Life Project Blog

…comes with a cost.

When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Matthew 8:18-22

In the last post, I mentioned what we discovered about Peter, and what it apparently cost him to drop his fishing nets and follow Jesus; in these verses, we see the cost again in two brief examples. The first of these is the teacher of the law who declared his intention to follow Jesus where ever He might go. Jesus’ reaction to this declaration is interesting, don’t you think?

He might have said, “Great friend, we’re delighted to have you along on the journey,” but His reaction was quite different. No, the Son of Man had no home, for He had given all of that up to do His Father’s will; fair warning for the teacher of the law. Right at the moment, I cannot recall that any of the Twelve were this teacher of the law, can you?

The second example is a tough one, for here we have a “disciple” requesting leave to “bury my father” before heading off across the lake. There is nothing in the text  to indicate a bad motive, neither is there anything that would tell us that this disciple (whoever he was) is seeking anything more than to accomplish the sacred duty of a son that the Law required of him. In other words, this was a very reasonable request for him to make. Yet Jesus didn’t say what we might expect, something like, “OK, give my best to your family and meet us at such and such a place day after tomorrow.” Instead, Jesus says, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

This may seem a little harsh, and in a sense, maybe it is, but Jesus is going about the business of His Father, and so are His disciples; there is no “leave of absence” from the calling of God.

His remark about “the dead” burying the dead refers to the recognition that there are many people who are spiritually dead, who are not following God’s call to do His will on earth; they have time on their hands. Notice the strong implication that if we are spiritually alive, we have a calling to serve God. It would seem that there is no such thing as a follower of Christ who does not have a calling, even though some might think otherwise.

So, what is the cost of following Jesus? It is leaving the things of this world behind and really following Him.

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Matthew 8:1-4

With this passage, we enter into the next section of Matthew’s Gospel (8:1-9:35). Before we jump in, let’s take stock of what we have seen so far. Back in chapter 4 our author told us that Jesus had gone forth proclaiming the Kingdom after His baptism by John and testing in the Wilderness. Where Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom, certain amazing things would take place, but as of yet, Matthew hasn’t told us in detail about them. In chapters 5-7, we read exactly what Jesus was teaching in these sessions proclaiming the Kingdom, and we discovered a revolutionary new kind of life for citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. In chapters 8 and 9 we are going to see exactly the kinds of things that were going on when Jesus proclaimed Kingdom and taught His new way of life. We will see ten miracles in this section, miracles that demonstrate the power, authority and divinity of Jesus, along with the healing power of the Kingdom that He embodied.

In the passage above, Jesus heals a leper. The healing of a leper was a big deal for several reasons. First, there was no cure for the disease, second, it made a person “unclean” in the ceremonial sense of the Law which meant that they were not permitted to touch anyone or participate in the religious life of the community, and in that sense, they were also cut off from the worship of God. In an apocalyptic sense, to be a leper is like being a sinner; to be healed of leprosy is symbolic of being redeemed from sin and restored to fellowship with both Man and God. Thus, when Jesus healed a leper, we have a “type” of His cleansing us from our sin.

In this story, we would do well to take special note of two things: First, the man came to Jesus in faith: “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” The only question in the man’s mind was whether or not Jesus was willing to save him, not whether or not Jesus could save him; oh, that we should have such faith!

Second, after Jesus had healed the man, notice that Jesus admonished him not to run around telling everyone about it. Jesus wasn’t doing this sort of thing to make a name for Himself as our world would understand such things, for He already had the Name that is above all names. Then, Jesus instructs the man to go to Jerusalem and offer the prescribed sacrifice at the Temple, as a testimony of his healing and redemption. In doing this, Jesus demonstrated that He was among men to do the work of His Father, and that in due course, He Himself would be the sacrifice that would redeem all Mankind from their sin, restoring humanity to fellowship with God.

Next time, we will see if only Jews can place their faith in Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven…

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Matthew 7:24-27

Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with a parable of two men who built houses. One was wise and built his house on a solid foundation of rock, while the other was foolish and built upon the sand; we all know what happened when the storms came…

Of course Jesus wasn’t teaching an engineering class; He has a greater purpose, to be sure. His message here is really the summation and conclusion of His remarks: You’ve heard the teaching, now put it into practice. Putting His message into practice is the meaning of building the house on a solid foundation; not doing so is the meaning of building in the sand.

In the previous part, I made much of the idea that having a relationship with our Lord will result in a response on our parts and Jesus is in a sense saying the same thing here: Put my words into practice― that is the response that grace demands. Make no mistake, Jesus’ purpose in making this address was not to get His name in the history books as a “great moral teacher”, it was to see lives change.

So, to conclude our look at His teachings in chapters 5-7, we are at the very same place His original hearers were: how will we respond?

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 7:21-23

Right after He comments on false prophets, Jesus has a few things to say about false disciples. Many people say they believe in Jesus without doing the Father’s will; that isn’t going to cut it on the last day. I want to be careful here not to give the impression that I am suggesting that they somehow haven’t earned their salvation, for salvation is not something we earn; it is God’s free gift. However, receiving grace demands a response, and it seems to me that Jesus is telling us that where there is no response other than saying, “yeah sure, I believe in Jesus,” and then going on with business as usual, we have a false disciple. I say this because of the discussion in the last section; look at the fruit. If there is not fruit, then you are no disciple.

There are many groups out there who claim to be Christian, but who are not. There are many religious leaders who take on the form and appearance of following Jesus, but who do not, and they have many followers who do likewise, and are not followers of Jesus at all, in spite of what they may claim. This is what Jesus is warning us about.

Take particular note of verse 23 where He tells how it is that He knows this: “I never knew you”. Do you see the relational aspect of that? To “know” Jesus is to be in relationship with Him; it is quite a different matter than simply “believing in” Him… as the Devil and his demons do.

Here is a trustworthy saying: Relationship with Jesus always brings about a response; where there is no response, there is most likely no relationship.