Last time we studied Matthew’s gospel together, we saw in
the first half of Matthew 8 that Jesus is beginning to answer the questions
surrounding His authority by demonstrating that He didn’t just talk like He had
authority but he acted like One Who had authority. There are still questions among the people concerning
where this authority comes from and what it means but any reason for doubt that
He has it is rapidly disappearing.
The Priority of Followership
Matthew 8:18-22 is another pericope that Matthew uses to explain Who Jesus is. That is, an account of an actual event that is told with a view to teach us something and at the same time moves the greater narrative along. So here the narrative places Jesus at the home of Peter in Capernaum where He has just healed Peter’s mother-in-law and crowds of people have brought loved ones to be cured both physically and spiritually. Now in this pericope, Jesus decides to go somewhere else – across the lake—to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
Notice that He sees the crowds in Capernaum yet the text points out that He still wants to go away. So, Jesus is not motivated by crowds to perform! He is NOT a narcissist. But neither was He simply unmoved by their needs! He has already spent the previous evening healing many! Matthew wants us to know that Jesus notices the vast felt needs in Capernaum, but that is not His only purpose.
How like our
own relationship to Jesus! These first
three thoughts they have about Jesus are a demonstration of their need for
faith. The last thought shows they do have
a little but it’s time to grow.
The Priority of Followership
Matthew 8:18-22 is another pericope that Matthew uses to explain Who Jesus is. That is, an account of an actual event that is told with a view to teach us something and at the same time moves the greater narrative along. So here the narrative places Jesus at the home of Peter in Capernaum where He has just healed Peter’s mother-in-law and crowds of people have brought loved ones to be cured both physically and spiritually. Now in this pericope, Jesus decides to go somewhere else – across the lake—to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
Notice that He sees the crowds in Capernaum yet the text points out that He still wants to go away. So, Jesus is not motivated by crowds to perform! He is NOT a narcissist. But neither was He simply unmoved by their needs! He has already spent the previous evening healing many! Matthew wants us to know that Jesus notices the vast felt needs in Capernaum, but that is not His only purpose.
Now as He gives orders to his disciples to go across the
lake, Matthew uses this pericope to
teach us about what Jesus expects of those who want to follow Him. Some scholars refer to this pericope as the “cost of discipleship.” I would prefer to call it the “priority of
followership.” Jesus is not just looking
for people with a great work ethic or who are doggedly obedient even though
those qualities are highly prized. He is
looking for people who are going to replace their own plans with His—people who
are willing to re-prioritize their life to follow Him. He wants more than our behavior—he wants our
heart. On the day of reckoning,
remember, He is not going to let us substitute our deeds for knowing Him. And ultimately, our salvation cannot be
purchased by our own efforts anyway.
Matthew zeroes in on two people who have been His disciples
up to this point. He records their responses to Jesus’ orders to leave Capernaum
even though they have a huge following right there.
The first response is by a scribe (some translations use the
term lawyer). This is a man who has dedicated his life to
the study of Scripture. He recognizes
the authority of Jesus and doesn’t want to miss out on the Kingdom of God so He
announces his desire to follow Jesus.
Well, he seems to. He announces
that he will follow Jesus “wherever you go!”
He will “pay the price” or so it seems until we learn that Jesus points
out that He can’t guarantee a life of comfort as part of our due if we follow Him. The text doesn’t tell us what the Scribe did
in response but Scribes were usually quite wealthy and honored members of
society and so we understand that Jesus is pointing out that following Jesus means
being ready to forsake our former comforts in this world for temporary
hardships that are part of following Jesus.
The second response is by an otherwise unknown bystander who
also wished to follow Jesus but first he wanted “to bury his father.” He was not talking about going to a funeral
but waiting until his father was dead.
He had a higher priority than following Jesus—his family.
Jesus is not saying that these are sinful activities (being
comfortable or taking care of and enjoying your family). He is saying that if they conflict with
following Jesus, then you are not really prepared to follow Him. By the way, whatever conflicts with following
Jesus in our life, whatever takes a higher priority, is actually an idol.
Whatever replaces the sole object of our worship is an idol.
The Priority of
Trust
Matthew has more to say about following Jesus in the next couple of pericopes. Let’s look at Matthew 8:23-27. Those who are familiar with the Old Testament account will recognize that there is a little Jonah motif going on here. There’s a storm at sea and Jesus is asleep in the boat and all hands are doing everything in their power not to go down and they waken Jesus to get His help and by His words, the storm stops. But there are some powerful differences from the account of Jonah. Jonah was running away from God. He didn’t want to follow God. Jesus was running away from worldly acclaim to follow God. And the disciples? They are following orders and so far they have been willing to make following Jesus a priority. There are more comparisons we could make because even Jesus compared His death and resurrection to Jonah’s three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. But let’s move on to look at some more field notes for would-be followers of Jesus.
What do the
disciples think when they are confronted by danger in the midst of the
sea? Matthew has more to say about following Jesus in the next couple of pericopes. Let’s look at Matthew 8:23-27. Those who are familiar with the Old Testament account will recognize that there is a little Jonah motif going on here. There’s a storm at sea and Jesus is asleep in the boat and all hands are doing everything in their power not to go down and they waken Jesus to get His help and by His words, the storm stops. But there are some powerful differences from the account of Jonah. Jonah was running away from God. He didn’t want to follow God. Jesus was running away from worldly acclaim to follow God. And the disciples? They are following orders and so far they have been willing to make following Jesus a priority. There are more comparisons we could make because even Jesus compared His death and resurrection to Jonah’s three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. But let’s move on to look at some more field notes for would-be followers of Jesus.
1) They think that Jesus is
unaware.
2) They think that Jesus Himself (and they) are in danger (“We are
perishing!”).
3) They think they
need to prod Him to DO SOMETHING. They
think they know what He needs to do and so they tell Him to do it.
4) They do believe that He can do something about their circumstances.
So, when
Jesus wakes up we really have an anticlimax.
He rebukes the wind and the sea and there was a great calm. Now what do
the disciples do? They marvel. Who is this?
(We keep wanting to grab them by their shoulders and shake them! This is the creator of heaven and earth. The God who made the wind and the seas.) Notice that Jesus asks them: “Why were you
afraid?” Their fear is an indication of
a lack of trust. A follower of Jesus
will encounter danger so He must trust Jesus.
That’s another priority of followership.
We trust other people to a certain extent. We can trust ourselves a little, but to
follow Jesus, we must trust Him completely.
The Priority of
Spiritual Transformation
Okay, one more pericope, Matthew! Matthew 8:28-34. What sort of authority does Jesus have and what does He require of would-be followers? This pericope tells us about Jesus rescuing two captives from a horde of demons. These two men lived away from society in Gadara across the Sea of Galilee far from the comforts of Capernaum and their families and the adoring crowds. Jesus and the disciples braved the pull of comforts and home and the sense of being involved in a hugely successful ministry and just now the stormy sea (which Jesus had to rebuke! This was no ordinary obstacle that Jesus overcame!) – they did all this just to rescue two men who had been given over to be tortured by evil spirits. How do you define success? When you are doing what God really wants, you may experience even more obstacles! Don’t let trials and difficulties make you think you are doing something wrong. Your commission is from God and you follow despite the circumstances! So they leave home crossing the sea on a mission. Later Jesus would commission these disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Okay, one more pericope, Matthew! Matthew 8:28-34. What sort of authority does Jesus have and what does He require of would-be followers? This pericope tells us about Jesus rescuing two captives from a horde of demons. These two men lived away from society in Gadara across the Sea of Galilee far from the comforts of Capernaum and their families and the adoring crowds. Jesus and the disciples braved the pull of comforts and home and the sense of being involved in a hugely successful ministry and just now the stormy sea (which Jesus had to rebuke! This was no ordinary obstacle that Jesus overcame!) – they did all this just to rescue two men who had been given over to be tortured by evil spirits. How do you define success? When you are doing what God really wants, you may experience even more obstacles! Don’t let trials and difficulties make you think you are doing something wrong. Your commission is from God and you follow despite the circumstances! So they leave home crossing the sea on a mission. Later Jesus would commission these disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Notice what
we learn from this pericope:
1) We don’t get our theology from
demons, but this account of Jesus’ encounter with them teaches us a lot.
2)
The two oppressed men are the reason Jesus crossed over and left the
crowds.
3) He has already demonstrated the prophesied
healing ministry of the Messiah and now He demonstrates His Messianic
fulfillment of setting captives free—spiritually.
4) Notice the disciples are with Jesus in this seemingly
suicidal mission and they are safe because He is with them. We are always safe with Jesus. Notice, He said they were to cross to the
other side—drowning in the middle was not crossing to the other side!
5) Sometimes a changed life will bring about
such a drastic change that it will be understood or even viewed as dangerous,
harmful, or even chaotic. In fact, it
may affect the economic life of the community.
Jesus came to change us, too.
6) They learned how horribly dangerous it was
for these two men to continue to be held captive by these demons.
7) We learn the reality of demons AND their
self-confessed destiny (AND by association) the destiny of those connected with
them!
Overview: In chapter
8 we see that Jesus does have authority and following Him must take precedence
over personal comforts of home and family because this world is not our
home. We do not abdicate our
responsibilities but we do rearrange our priorities.
We also see that following Jesus means that our
understanding of “needs” must be carefully scrutinized. We don’t always understand what is best, what
is really needed, but God ALWAYS does.
Following Jesus ultimately requires trust in Him even when
we don’t see Him “doing anything” when it seems like everything needs Him to do
something now. God knows exactly what is
going on and what to do and precisely when to do it. We may be getting wet, the waves may be
washing over us, our boat may be sinking, we may even die(!) but we still trust
Him—for far more than our feeble lives in this mortal shell.
Following Jesus does NOT always mean to go where the people
are clamoring for help. Some would tell
us to “go where God is working,” but notice that God also works in seemingly
small ways as well as in spectacular ways.
If Hudson Taylor had only gone where God was already working, he would
never have gone to China. Jesus left
Capernaum and the great crowds to go to Gadara to rescue two captives. Crowds do not necessarily mean success in God’s
work.
Following Jesus can be scary (like the storm and the demons)
which are physically and spiritually beyond our own strength. With Jesus, however, everything is under
control. Trust him.
Finally, following Jesus you may be rejected by people but don’t
look for rejection as proof of following Jesus.
It is your trusting Jesus that proves you are truly following Him. Jesus does tell people to follow him but even
more He tells them over and over again to trust Him—especially to those who
claim to be following Him—even to those who claim to have given up
everything. And if you are following
Jesus understand that not many will also follow along with you. The crowds ultimately rejected Jesus and will
also inevitably reject those who follow Him.
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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