The Gospel and the Kingdom - Matthew - Jesus' Mandate - Part 2

 

TEXT:  MATTHEW 8:18-22 - ¹⁸ And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. ¹⁹ Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” ²⁰ 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.” ²¹ Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Continuing our study in the Book of Matthew we see that he is building his case that Jesus is the promised Messiah. In today’s passage, He describes the cost of true discipleship. Yesterday we witnessed that it calls for Unusual Sacrifice. Today, see that Jesus says it requires Unusual Standards.

Now, this passage may seem a bit odd to us. All of us know that family should be important to us, right? In fact, God’s Word commands that we honor our father and mother. It’s one of the ten commandments!

Yet, here Jesus is telling a follower of His that it’s more important to follow Him than to bury his father.  This is certainly an unusual standard for Jesus to have. Those of you that have studied this passage before know that there are different explanations for what it means for this man to bury his father. Let’s talk about those briefly. 

• ·      First, is the most natural interpretation based on our American way of thinking. This verse could simply mean that the man’s father has passed away and that he needs to literally bury his father.
• ·      A second interpretation is that this man has to finish the burial process for his father. You see, in ancient Israel, families would bury their loved one and then go back up to a year later or so and collect the bones of their loved one. They would then put those bones in a box called an ossuary. The box would then be kept in a cave or tomb with the other ossuaries from the family. So, the man could be saying that he needs to wait quite a while to finish the burial process for his father. 
• ·      A third interpretation is that the man’s father is not even dead, but he is elderly. In this view, the man is basically saying, “I need to take care of my father in his old age. Give me some time for my father to die before I follow you.”

I’m not exactly sure which interpretation we are to take here, but here’s the secret, friend: it doesn’t really matter which one it is, the meaning is the same. 

Look at what Jesus says.  He says, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” When we follow Jesus we follow the one with life! The world is full of spiritually dead people, and physical death abounds, so we must be seeking out life!  Jesus says to us, “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly!” Jesus says to us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus says to the man, and to us, “Follow me.”

You see, it doesn’t matter if the man has to miss his funeral, or delay the completion of the family burial, or miss out on taking care of his aging father, following Jesus is more important than any and all of that! There is nothing in this world that should take precedence over following Jesus! Nothing! That’s the point of verses 21 and 22!

Family, fortune, fame, fantasies, fortitude, and even Flintstones vitamins can’t give you what Jesus can give you. Jesus can give you life and give you real life! Nothing should take the place of Jesus!

Jesus is presenting the man with an opportunity to make a decision about what will be most important in his life. 

You might say to me, “Doc, isn’t family good? Isn’t it good to bury your father?”  Yes. It is good to bury your loved one. There are a lot of good things in this world that we should do and those things even please God whenever we do them. However, no good thing should take the place of the best thing: following Jesus!

Remember, friend, we must genuinely and faithfully follow Jesus.

• ·      Our hearts must be devoted to Him more than anything else.
• ·      Truly following Jesus is more important than loving our parents.
• ·      It’s more important than loving our children.
• ·      It’s more important than loving our church.
• ·      It’s more important than parenting and preaching.
• ·      It’s more important than our health, our finances, our popularity, our longevity, our legacy, our notoriety, our philanthropy, our work, our play, our preferences, and our priorities.   

Don’t let anything get in the way of you following Jesus.  

Followers of Jesus don’t have the standards of the world when it comes to what is most important to us. Jesus has unusual standards. You should want the usual standards. 

The first man we saw yesterday was eager to follow Jesus but Jesus cautioned him to consider the cost. He wanted to jump in too quickly. The second man today was too slow to follow Jesus because earthly matters took priority in his life. 

On the outside, these conversations may seem odd. These words from Jesus may even seem strict and rigid. However, we must realize that Jesus wants us to know what it means to follow Him.

It requires uncommon sacrifice and unusual standards. 

Jesus requires total and radical devotion. He does not want to take second place in your life. 

That leads us to our bottom line today: To follow Jesus, He must be number one. Jesus can totally change your life. Here’s the thing: He wants all of your life, not just part of it. Don’t hold anything back!

Count the cost. It takes commitment, but the rewards are wonderful! Ask yourself, “What would it take for me to not faithfully follow Jesus?” 

We don’t know for sure, but these men could have walked away and not followed Jesus. What would it take for you to walk away and not follow Jesus?

Some of us have already stopped following Him and we don’t even know it. We’re just walking through the motions. 

Let’s not play around! He’s number one!

If you’re not following Him, you can start following Him today and He will totally change your life. Are you ready to follow Him?