Matthew 8:18-22

Introduction

What Would You Be Willing to Do for 1 Month in Order to Win $1 Million?

Would You Be Willing to Be Separated From Your Family for a Month?

Would You Be Willing to Live & Sleep Outside On the Ground for a Month?

Would You Be Willing to Go Without the Comforts and Luxuries of Home for a Month?

No Refrigerators and Pantries Full of Food

No Microwaves and Ovens to Cook that Food

No Fresh and Running Water to Drink and Bathe

No Clothes to Wear Except the Ones You’re Currently Wearing

Would You Be Willing to Do All of That On a Deserted Island for a Month?

There’s a Popular Show that’s Been Running for 20 Years Called Survivor

They are Currently in Their 41st Season

On This Show, the Contestants Choose to Live On a Deserted Island for About 39 Days…

Separated From Their Families

Living and Sleeping Outside On the Cold Hard Ground

They Have No Comforts or Luxuries From Home

They Barely Any Food

They Eat About a Handful of Rice Per Day if They are Lucky

Or Whatever Fish They Catch or Fruit They Find

They Have One Well Where They Can Find Drinking Water

But the Only Baths They Get are in the Ocean

They Only Have the Clothes On Their Backs

And Throughout the 39 Days They are On the Island:

They are Working Hard to Survive

They are Trying to Outwit Each Other With Strategy

They are Trying to Outplay Each Other in Different Competitions

They are Trying to Outlast Each Other to Stay On the Island

And the Last Sole Survivor Wins $1 Million

These People are Willing to Give Up Just About Everything for Over an Entire Month in Order to Win $1 Million

But We are Going to Read About 2 Men Who Were Given the Opportunity to Give Up Everything…

For So Much More

And By the End of the Lesson, We are Going to Ask Ourselves:

Am I Willing to Give Up/Lose Everything to Gain the Greatest Prize Ever Offered?

Matthew 8:18-22

We are Currently in a Gap Between Jesus’ 1st and 2nd Teaching Discourses in Matthew’s Account

This Gap Consists of:

3 Groupings of 3 Miracle Stories

And in Between the 3 Groupings of Miracles are 2 Discipleship Passages

Last Week We Finished Up the 1st Grouping of 3 Miracles

And Now We are in the 1st Discipleship Passage

In this Passage, We are Going to See 2 Encounters of Would-Be Disciples With Jesus

With These 2 Encounters, We Will See What Type of Disciples Jesus Was Truly Seeking

Matthew 8:18 (NASB)

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea.

We Left Off With a Crowd of People Seeking Healing and Exorcism of Demons Gathered Around the Door of Peter’s House

Now Jesus is Looking to Get Away From the Crowd

But Doesn’t Seem Like Matthew Only Wants Us to See Jesus as Escaping the Chaos of the Crowd

He Said Jesus “Gave Orders”

This was an Official Command From an Authority Figure

This Seems to Be a Call to Discipleship

It was Time for Jesus to Take His Ministry to Other Places…

And Those Who Truly Want to Be His Disciples Now Have Their Opportunity to Prove it

Leave Your Life Behind, and Follow the Messiah

Matthew 8:19 (NASB)

Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

After Jesus’ Command, a Scribe Speaks to Him

A Scribe (in its Most Basic Meaning) was Someone Who was Employed for His Ability to Read and Write

We Typically Think of a Scribe as an Expert and Teacher in the Law of Moses and a Copier of OT Manuscripts

And for Our Purposes in Understanding this Context, That’s Sufficient Information

Scribes Were Highly Revered and Most Likely Lived Pretty Comfortable Lives

So Far in Matthew’s Account, We Don’t Have a Positive View of Scribes

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Said Only Those With Greater Righteousness than the Scribes and Pharisees…

Would Be Given Entrance into the Kingdom

Most of the Scribes We Come into Contact With in the NT are Opponents of Jesus

And Were Very Much Like the Pharisees (Self-Righteous Hypocrites)

But This Scribe Seems Different Doesn’t He?

He is Claiming That He Will Follow Jesus Everywhere

He Even Calls Jesus His “Teacher”

For an Expert in the Law to Call an Untrained Jewish Nobody His Teacher was Significant

The Scribe Seems to View Himself as Inferior to Jesus

But Matthew May Be Giving Us a Little Clue About This Scribe

In Matthew’s Account, True Disciples Never Refer to Jesus as “Teacher”

This Leads Us to Jesus’ Response

Matthew 8:20 (NASB)

Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Jesus Tells the Scribe that, Unlike the Foxes and Birds…

He Has No Home to Call His Own

His Ministry and the Message of the Kingdom Were More Important Than That

He Calls Himself “Son of Man” for the First Time in Matthew’s Account

This Will Be His Favorite Designation for Himself

We’ll Talk More About “Son of Man” Sometime Later

Why Does He Tell the Scribe This Random Piece of Information?

He is Letting the Scribe Know What Being a Follower of Jesus is Like

It Means Being Willing to Leave Behind Occupation and Comfort

“If You are Going to Follow Me Everywhere I Go…

Don’t Expect a Life of Luxury”

Jesus Wants Us to Count the Cost of Discipleship

Before Making a Life-Altering Commitment to Follow Jesus…

You Need to First Determine if You are Willing to Have Your Life Altered

Becoming a Follower of Jesus Isn’t for the Faint of Heart

It is a Life-Sentence Dedicating Yourself to Jesus as Your Master and King

And it Will Never Be Easy

You Have to Determine for Yourself if You are Willing to Lose Everything in Order to Be With Him

Jesus Doesn’t Want Large Crowds of Half-Hearted, Wishy-Washy Moochers…

Who Only Want Him When it Benefits Them

He Wants Dedicated, Loyal, Servant-Minded Disciples…

Who are Willing to Die to Remain Loyal to Him

He Doesn’t Just Want Your Belief and Admiration

He Wants Your Undying Allegiance

So, Scribe, if You Aren’t Willing to Leave Your Occupation, Your Comfortable Living, and Your Nice, Warm Bed…

Don’t Get in the Boat

But if You’re Willing to Leave All of that Behind…

Welcome to the Kingdom of Heaven

One Day You’ll Find Your Sacrifice was More than Worth it

We Aren’t Told the Scribe’s Decision

But What is Your Decision?

Is Jesus Just a Teacher to You?

Or is He Your King?

Matthew 8:21 (NASB)

Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

Before Jesus Crosses the Sea of Galilee, He is Approached By Another Man

Matthew Refers to Him as “Another of the Disciples”…

Meaning that He and the Scribe Before Him Were Considered Disciples of Jesus…

Even if Just in a Limited Way

This Man Asked Jesus if He Could Bury His Father Before Joining Jesus in His Ministry

Before Talking About this Request, Let’s Read Jesus’ Answer

Matthew 8:22 (NASB)

But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”

It’s Hard for Us to Read That Isn’t it?

It’s Hard to Hear the Kind, Gentle, Sympathetic, Understanding Jesus…

Say Something that Sounds So Rude, Calloused, Insensitive, and Inconsiderate

I Used to Avoid These Verses

They Would Hurt My Feelings and Make Me Wonder if Maybe Jesus Isn’t Who I Thought He Was

This Man Has Just Made the Most Reasonable Request…

And Jesus Seems to Shoot it Down in Such a Heartless Way

But These Hurt Feelings I Used to Have About Jesus in this Passage are Not Based On Reality

One of the Most Important Commandments in the OT to the Jewish People was:

Honor Your Father and Your Mother

One of the Ways You Honor Your Parents is By Ensuring that They Have a Proper Burial

This was So Important, that Even the Levites, Who Were Not Allowed to Be Defiled By Touching a Dead Body…

Were Given Permission Under the Law of Moses to Bury Their Close Family Members

When Needing to Bury a Family Member, a Man was Exempted From Many Important Religious Duties

The Body Would Usually Be Buried the Day of the Person’s Death

But Then the Family Would Follow Mourning Customs for the Following Week

That Being Said, if This Man’s Father Had Recently Died…

This Man Would Not Have Been Amongst a Crowd of People Following Jesus

He Would Have Been Taking Care of the Funeral Arrangements and Burial of His Father

And Spending Time in Mourning with His Family

So There are 2 Likely Situations That This Man was in

Either His Father was Already Dead and Had Been Buried for More than a Week

Or His Father was Still Alive

First Situation: The Man’s Father is Already Dead and Buried

It was a Custom of the Jewish People to Have a Secondary Burial One Year After the Initial Burial

The Son Would Take the Bones of the Deceased and Place Them in an Ossuary (Special Box)

Then He’d Place the Ossuary Back in the Tomb

If This Man was Asking Jesus’ Permission to Postpone His Discipleship Until He Could Rebury His Father…

Then He was Asking Jesus for as Much as a Year’s Time of Postponing His Following Jesus

Second Situation: The Man’s Father was Still Alive

The Man Could Have Been Referring to His Obligation to Look After His Father in His Elderly Years Until His Death

And Then, Once He Had Buried His Father, He Could Begin Following Jesus

In this Case, it Could Be Several Years that He Would Postpone His Discipleship

Essentially, He was Saying, “Someday, After My Father is Dead, I Will Follow You.”

Regardless of the Exact Circumstances…

This Disciple was Most Likely Asking for Months or Even Years of Time Before Following Jesus

He Felt Discipleship was Something He Could Pick Up or Lay Down Depending On the Circumstances of Life

Understanding the Jesus’ Words in the Proper Context Makes His Response Much More Understandable…

To Us!

But His Words Would Still Have Been Considered Radical to the Jewish People of His Day

He was Demanding of His Disciples that He and His Ministry Take Priority Over Our Other Obligations

Only God Could Demand Such Priority and Honor Over One’s Own Parents

And that’s the Point!

The Messiah, King of Heaven and Earth, God in Human Flesh, Has Been Sent to Establish His Eternal Kingdom

If There is Anyone or Anything that We Allow to Be More of a Priority in Our Lives Than Him…

Then We Aren’t Worthy to Be His Disciples

Jesus Isn’t Telling His Followers to Not Honor Their Parents

He Isn’t Telling Us to Not Love, Care For, and Serve Our Neighbors

He is Telling Us that Our Greatest Priority and Obligation Must Be to Him

Jesus Said to Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead

I Believe He is Referring to the Dead Spiritually Burying the Death Physically

“Let Those Who Have Denied the Life-Giving Kingdom Take Care of the Dead”

“Don’t Worry About the Dead, the Gospel Needs to Be Preached to the Living”

This Man Wanted to Wait Until the Right Time Before He Joined the Cause of the Kingdom

But the Right Time is Now

Application

These 2 Men Who Spoke to Jesus Show Us 2 Different Mind-Frames of Would-Be Disciples of Jesus

The First was Enthusiastic About Following Jesus

But He Hadn’t Fully Considered the Sacrifices He Would Have to Make in Order to Follow Jesus

The Second Understood the Sacrifices He Would Have to Make in Order to Follow Jesus

But He Decided that Some Sacrifices Weren’t Worth Making

“Some Things/Obligations Must Come Before You, Jesus”

The Messiah Had Offered Them an Opportunity, Not of a Lifetime…

An Opportunity of ALL Lifetimes

To Serve Alongside the Messiah and Usher in the Everlasting Reign of God

We Have Been Given the Same Opportunity

To Join the Messiah in His Mission of Bringing His Kingdom into this World

His Mission of Saving and Transforming People into His Image and Character

The Greatest Mission the World Has Ever Known

To Be a Part of This Kingdom Mission:

You Have to Count the Cost of Whether You’re Willing and Ready to Lose Everything for the Cause of Christ

You Have Decide for Yourself…

Is Eternal Life in Perfect Paradise Later…

Worth the Sacrifice, Hard Work, Trials, and Temptations that I Will Face Now?

And Those of Us Who Have Already Made the Choice to Join the Cause of Christ…

Do You Stand By that Choice to Make the Kingdom of Jesus Your Top Priority?

Or Have You Backed Out of That Committment and Put Jesus in the Background of Your Life?

Paul Had to Face More Sacrifices, Hard Works, Trials, and Temptations…

For the Cause of Christ and His Kingdom Than Any of Us Likely Ever Will

As We Stand and Sing the Invitation Song, I Want You to Dwell On His Words

Romans 8:18 (NASB)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.