would cause Jesus to depart? What did this mean?

vi. You see, this statement helps us to understand and question, what is it that we are after? Are we following Jesus because we want to receive things from Him? Remember, the question is, do we follow Jesus and something? Again, the point is not that we should not expect things from God. The point is, is God more important than all these things? Are we more concerned with being with God, being in His presence, or more concerned with the benefits of knowing Him?

vii. This is what this command to cross to the other side means. Jesus was telling the disciples, leave everything and follow my command. That they were to leave all they knew and obey His command. We know this to be true because of the response of the scribe in verse 19. This scribe understood this command which is why he came up to Jesus and said he would follow Jesus wherever He went.

viii. But this begs the question, if Jesus were to tell us, in His word, that we should love Him above all else, are we willing to leave everything and love Him only? Like this scribe, are we able to go to Jesus and say, I will follow you wherever you go, even if that means I lose everything?

ix. Look at Jesus’s response. He responds by telling the scribe that foxes have a home, the birds have a home, but the son of Man, has nowhere to lay His head. This is not to say that He didn’t have a place to sleep, but rather, a place to call His own. Foxes and birds both have their own homes, but Jesus didn’t own His own place. He was no home that He actually owned. He was at the mercy of others.

x. What did Jesus mean by this? He was simply explaining that if you truly want to follow Him, your life will not be comfortable. The cost of discipleship is willingness to not be comfortable. I think we all understand this. But think about it, are we okay with being uncomfortable? Are we comfortable that when bad things happen, we say to ourselves, this is okay. This is the cost of following Jesus? Or do we worry?

xi. I think we all know that following Jesus is not going to be easy, but deep down inside, what do we actually want? We want the best of both worlds. We want comfort while following Jesus. We want the luxuries of the broad gate, but be walking down the narrow gate. But just as Jesus made it clear from his sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains clearly again, that the cost to follow Jesus is costly. It won’t cost you a little. It will cost you everything. All your comfort, all that you own, and all of you. This is what it means to depart from the things of the world and to go with Him. Is Christ enough for you?

b. The decision to follow Jesus (Matthew 8:21-22)

i. Verse 21 begins with another potential follower of Christ coming up to Him and telling Him that he also wishes to follow Jesus. But before he is to follow Him, the disciple asks, Lord, let me go bury my father before I leave with you. Interestingly that both men in verse 19 and 21 address Jesus differently. In verse 19, the scribe calls Jesus teacher, because he is a scribe and most likely a teacher of the Law. But here in verse 21, he calls Jesus Lord. This man, recognizes Jesus isn’t simply a teacher, but it is probably better understood as Sir. This goes back to Sir from the centurion (8:8).

ii. What’s interesting from this man’s response is that he recognized that if he is to follow Jesus, it would require severing ties with his family and those close to him. What’s also amazing from this request is that he was ready to do this, but there was a stipulation to bury his father. He may mean that his father was dead and that he wanted to discharge his family obligations before leaving all for Jesus’ sake. The Jews regarded the burial of one’s father as especially important.

iii. This man was well educated because even for a priest, based on Leviticus 21:1-2 that he was exempted from contact with the dead. It was accepted that, faced with a burial, a man was exempted from a whole string of important religious duties: the saying of the daily prayers, the study of the law, the temple service, the observance of cirumcision, the killing of the Passover sacrifice, and the reading of the Megilla. The death of the father meant that the son’s presence at home had a high priority. He would be busy with funeral arrangements.

iv. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that his father is dead or even dying. It could mean that I need to stick around for however long it might take until my father dies, then I will follow you. Again, the desire to follow Jesus is not lacking, but it’s secondary to what Jesus is calling him to.

v. So what we see from this man’s statement was that he wasn’t making excuses. He really had priorities that he wanted to deal with before he left to follow Jesus. Then we see Jesus’s response in verse 22. We see a cold side to Jesus. It’s almost like Jesus doesn’t care about our situations. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t care about our situations. No, rather He is calling us to recognize what is your priority. Jesus calls us to follow Him immediately. Follow me is an imperative. It means, keep following me, don’t be distracted by other obligations. Keep your eyes and focus on me.

vi. So although it could mean that Jesus was talking about death in the physical sense, it would make more sense that Jesus is speaking about death spiritually. I would better translate this as, “Let the living dead who are in the world bury those dead in the body.” Jesus’s response of let the dead to bury their own dead wouldn’t make sense if Jesus’s response was dealing with physical death. If his father was really dead, since dead men can’t do anything, let the burial take care of itself. Let others bury your father, but you follow Me.

vii. So what would it mean if Jesus were speaking of spiritual death? The buriers of the dead are those who have rejected Jesus and his proclamation. Up to this point, many people have seen the miracles of Jesus and heard His message, but as we’ve seen, not many were willing to follow Him. The reality is, Jesus proclaimed the kingdom to all Israel. Yet, only a few were called to follow Him. Why? Because many people, we, have excuses why we choose not to follow Him. We love father and mother more than Jesus (10:37) and this is why we are guilty for our decisions. We choose death over life because we are internally dead.

viii. But we can also understand the spiritual reality of what Jesus is saying. Jesus is telling this man don’t focus on death. Every road outside of Christ leads to what? Death. Romans 5:21 makes this clear. But if you follow Him, this leads to life. A disciple’s life does not deal with death, but life in Jesus Christ. Our priority must be that of Jesus Christ. The world/devil uses our circumstances to cause us to prioritize other things other than Christ.

ix. Now the question of, well how do I balance living in this world and following Jesus? Do I abandon my family and my responsibilities to follow Jesus? That’s a difficult question because it seems like Jesus is telling us to abandon everything in our lives. But what Jesus is not telling us to abandon everything in this world. He is calling us to understand our priority. The question is, is Jesus the priority in your life? Is bringing glory to God your priority? This is what Jesus is calling us to.

x. Jesus’s statement of follow me is exactly that. Sometimes, this means, that we square away all our distractions and say, I will follow Him and I will go outside of my comfort zone. I will do what I believe is what He wants for me even if it goes against what I want. We need to consider what God wants for us. We need to fix our eyes on God and see what He wants us to do/think.

3. CONCLUSION