The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

Two Obstacles to Following Jesus:  Mt.8:18 - 22 

 

8:18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. 19 Then a scribe came and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ 20 Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and the 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, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ 22 But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’

 

          Notice that when Jesus saw the ‘crowd around him, he gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea’ (Mt.8:18).  Why doesn’t Jesus plant roots where he is, build a church building, and became a megachurch pastor? 

          In the midst of these ten miracles, Jesus interprets what his healing means for us.  He desires to heal every human being, so he gathers his disciples into his mission.  What’s on ‘the other side of the sea’?  The Gentiles.  Jesus wants to reveal himself to them as well.  What will this mean for the Jewish disciples?  

          The first guy who approached Jesus at this time was a scribe.  Scribes were some of the most educated people in Jewish society at that time.  They were some of the most honored and privileged people around.  This guy may have been well intentioned.  But Jesus seems to anticipate the main issue the scribe would face:  giving up his security.  Foxes have holes.  Birds have nests.  But Jesus had no home to call his own.  Sometimes he would be welcomed into people’s homes, but sometimes he would have to sleep on the road.  Intelligence is an asset.  But would this scribe who had invested so much education into himself, to rise to the top of one society, be able to follow Jesus into another?

          Olympic runner Eric Liddell went to China as a Christian missionary, and the Chinese he served never knew how gifted an athlete he was.  Yale professor Henri Nouwen went to L’Arche, a Christian community for the developmentally disabled, and those humble people didn’t care about his professional accomplishments.  Even though you and your family might invest $200,000 in your college education, that doesn’t mean that Jesus is obliged to use it in the ways you think he should.  He might use your training, or he might not.  Security of that sort is not guaranteed.  Are you okay with that? 

          The second person who approached Jesus wanted to ‘first go and bury [his] father.’  This was a cultural idiom.  He was waiting for the ceremonial time to elapse between the burial of his father’s body and the time when they would gather his bones and bury them.  It’s not as if his dad is going to have a funeral anytime soon.  He was asking permission to delay obedience, to put family and ceremony first.  Jesus’ response is to allow the spiritually dead to bury their own physically dead. 

What are ways we try to put family first before Jesus?  How might the ‘Jewish family ideal’ prevent the mission of Jesus from reaching the Gentiles?  What are some communities – real or constructed – that prevent us from following Jesus farther into his mission to the world?  Jesus never turns anyone away.  But he does let the mission filter who really comes to him.

          ‘Follow me.  Let’s go to the other side of the sea.’