SHARING BREAD
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."
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."
Matt
8:18-22 (NIV)
In our verses for today we are given two examples of
differing attitudes desirous of following the Master and our Lord’s forthcoming
responses. The first – a teacher of the
law – approached Jesus in an overly zealous and seemingly resolute and without
reserve manner. At first blush, one
would assume Jesus’ response to this teacher would have been one of gladness
and excitement. How strange that our
Lord would have responded in the way that He did. Yet knowing the heart and perceiving the
unfounded zeal Jesus begins to describe to this teacher the cost involved in
following Him which perhaps he had not taken into account. Emotional zeal without knowledge will not
sustain us when times become difficult.
Jesus desires for His followers to finish well and does not want them to
enter into their relationship with Him without counting the cost. True discipleship must include planning and
sacrifice. I am reminded of Jesus’ Words
recorded in Luke:
28 “Suppose one of you wants to
build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he
has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation
and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to
build and was not able to finish.’” Luke
14:28-30 (NIV)
“The
weapon of repentance, through rejection of false beliefs and affirmation of
godly truth, has changed thousands of lives.
Repentance can liberate the mind and destroy speculations and every
lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5) and it can
help us discover the wondrous significance we have in Jesus Christ: We are
deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally acceptable, and
complete in Him. Our journey is a joyous
and challenging adventure with Christ.” Robert
McGee
“Great victory has never been possible without great sacrifice.” Samuel Zwemer
Next we discover another who desired to follow Christ yet
with delay in fulfilling his commitment.
He was slow in performing which – as we see from Jesus’ response –
misses the mark as much as emotional zeal and hastiness did with our Lord. We must act on what we know today. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Interestingly, an unwilling mind will never
lack excuses.
“There
is only one time that is important – now!”
Leo Tolstoy
Jesus demands our priority.
He is to be first. He does not
share His throne. The request from this
man was not due to the death of his father as he would have already been
involved in the burial process rather it was his desire to go home and wait for
his father to die. Familial relations
are extremely important to the Lord Jesus and likewise they are to be valued by
His followers as well yet they are never to take precedence over Him – no one
or nothing is to occupy the throne of our lives but Christ.
“The Spirit and
the gifts are ours Through Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth
still: His kingdom is forever.”
Martin Luther
“Nobody can
fight properly and boldly for the faith if he clings to fear of being stripped
of earthly possessions.” Peter Damian
Our Lord tells
us in all four Gospels that anyone who desires to come after Him must take up
his cross daily and follow Him:
23 Then he said to them all: "If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow me. 24 For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me
will save it. 25 What
good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very
self? Luke 9:23-25 (NIV)
“Your cross is
prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are to accept it
cheerfully; you are to carry the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not
to stand judging it too severely. Jesus
bids you to submit your shoulder to His easy yoke. Don’t kick at it in petulance, or trample on
it in vain conceit, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear,
but take it up like a true follower of Jesus.
Jesus was a cross bearer; He leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better
guide! And if He carried a cross, what
nobler burden would you desire? The ‘Via
Crucis’ is the way of safety; don’t be afraid to tread its thorny paths……Carry
your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love
with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all
the treasures of Egypt. Remember that
Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be
followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will
greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble. The
Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will which becomes
a follower of the Crucified.” Charles
H. Spurgeon
What I glean from
this:
· Emotional zeal will not sustain me when the winds of
life blow hard.
· My love for Jesus must be grounded in the knowledge of
the Truth of His Word.
· Jesus desires for me to finish well.
