"Today was one of the toughest decisions I had to make in my life. My mother’s final [funeral] service is today and I am not going to be there. After a long talk with God and her, I came to this conclusion.”
These are the words of a professional football player who recently played a game instead of going to his mother’s funeral. For the love of football.
In today’s reading Jesus says two words that echo through time: Follow Me. Not when you are ready. Now. Go to the Greek on it, go to the Hebrew: “Leave the dead to bury the dead” to follow Him means this: leave the dead to bury the dead to follow Him. In saying this, Jesus is setting a baseline that nothing is as important as following Him.
Yet we all face these moments in life. You know them...when the rubber “WWJD” bracelets rot. When the fire from that conference fades. When that revelation from Scripture flits away under the weight of the deadline or after a tantrum from a child. We feel the call and then it fades.
He promises that His yoke is easy but so often when we are called to service, we run. It is hard. Life moves fast. The way of our Master is sudden and it is violent to our delicate and finite lives on Earth. We fight the daily desire to spend our remaining hours in pleasure. We don’t trust that the exchange of our flesh for His Spirit will be worth it.
Many from Downtown Hope serving at the food pantries, in public housing communities, or in other places in our world have felt the stinging loss of sleeping in on Saturday mornings, Sunday brunches and other pleasantries in life (and many of us hear Him calling for us to give up more and we struggle to hold on still). But we have found immeasurable joy and encounters with God amidst this “loss.” We have experienced the truth in Jesus’ words in John that caused the bulk of His disciples to leave him: “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
We have experienced intimacy with Jesus.
Let today’s words wash over you. If you are holding onto the perishable treasures or tethering worries of life, let them go and follow. If you are already following Him in ways that stretch you, we pray He empowers you to stretch more.
At the end of that stretching is always intimacy with our Great High Priest and full life in His Holy Spirit.
Matthew 8.18-23
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.” 23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.
[ WHAT ] is this passage saying and what is a key truth or thought that we learn?
+ Why do you think the Lord Jesus said let the “dead” bury the dead?
+ What was significant in what the scribe was asking Him and how He responded? How does that response speak to you? (V 19-20)
+ Note verse 23 and read a bit further. What happens after they yield and follow Him?
[ HOW ] is the Lord calling me to action/obedience?
+ Is there a sin to confess or a next step to take? How has it gone since last time?
+ How does this Daily make you feel? Anxious? That’s a tactic of the enemy, the “accuser”, the “father of lies”. Sad? Offer that in prayer. Fast over that feeling. He will resolve it if you seek Him. Happy and full of hope? Go, run and serve. Don’t let the joy fade. Reach out to others in the Body and commit. Follow Him!
[ WHO ] am I walking with and praying for to discover Jesus?
+ What is my next step?