The last couple of weeks we have looked at the amazing miracles of Jesus that demonstrated His divine authority over creation, proving and reinforcing His credentials as the Christ and His right to teach in the way that He did through the sermon on the Mount. As we think about these miracles, it seems utterly incredible, inexplicable that people would continually reject and refuse to acknowledge who He was and is.
We might understand people today rejecting the gospel, especially when it is so devastatingly misrepresented by the health and wealth preachers that are so popular. Charlatans who promise miracles that they cannot deliver on and promote false stories of healing in order to swindle desperate people out of their money.
But how could the people who watched these true miracles take place and not fall down and worship at the feet of Jesus? We began to answer that question a little bit last week as we closed our look at the so-called faith healers of today. There are a couple of reasons why God does not allow healers in the world today as He did with Jesus and in the time of the apostles. He uses illness and suffering to remind us that we live in a sin filled fallen world, He uses it to advance and perfect our faith, and He recognizes that no matter what kind of miraculous events happen in the world, it will not bring people to true faith in him.
That is what Matthew shows us next as he continues in chapter 8. Jesus’ miracles were undeniable, and yet these men we will see in verses 18-22 refused to recognize the truth and commit to it. How? I have so often wondered how these people could see miracles like this, to be exposed to so many miraculous, and divine interventions directly contrary to the normal workings of natural world and yet walk away. Of course, there are some that are so committed to their sin that they would refuse any sign no matter how clear. As it says in John 3:19 “the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” As we will see with the Pharisees in chapter 12, they are so committed to their sin that they will call Jesus the devil. They are so committed to the darkness that they do not know the difference between darkness and light.
I think as well that there is another category of people who fail to commit to Jesus. Last week, we talked about the crowds of people who continue to follow these fake healers around even after they hear about the failed miracles and are exposed to the truth. Instead of accepting that these men are wrong, they simply go find someone else to follow. Like the crowds who came to Jesus here in Matthew chapter 8, they were thrill seekers who just came for the show. They came for entertainment, they came to hear what all the hubbub was about, they came for what they could get out of it. So, by the end of verse 17, after He cast out demons with the word and healed all who were ill, there were crowds and crowds of people around Jesus wanting to get a glimpse of the show.
But Jesus did not come to heal the physically sick, He did heal them out of compassion, He did heal out of a desire to fulfill Old Testament prophecies, He did heal to demonstrate His divine authority, He did heal to give the Jewish people a glimpse of the coming kingdom of heaven, to reverse the physical effects of sin in the world; but healing illness and deformities and suffering was not His primary purpose, He came to preach the gospel to the lost and draw those in darkness to the light, to His light.
And so, in order to get on with that mission He decided to set out across the lake and that is where we find ourselves in verse 18. As He is beginning to set out, Matthew tells us about two men who came to Him wanting to follow. We are going to look at those two men in verses 19-22 and the third that Luke tells us about in his account of this event in Luke 9:57-62. More specifically, we are going to look at the warning labels that Jesus gives to these three men. Warning labels that, in the end, scared them away. Let us begin by reading our text for this morning, Matthew 8:18-22.
“Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. Then a scribe came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, I will follow Your wherever You go.” 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, permit me first to go bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
We see in verse 18 the crowds gathering and so Jesus decides to head to the other shore. He is weary, as we will see in verses 24 and 25, so tired in fact that He falls asleep in this little fishing boat as a storm is raging. He needs time for prayer and refreshment, something to reset. And as He is beginning to head out, it presses the issue of commitment with certain people. There were many people following Jesus, listening to His teaching, seeing these miracles. People who recognize there was something different about Him, and they wanted something from Him. In fact, Mark tells us that when Jesus set out there were several other boats following him. But Jesus makes this rather abrupt departure and it forces people to make the decision, “do I follow Him, or do I stay?”
So, we asked the question, what keeps people from following Jesus in the face of miracles such as these? We know the Pharisees hated Jesus and what He stood for and turned away with hardened hearts. But there were these massive crowds of people who are attracted to Him, the magnetism of His personality, the miracles, they came to Jesus for what they could get out of him and in the three cases we are going to be looking at this morning, what kept them from genuine conversion was the warning Jesus gave.
The first man is interested, he sees there something special the miracles of Jesus and very likely in the teachings of Jesus as well. We see in verse 19 that he is a scribe. Scribes were the authorities in the law. They were the teachers, qualified by Jewish authority to teach. They were highly educated, loyal to the system. These were the seminary professors and respected authors of their day. We also know that the scribes were generally hostile to Christ. They usually get lumped in with the Pharisees in their opposition. We see over and over again throughout the Gospels Jesus attacking and being attacked by “the scribes and Pharisees.”
But here, this scribe sees something special in Jesus and he wants to come. “Teacher” he calls Jesus, the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Rabbi,” an honored title. This guy recognizes the knowledge and wisdom of Jesus as well as the miracles. I am sure this scribe thought Jesus was the greatest teacher he never heard, marveled at his teaching, astounded by the miracles. ‘This is unbelievable, this is perfect, I want to be close to this guy. Wherever He is going I want to go.’ “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” What an affirmation, what a tremendous statement of dedication, permanent commitment.
And if we heard something like this today we would be excited. “I want to follow Jesus wherever He goes. Great, jump in, we would love to have you. But Jesus is not so eager, He sees into the hearts of men. And I think this response sounds best in something of a slightly disheartened voice. Jesus wants this guy to follow Him, but He knows something that everyone else, even this scribe, is missing, “the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
This is another time I would love to see the faces of Jesus’s disciples. “What? Jesus this guy, this scribe, said he wants to follow you, he is an educated, important teacher himself. He sounds interested; he sounds committed. What is with the birds and the foxes?” Jesus is making a simple point that obviously went straight to the heart of this scribe. Nobody else could see it, nobody else knew this scribe’s hang-up. But Jesus could see his heart and hit him with this simple warning and it obviously did something because he disappears in the white space between verses 20 and 21.
“The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” This scribe had a good life. He was educated, he had popularity and honor, he probably had money and influence in the community. He would have had a nice comfortable life. Here comes Jesus with his amazing teaching and undeniable miracles and this scribe wants a part of the action, he wants to add Jesus to his life. He wants to take all this good stuff Jesus is offering and pile it in with all of the other good stuff he has got.
But that is not how Jesus works. You do not get to add him to your life and keep going along as before. If you are going to follow Jesus it means you have to be ready to live without even the most basic comforts of life, the hole in the ground or nest in a tree. You have to be willing to give up on the comforts of life, the good things of life if that is what is required in following Jesus. And Jesus knew this guy was not willing to do that, this scribe wanted the good but was unwilling to accept any of the bad, any of the difficulties that come with it.
Jesus talked about these kinds of people in the parable of the seeds. We will see this a little later in chapter 13. Jesus said “the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; (some familiar?) yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.”
This scribe saw Jesus and accepted the message in the miracles with joy. But Christ saw his heart, he knew it was fickle, unstable, self-centered. The crowd, the miracles, the excitement, the scribe was fascinated. But in the end, he was like a seed on stony ground that grows quickly but has no root and dies under the hot sun. Unwilling and unable to pay the price when it comes due. He was unwilling to accept that the narrow road requires self-denial, require sacrifice, require suffering and so Jesus throws up this warning label right at the beginning. “If you are in a follow me just know what you are getting into.” And this scribe decides it is not worth it. He wants the comforts of home.
You see Jesus does not sugarcoat the message of the gospel. He wanted to make sure that people understood what they were getting into, to count the cost. He wanted to make sure they were not coming on false information. He wanted to make sure that his disciples were going to be willing to go through the persecution, the suffering, the difficulties that would come when he left. In chapter 10 he is going to say to his disciples “behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves… Beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles… You will be hated by all because of my name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
What did He say back at the beginning of his sermon on the Mount? “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” There is a price to pay to be a Christian. Jesus was hitting the scribe with easiest bit, the fact that he may just have to live without the comforts of home, and that was too much. The scribe was not willing to pay the price, he just wanted the excitement, he wanted his personal comfort, to add Jesus to his already established life. Jesus drove him away with this first warning label.
Then we see the second person in verse 21. “Another of the disciples said to him.” Now, this is not one of the 12 disciples. The word “disciple” just means learner, or follower. There were a lot of people following Jesus around at different levels of commitment and this follower says to him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
Now you might be thinking this sounds like a reasonable request. Let me go bury my father, we cannot just leave the dead lying around, let me get them in the ground properly. The Jews did not involve him so when someone died you had to get them in the ground with the first two or three days before they started to stink everything up. Even more than that, the Jews taught that it was one of the most important responsibilities of the child to take care of their parents funeral arrangements. We see that all the way back in Genesis. The sounds like a reasonable request. This follower knows Jesus is about to leave but he has to go finish these funeral arrangements first and then he will catch up.
But there is actually more here than what we Westerners understand. The phrase “I must first go and bury my father” is actually a colloquial phrase that still exists in the Middle East today. It does not actually mean that this disciple’s father was dead, in fact he was probably very much alive. What it means is, I have to stick around until he dies, fulfill those roles as a child, and then of course receive my inheritance. You see this so-called disciple does not need to just go dig a hole real quick, this “burying his father” could take years and there was something on the other end of it. He has been waiting for his inheritance and he is not gonna let somebody else get a whole of it while he is off following Jesus. He has got daddy’s money on his mind.
Jesus said to them, “follow me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.” That is a pretty harsh statement. Course is not talking about the physically dead dragging this kind of a grave. Jesus is talking about the spiritually dead. But the spiritually dead worry about the things of this world like waiting around for inheritance. Luke adds in his account “allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is telling this man to let the secular world take care of its own issues, to let go of that system and focus on proclaiming the kingdom of God. Jesus knows that this man’s priorities are upside down. Secular matters belong to secular people. What the world take care of itself. But this man has got his heart set on his inheritance, his personal possessions, his piece of the action coming. He has been waiting a long time and he does not want to bail out now. Like the scribe, he was fascinated by the teaching of Jesus, he was amazed by the miracles, he wanted to jump on the bandwagon but he did not want to leave his money behind.
Like the rich young ruler we will meet in chapter 19. What does Jesus tell him is the way to obtain eternal life? “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.” What happened next? “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.” Now does that have anything to do with being saved? Do we get saved by taking a valve poverty? Of course not, but if you are money stands in the way, if your money or your comfort is more important than Jesus, then you are going to have to get rid of it in order to be saved.
There are so many people like that, especially in this country. We are so wealthy, even the poorest among us. We have comfort, we have wealth, and we want to add Jesus to it. And when the true cost of following Jesus comes to, so many people walk away and are lost forever. Jesus is making sure from the beginning that these men see the warning labels on following him and are clear on the terms.
In Luke’s account we see a third guy who comes that day. We get basically the same story with the first two and in Luke chapter 9 he adds a third “another also said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home.” That seems fair. I am going to follow you Lord but I just want to make sure I say goodbye. Give mom and dad a hug and then I am coming. “But Jesus said to him, “no one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Again, that sounds pretty harsh. But Jesus saw the heart of this young man. He knew more than was on the surface. Some scholars say about this statement, that when someone was going to leave for a long journey there would be a weeklong farewell party thrown. This young man wanted to follow Jesus but he wanted to have his official sending off party. And Jesus was saying it is now or never. You do not get to have your last hurrah and then decide to commit. I think there is truth to that. That may be the case. It is the evil behind “fat Tuesday.” Do you all know what that is? In the Catholic tradition, Lent starts the Wednesday so many days before Easter Sunday, resurrection Sunday. It is a time of special sacrifice for God. And so the day before you get into this time of special holiness, special sanctification, you have one last hurrah one last party. That is where Mardi Gras comes from. “Let us get all the food and sinning in we can before we have to be good during Lent.”
Now this may be the case, but I think there is something a little bit different that Jesus sees in this man other than a desire for one more “fat Tuesday.” “I will follow you, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home.” But Jesus said to them, “no one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” What is can happen when this kid goes home and tells mommy and daddy he is going to follow Jesus? What are mommy and daddy going to do? This is not his wife and kids, Jesus is not telling him to abandon his responsibilities in that sense. I think Jesus sees in his heart that if he goes home his parents are going to convince him not to commit to Jesus.
Family pressure is very difficult to deal with, especially in an area of the world like the Middle East where family is everything. It is not always easy here either. Can you imagine the experience of someone whose family are devout Catholics, and they decide to leave the Roman church? They might be shunned, looked down upon, rejected by their own family for the gospel. Around the world there are places where becoming a Christian means being completely ostracized from your family and your community for life.
We will see down in chapter 10 Jesus say, in verse 34 “do not think that I came to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He was found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus is making the warning labels on following him very clear. Painfully clear. The moralizing link clear for those unwilling to take the next step. To be a follower of Jesus is not an easy thing. It is all or nothing. Following Jesus means being willing to make sacrifices. Sacrificing your comfort, sacrificing wealth, influence, fame, even your family if that is what is required of you.
The Lord may not take away your personal comforts, he may not take away your possessions, he might bless you with more. He might bless you with a family that is supportive of your commitment to him and drive you further in sanctification. Jesus does not always require that you actually sacrifice everything, but he does require that you be willing to do it.
For centuries, people have marveled at Jesus, his wisdom, his works, his purity, his power, his love. They have been amazed and been overwhelmed and yet they have walked away lost because they never came on his terms.
The missionary Adoniram Judson who spent his life in Burma understood what this commitment to Christ could mean. He understood the toll that it might require. And before he left on the mission field he fell in love with a woman named Ann Hasseltine. Knowing that he wanted to marry her and knowing what might be required of him in the service of his savior he wrote a letter to Anne’s father asking for her hand in marriage, and I want to read this letter to you.
“I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world? Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, and her subjugation to hardships and sufferings of the missionary life? Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death? Can you consent to all of this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all of this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall resound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?”
We need to have people sign a letter like that before they commit to being a Christian. The big evangelistic crusades would have had a very different outcome if that was a read before they asked for people to walk down the aisle and sign a card or pray a prayer. Ann did go through all of that. She lost three children on the mission field and then died of smallpox herself. If you want to be inspired to Christian service read the biography of Adoniram Judson.
I am not saying that is what will be required of you in this life, but you do have to be willing. Jesus made it very clear with these warning labels that the Christian life does not come with the promise of comfort and ease. In the service of God, we may be called to suffer greatly. We will have to make sacrifices, some great and small. It is the willingness that is required on the narrow road, and we really should know what we’re getting into.