Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Follow, Follow, I will follow Jesus
Matthew 8:18-22
18 When Jesus saw the
crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19
Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you
wherever you go.” 20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 21
Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 22
But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Luke 9:57-62
57 As they were walking
along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58
Jesus replied, “Foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to
lay his head.” 59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim
the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will
follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62
Jesus replied, “No
one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the
kingdom of God.”
Even
a casual reading of these two passages leave us with a clear lesson: Jesus is
serious about people following him. Jesus’ ministry was becoming quite popular.
Large crowds of people were following him. When Jesus made the decision to
leave the area of Capernaum and cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee,
some people in the crowd were left with a decision – Should I follow him?
Matthew tells us about two people who were faced with this decision and Luke
introduces us to a third.
The
first man was a teacher of the law, or in other translations a scribe. He was educated;
no doubt respected and had become enamored with the teaching of Jesus. Keep in
mind as you read these stories that Jesus knows the heart of man. He knows the
intentions of the mind and the motives of people. It was probably unusual that
a scribe would want to follow Jesus. The Pharisees were usually opposed to
Jesus and his teaching. The scribe’s
dedication seemed real. He calls Jesus, teacher or Rabbi. This was a sign of respect. Furthermore, he tells Jesus that he will
follow him anywhere. Jesus’ reply wasn’t harsh; it was real. If you follow me you
may not have a home in which to lay your head. The wild animals have homes but
I don’t.
The
second man wanted to bury his father before he followed Jesus. There are three
words in his statement to Jesus that are very revealing – First let me. He really wanted his own way before Jesus’
way. Burying his father was code for – “Let
me cash in on my inheritance first.”
Jesus’ reply was real but somewhat confusing. How do the dead bury the
dead? The solution must be that the
first “dead” to whom Jesus refers are the spiritually dead. Luke adds that Jesus said, “You go and
proclaim the kingdom of God.” In
other words, Jesus was saying, the secular can take care of the secular; you
have been called to proclaim the eternal.
Luke
tells us about a third person. This person just wanted to go back and say
good-bye to his family. What’s wrong with that?
Jesus knew that he was more concerned about what his parents thought
than what Jesus wanted. Jesus quoted an old proverb familiar in this day, “No
one can plow a straight furrow looking backward.” How true.
I believe there are a lot of people who are not doing what Christ wants
them to do because of what others might think. They are looking backward.
There’s
a chorus we used to sing in church, “Follow,
follow, I would follow Jesus, anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on. Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus,
anywhere he leads me I would follow on.” Really?
What keeps someone from really following Jesus? We learn three things from these stories:
1)
Personal comfort – where am I going to lay my head?
2)
Personal possessions – let me first…
3)
Personal relationships – what will others think?
Prayer:
Jesus, following you is the most important thing in life. May it be my priority in life. Amen.
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