December 29, 2012
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 8:18-22
OBSERVATIONS
1. Why does Jesus avoid the crowds? Seeing how they often responded – faith, doubt, anger, excitement – and how some wanted to “make Him king by force” (John 6:15), I suspect that Jesus avoided the crowds to keep Himself on task, fulfilling His God assignment. He knew how Satan would do anything – use anyone – to stop Him, distracting Him from God’s will (Matthew 16:21-23). Are there things that Satan uses in my life to keep me from obeying God or following His will for me?
2. If someone came to me and said, ‘I will follow Jesus wherever He goes”, I would break out into celebration, I would see this as ministry fruit, as a blessing from God in the work we are doing. So why does Jesus respond in this mysterious, negative way? Is this another example of Jesus being careful of how Satan might trip Him up? It also speaks of His honesty… imagine a car dealer responding to your desire to buy his car explaining to you in detail all the concerns and dangers with that car, discouraging you from buying it (with no hidden agenda to up-sell you).
3. Why doesn’t Jesus let this man bury his father? Was he saying that his father had just died, and the funeral was imminent, or that he didn’t want to follow Jesus until his father died (whenever that was)? I am guessing that he was putting off following Jesus, making an excuse for why he would follow Jesus ‘later’, ‘tomorrow’. Let the ‘dead’ bury the dead… I think he means following Him means choosing life, and that putting it off is putting off life, ie choosing death. Jesus is describing life without Him as like being dead.
What do you notice in this passage?
APPLICATION
1. What does Satan use in my life to distract me from following God’s will. Do I avoid those traps, or do I allow them to get in the way – people’s approval, the easy way out, being popular or well-liked, striving to have big crowds in my church, doing what gets the attention of the world? Do I even see myself as at risk from these kind of distractions, or do I go into each day oblivious to the spiritual danger I am in?
2. What excuses do I have for not taking God or Jesus more seriously now? I sense the Lord looking at me and gently probing me about my expressed desire to be a ‘Jesus follower’. Having a blog called this does not make me a Jesus follower, actually living and choosing to live like Jesus – at home, at work, with my neighbours, etc. – this is what makes me a Jesus follower. Would my neighbours identity me as a Jesus follower because of my actions, or because of my words and title (pastor)?
3. I can definitely relate to the deadening sense of life without God and Jesus. In times when I have drifted, when I have only nominally followed Jesus, life felt empty, pointless, dead. The distractions and pleasures I looked to did not satisfy my soul, only left it feeling more dead, more empty. It may sound contrary, but though following Jesus involves sacrifice, it is life-giving sacrifice; and though not following Jesus involves indulgence, it is deadening indulgence…
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
God, life is empty and dead without You. Jesus, following You is the way, the truth, the life. Help me to see the distractions and excuses that keep me from following You wholeheartedly, and help me to resist and avoid them.
When the crowd around Jesus was getting very large, Jesus left to go to the other side of the lake. Would he not have been able to minister to more people when there were more of them. Jesus seems to be getting away from the crowds on several occasions. Also a few days ago, a man he healed was told not to tell anyone. All this sounds counter-intuitive if you are trying to reach a lot of people. I take from this that it is OK not to have big crowds of people or a big church to meet with in order to be effective. Jesus is interested in individuals, and he seems to do his best work one on one.
He tells the man who wants to follow him wherever he goes that he has no home. No place to lay his head. This makes it hard for someone who wants to tag along everywhere. Maybe it’s just as well. Who wants to have a groupie hanging around 24/7?
It seems harsh to say to the disciple who asked Jesus to wait while he went to bury his father that “the dead should bury their own dead” The commentary in my Bible suggests that this disciple wanted to wait for his aging father to die, and the dead that Jesus is referring to are spiritually dead. I am not sure of this, as I would suspect that Jesus would be compassionate to someone who had just lost a loved one.
I pray that I will be able to minister one on one, as Jesus did, and that I can be effective to a small group of people, as opportunities arise.