Matthew 8:18-22 - Why Follow Jesus?


Matthew 8:18-22 (ESV)
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.”

Just before this passage Jesus performed a number of miracles. He cleansed a leper, healed a Centurion’s servant, and then healed Peter’s mother-in-law along with many others. This passage is followed by several expressions of Jesus’ power. He calms a storm, demonstrating his power over nature, heals two men with demons, demonstrating his power over spiritual forces, and then heals a paralytic, demonstrating his power of sickness, disease, and affliction. In between these expressions of power, we find this passage where Jesus seems to be discouraging people from following him. We would expect “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go” to be followed by Jesus saying, “Well, come on then. Let’s get going.” But instead it is followed by, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He is telling the man how hard it will be to follow Jesus.

What is going on with this passage? The miracles preceding this passage are concluded with the words from Isaiah, “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases” (Mt 8:17; Is 53:4). Now he is telling them how hard it is going to be. Shouldn’t following Jesus be easy? Shouldn’t it be characterized by health, compassion, and complete provision? Isn’t Jesus the bringer of blessing and life? The problem is that these people saying, “We’ll follow you anywhere,” are very likely doing so because they see a free meal ticket. You can heal sickness? I’ll follow you anywhere, I’ll never be sick again. You can cast out demons? I’ll follow you anywhere, I’ll never be hounded by demonic forces again. You can restore the dying, bring health to the unhealthy, give freedom to those in bondage? Where do I sign up?

What they fail to understand is that Jesus has a higher purpose than just making life easy for them, so because they seem to want the easy life, Jesus reminds them, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20). In the short term, following Jesus is not the easy life. It could very well be a life of rejection, grief, poverty, and pain. Still, we are called to follow him. Here is the deal, why we follow Jesus is just as important as whether we follow him. Jesus always discourages those who want to follow him for the wrong reasons. Are you a follower of Jesus? Then ask yourself this question: Why? Is it so you can have the good life? Then maybe you missed the point. Is your answer, “Jesus is Sovereign Lord. Who else would I follow?” Now you are getting somewhere. Never forget that why we follow Jesus is just as important as whether we follow him.

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