Scripture Matthew 8:19-22
"Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
While leadership training in the church has been the rage, we also need to learn what it means to follow. Jesus didn't specifically recruit leaders, He recruited followers.
It these verses, Jesus tells us what it means to truly follow Jesus.
When the teacher of the law came to Jesus and said, "Teacher, I fill follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied with this unusual response about foxes and birds and dens and nests. This is a full unconditional commitment that is required by Jesus. It's interesting to take note and to remember that all of the disciples literally left everything they had behind and followed Jesus along dusty roads, into distant places, through Judea, Samaria and Galilee, up mountain sides and across tumultuous seas.
How many of us are willing to follow Jesus but put conditions on where that may take us? For those of us that can remember Scott Wesley Brown's song "Please don't send me to Africa" (Out of Africa 1998); we likely relate to the lyrics
Please don't send me to AfricaJesus also tells us that there is an urgency in his call to "Follow". One of the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Lord let me go and bury my father". Jesus reply to "leave the dead to bury the dead" has always seemed harsh and uncharacteristic of Jesus but is important.
I don't think I've go what it takes
I'm just a man, I'm not a Tarzan
Don't like lions, gorillas or snakes
I'll serve you here in suburbia
In my comfortable middle class life
But please don't send me out into the bush
Where the natives are restless at night
All too often, likely because these words seems harsh, Jesus response for immediacy or urgency is explained away. I've heard it explained that the Jewish custom of burial included a "Shanah" a period of an entire year of morning that was being requested and Jesus replied with His request according to the "Shiva" that is only a maximum of seven days. However, Jesus is not allowing even for seven days but simply says, "Follow Me."
Jesus wants us to follow but in his recruitment of his followers, He was more interested in quality rather than quantity. A famous British theologian of this last century, John Charles Ryle, said, "Nothing has done more harm to Christianity than the practice of filling the ranks of Christ's army with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, and to talk fluently of experience."
In these responses from Jesus we also see that Jesus is being brutally honest with his new recruits. He wants them as well as us to know what it was going to be like to truly follow Him. As the three-years with His disciples came to a close and the passion and crucifixion was before Him, it would require a complete and unconditional commitment on the part of His followers to make further disciples.
One of the first teachings of Jesus is found in Matthew 3:2 as Jesus says, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand". Interestingly, the very last words of Jesus recorded in the Bible are in the Book of Revelation 12:20 where Jesus reminds us, "Yes, I am coming quickly"
"Amen, Come Lord Jesus"
