Matthew 8:18-22, The Cost of Following Jesus

18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up 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 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Comments

Jesus makes the point that following him entails homelessness and insecurity. Following him even takes priority over family obligations. The dead were to be buried within twenty-four hours and took precedent over everything else. The duty was incumbent on the son. Here the dead are those outside the discipleship group.

Have you given up something to follow Jesus? How has your faith in him led you to shape your life in a different way?

Prayer

Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope

of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(BPC, p. 816)