Jesus, the Cost to Follow (Matthew 8:18-22)
Notes
Transcript
Matthew 8:18-22
Jesus, the Cost to Follow
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Land O’ Lakes Bible Church
Scripture Reading & Prayer
Scripture Reading & Prayer
A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2 The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! 3 Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. 4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. 7 He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
Pastoral Prayer
Pastoral Prayer
Introduction
Introduction
In the finance world there is a term called the cost-benefit analysis. This is the systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternative options for a company. A cost-benefit analysis allows companies to explore various options to find the most profitable solution. From the use of certain materials to the selling of a product, a company will use this cost-benefit analysis in an aim to be a good and profitable company. For it certainly would not benefit a company if their costs were higher than their profits. Therefore the cost-benefit analysis is a vital part to making which business endeavors to pursue.
But a cost-benefit analysis isn’t just for the business world. Though not to the same degree and without the financial equations, we use a cost-benefit analysis in our ordinary lives. Maybe we use a cost-benefit analysis to determine taking a new job or a new role at work. Does it benefit us or what may it cost us? Maybe we use a cost-benefit analysis in adding on new activities onto our calendar, including that of our children’s activities. Maybe we use the cost-benefit analysis even on what hobbies we do and don’t have time for.
I hope you are starting to see the picture here, we regularly are seeking to count the cost vs the benefits in all sorts of things. But what about when it comes to the Christian faith? That’s what we want to talk about this morning from our passage there in Matthew 8:18-22. So I invite you to take out your Bible or grab one of the Red Bibles there in front of you and turn with me to Matthew 8:18-22. This can be found on page #966 there in the Red Bible.
On the bookends of the Sermon on the Mount we have seen great crowds coming to Jesus to receive healings as his fame spread. The people sought to come near to Jesus and see for themselves what he could do. And yet these crowds are not why Jesus came. As we saw early in the Gospel According to Matthew back in Matthew 1:21 “21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”” Jesus came to save sinners. This was his purpose. He came in the world to save sinners as the one who would bring fulfillment to all of God’s promises. His promises to Abraham to be a blessing to the nations, which we saw a glimpse of last week with a centurion coming with great faith to Jesus. The nations are being blessed through Abraham in Jesus. But Jesus also came to bring fulfillment to the promises to David. David was promised to have one who would sit on his throne forever, and Jesus is the one with such authority and who will take the throne and in fact has been seated on the throne and is now reigning.
So then, how do these crowds fit into the mission of Jesus to save sinners? (READ MATTHEW 8:18-22).
Main Idea: It is easy to be in awe of Jesus with his authoritative teaching and his miraculous healings, but if we are to be his disciples, we must count the cost as we follow him. We are going to unfold this in two points: (1) The Cost of Comfort, this covering verses 19-20 and (2) The Cost of Allegiance, this covering verses 21-22.
Point #1: The Cost of Comfort
Point #1: The Cost of Comfort
As Jesus and his disciples prepare to go to the other side of the Sea, a journey they will take many times, a crowd flocks to and surrounds Jesus. The fame of Jesus has spread, from his authoritative teaching to his miraculous healings. Jesus is famous. And yet, in the midst of his growing fame, Jesus seeks to depart away from the crowds with his disciples. And as Jesus and his disciples prepare for departure as noted there in verse 18, one is said to approach him and seek to join their group. Verse 19.
This one, a scribe, is a learned person in matters of the Torah, the law of God. They were nerdy in these matters, often even being able to often know off the top of their head how many letters or words were in a scroll. However, they often missed the point of the message itself. And it is the Scribes, along with the Pharisees who often are at odds with Jesus. But here with this particular scribe, at first glance anyways, it seems like here we have a positive Scribe. For he seeks to follow Jesus wherever he goes. But notice how this Scribe addresses Jesus, Teacher. This is in stark contrast with the way the leper and the centurion from earlier here in Matthew 8 have addressed Jesus.
And while calling Jesus, Teacher, is not an insult, it is to miss who he is, especially the way Matthew uses it here in his gospel account. For eight other times Matthew writes that others referenced and call Jesus, Teacher. In none of these occasions is it from one who is being presented as a true disciple of Jesus, as one ready to follow him. For the use of Teacher is often in a phrase of flattery or seeking to attach oneself to Jesus to gain benefit from him. Such as the case likely here with this Scribe, particularly with Jesus’ response.
Who we understand Jesus to be matters greatly. He cannot be what we seek him to be or who we define him to be. We must seek to rightly understand who Jesus says he is and who he has been revealed to be.
To illustrate this point, let me share a personal example from a past evangelism encounter.
At the time I was working for a company that surveyed street lights within the different townships of Chicagoland. The job had us driving around in a car, taking measurements on the lights on poles, the angle, the wattage, etc. I was one of the first pulled off one project to begin this new project, so with it came the opportunity to teach others as they were added to this new project. One day I got a younger man in the car with me, teaching him how to do the job. But as I am teaching, I am seeking to ask him about him, life, family, and then finally beliefs. I ask him if he is religious of any kind. He then proceeds to tell me that he that he believes there are many different ways to heaven, each religion finding its way. So, what do I do, I ask him about what he thinks about Jesus. And he then tells me that he thinks Jesus is a great teacher. I had him there, because I was able to point him to who Jesus said he was from John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” In proclaiming this about Jesus, I was able to say to this guy, either Jesus is who he says he is or he is a lunatic. He can’t be a good teacher and say this and he still be one of many ways.
Getting Jesus right matters. It matters especially if we are to understand what it means to follow Jesus. Our desire to follow Jesus can’t be because we are amazed by him, by his teachings or his healings. Friend, it is not enough to think Jesus is a great teacher and desire simply to follow some of his teachings. For note Jesus’ response to this scribe who calls him, “Teacher”. Verse 20.
One wants to follow Jesus and Jesus turns the conversation to foxes and birds. And yet, here Jesus paints even these creatures have a place of their own to lay their head down at night and rest. This being in direct contrast to him. For Jesus says he has no place to lay his head.
In saying this, Jesus here is saying that there is no comfort ahead for any who would be his disciple, not even the comfort of assurance of a regular place to lay his head. Consider just the next section, Jesus would find himself sleeping on a boat. Jesus did not own a house, he had no guaranteed comforts of this world. And to follow him meant sojourning in the same conditions. Therefore, this scribe needed to consider, is it worth it to follow Jesus? To forsake such comfort as his disciple?
And it is this same thought that is being put here before us, if we are to come and follow Jesus as his disciples, are we willing to forsake comforts in this world as we pursue Christ?
Jesus knows his end. His end is the cross. His end is to become the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 as we noted last week from verse 17 in this same chapter. Our King’s end is the most cruel and shameful death imaginable with nails driven through the veins of his hands and feet to cause him a long and cruel suffocation. To breathe air in, he must push up on those nails to expand his chest to be able to get a quick breathe before collapsing back down. And doing this over and over again.
Our King does not sugarcoat what being his disciple looks like, he is telling us that to follow him as his disciple will be a similar path to his, a path that will cost us. It will be uncomfortable for us, though not in the same way.
To be a disciple of Jesus, we will face uncomfortable things in this life. We will face the uncomfortable of suffering and trials. We will face illness and the sufferings of living in a sinful world. The path of discipleship is not a path to comfort in health.
To be a disciple of Jesus will lead some to the paths of forsaking many of the comforts of this world and living in poverty as they follow Jesus. Because to follow Jesus costs them that better paying job or that job in general because they refuse to follow the ways of the world in celebrating sin.
To be a disciple might mean for some selling all you have and abandoning the life you have known to go and risk it all for the sake of the glory of God to the nations.
And still for others, the call to forsake comfort might mean disciplining your flesh in order to kill sin. Forsaking comfort in the things of the flesh, whether certain foods to avoid gluttony or more serious comfort and desires of the flesh to walk in godliness. From forsaking the temptation of the flesh to strike back when one strikes us vs turning the other cheek, to not returning an evil word with one of our own. To disciplining our flesh against ungodly urges of lust or anger which is as guilty as murder.
The call to discipleship is not a call to comfort. Let us be aware of what it may cost us to follow Jesus before saying we will as this scribe.
Yet, let us know that it will be worth it! For though the Son of Man must suffer, though he has no place to lay his head in this world, he is the Son of Man. We now return to this self-given title by Jesus to unfold it. The title Son of Man is rooted in the book of Daniel.
Daniel 7:13–14 (ESV)
13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
This proclamation comes in the midst of Daniels vision. A vision that is often misread and then misapplied. A vision in which we think tells us how the end will play out in its timing. And because we mis read, we misinterpret, and then misapply. We apply it to our time and to current nations. The main thing in Daniels visions are to warn us of the troubled times ahead and to point us to this Son of Man who will be presented as on with all authority and dominion, he who will be the everlasting. He who is fulfilled in Jesus.
Friends, the Bible is full of warnings that in this present life, there is suffering, that we should not expect comfort while living in the midst of a world ruined by sin. And yet, for all its promises of discomfort, there is one who will be given dominion and overturn it all. One who is worthy of following through the discomforts of this world because in the end he will win and those with him will receive his kingdom which shall last forever. Christian, this is our hope in life and in death. In comfort and discomfort, that our glorious king wins in the end. This hope is to propel us along the way, through the discomfort of living in this broken world as we follow our King as his disciples.
The end is worth it, but to get there we will be taken through discomfort, we must count this cost if we are to follow Jesus as his disciples, for the Son of Man has no place to lay his head, though the foxes have their dens and the birds of the air their nests.
Point #2: The Cost of Allegiance
Point #2: The Cost of Allegiance
Verse 21. Again, a quick reading of such seems that this disciple has good intentions. For he gets rightly who Jesus is in calling him Lord. He recognizes Jesus not just as a teacher, but one with great authority. And he desires to care well for his father, to honor him. And yet Jesus response to this request seems shocking. Verse 22.
Is Jesus too hard with this man? Telling him to let the dead bury their own dead? We might even be tempted to think, seriously, Jesus, let him go bury his father and then catch up with you. If it were just that simple and plain, but its not.
For though it is possible for us here to misjudge this man’s character and circumstances, it is doubtful. It could be argued here that this man maybe was on his way home to bury his dead father after finding out about his death, and on the way he stumbled into the crowd in hearing about Jesus. Possible… but very unlikely.
No, this man who expresses desire to follow Jesus seeks to delay his discipleship, his allegiance until a later time when his father does die. For if this man was a good Jewish son, he would not be flocking out to the crowds to find out about this Jesus while his father was dying or had just died. He would be rushing with haste to be by his father’s side and bury him immediately.
We here in the year 2024 here in Western civilization read the Bible with our western lenses on too much. We must remember we are reading here about an ancient time with a different culture. The Egyptians had a ritual of embalming, a process that took 40 days, we know this because of the embalming of Jacob in Genesis 50. However, the Israelites did not practice this and would have buried their families the day of their death, and in the midst of death, the family would be by the side of their loved one. Therefore this seemingly good Jewish Son to our Western eyes was in reality not so. He was stalling to follow Jesus until his father eventually died and then buried him. And Jesus knew this.
John 2:23–25 (ESV)
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
And because Jesus knew this, he tells him what he does again there in verse 22.
This man needed to see that if he sought to truly follow Jesus as his disciple, he must be willing to forsake all other allegiances in order to do so, including that of his father.
The cost of discipleship is costly. For some, praise be to God that your coming to follow Jesus will not cost you family relationships for they too will follow in belief. But for others, even some in this very gathering, to follow Jesus as his disciple will cost you greatly in allegiance to your family.
For some, to follow Jesus will mean that your family sees your turning to follow Jesus as a means of bringing shame to your family. And because of that shame, you will be cut off from the family. For others, they see your following Jesus as crazy and hurl insults at you. For still others, you coming to follow Jesus will strain family relationships and make them harder and more difficult.
To come and be a disciple means having to count the cost. The cost to see if it truly is worth it to follow Jesus and to do so without delay.
For others in the room, the call to count the cost of allegiance for you is not family, but other allegiances. Allegiance to hobbies, interests, to self. For you delay the call to come and follow Jesus because your allegiance is given over to various idols that you are not willing to cut off, at least not yet.
You say, maybe in 10 years I will follow Jesus. Maybe when I settle down and get married and have kids, then I will follow Jesus. Oh friend, if this describes you, see the foolishness of such and let the dead bury their own dead and come and follow Jesus now.
This saying is a warning that those concerned most with burying the dead are themselves spiritually dead. To follow Jesus though costly is a ministry of life. For to follow Jesus is to be equipped and unleashed upon the world to proclaim the kingdom of God, the kingdom where God’s rule reigns, where life itself reigns. Yes, we should honor our father and mother, yes in moments we will drop things to go and honor and care for them, to even bury them. But we should not delay our following of Christ in the name of waiting to bury our father, especially since he is not yet dead.
Conclusion
Conclusion
In these verses, we see that Jesus is not interested in crowds. He is interested in devoted followers, disciples. Disciples who will count the cost and be willing to take up their own crosses and follow him. Therefore if we are to be such disciples and make such disciples, then we must count the cost of discipleship, the cost to follow Jesus.
Here is how the great J.C. Ryle would have us reflect and apply these verses:
It would be well for the churches of Christ, if these sayings of our Lord were more remembered than they are. It may well be feared, that the lesson they contain is too often overlooked by the ministers of the Gospel, and that thousands are admitted to full communion, who are never warned to “count the cost.” Nothing, in fact, has done more harm to Christianity than the practice of filling the ranks of Christ’s army with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, and talk fluently of his experience. It has been painfully forgotten that numbers alone do not make strength, and that there may be a great quantity of mere outward religion, while there is very little real grace. Let us all remember this. Let us keep back nothing from young professors and inquirers after Christ. Let us not enlist them on false pretences. Let us tell them plainly that there is a crown of glory at the end. But let us tell them no less plainly, that there is a daily cross in the way. [1]
We as disciples are strengthened, the church is strengthened as we have disciples who rightly understand who their king is as the Suffering Servant and are willing to follow him, despite having to carry their own crosses. Disciples who understand the cost, but who enlist anyways to follow because they know their King is the one who has everlasting dominion, dominion that will not pass away or be destroyed. Dominion that will soon be revealed to all. Therefore let us take up our crosses and follow Jesus faithfully, but Lord Jesus come and your everlasting dominion be fully revealed to all! Amen!
Let’s pray…
Endnotes
[1] J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 78–79.
