Midweek Lenten Vespers
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Rev. Charles Henrickson
Follow Me: The Cost of Discipleship (Matthew
8:18-22)
Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders
to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up
and said to him, Teacher, I will follow you wherever
you go. 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. Another of the
disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury
my father. And Jesus said to him, Follow me, and
leave the dead to bury their own dead. (Matt.
8:18-22)
Follow Me: Jesus Calls Us to Discipleship. That
is the theme for this series of five Lenten services
this year. We are looking at the places in the Gospel
of Matthew where Jesus uses those familiar words,
Follow me. We want to find out what it means for us
to follow Jesus, what is involved in being his
disciple.
For our first message, we began in Matthew 4, where
Jesus calls the fishermen--Peter, Andrew, James, and
John--and he tells them, Follow me, and I will make
you fishers of men. There we discovered three things
about The Call to Discipleship: First, the call
comes from Jesus; the initiative lies with him, not
with us. Second, the call is surprisingly simple in
its content; its just Jesus saying, Follow me. And
third, the call is profoundly transformative in its
effects; it changes our life now and it changes our
course for eternity.
Well, that was Matthew 4 and The Call to
Discipleship. Tonight its Matthew 8 and The Cost
of Discipleship. Our text in chapter 8 is the second
place in Matthews gospel where Jesus uses the words,
Follow me. In fact, the passage starts with someone
else, not Jesus, bringing up the subject of following:
Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. A
scribe came up to Jesus and said that to him, as Jesus
was about to cross over the lake. This man offered to
follow Jesus. It may have been a bit impulsive on his
part. We dont find Jesus calling him and saying to
him, Follow me. Instead, the man offers himself to
Jesus, addressing him as Teacher, much like a
religiously inclined Jew of that day would latch
himself onto a rabbi of his choosing. So maybe this
guy had not thought through the implications of what
he was saying. Does he really realize who Jesus is,
that hes more than a teacher? Does he realize what
hes getting himself into, by offering to follow
Jesus?
Jesus wants him to know. He tells the fellow, Foxes
have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. In other
words: This aint gonna be easy, my friend.
Following me is not going to be some walk in the park.
Im not promising you a rose garden. Im not
promising you a bed of roses to sleep on. In fact, it
may feel more like the thorns than the roses. The
fox and the bird may have nice, cozy beds to sleep in,
but here is the Son of Man, the Christ, the Messiah,
and he has no place to lay his head. And, indeed, a
few verses later we find Jesus having to lay his head
on the hard boards of a fishing boat, in order to get
some rest.
Now if thats the case for the Master, it is also
going to be difficult for his disciples. Following
Jesus will not guarantee you any health, wealth, or
personal success. You may, in fact, end up with even
more hardships. Know that going in, Jesus is telling
this would-be disciple.
In his book called, The Cost of Discipleship,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer says about this exchange between
Jesus and the man: The first disciple offers to
follow Jesus without waiting to be called. Jesus
damps his ardour by warning him that he does not know
what he is doing. In fact he is quite incapable of
knowing. That is the meaning of Jesus answer--he
shows the would-be disciple what life with him
involves. We hear the words of One who is on the way
to the cross, whose whole life is summed up in the
Apostles Creed by the word suffered. No man can
choose such a life for himself. No man can call
himself to such a destiny, says Jesus. . . . The gulf
between a voluntary offer to follow and genuine
discipleship is clear.
Being a disciple is not a matter of you offering
yourself but of Jesus calling you to follow. And
following him can be costly. It may very well involve
suffering and deprivation. Can you live with that?
Yes, you can. Because this same Jesus says to you,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I
will give you rest. Or to put it like Paul does in
Romans 8, For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worth comparing with the glory
that is to be revealed to us. The gifts that Christ
gives us now and has waiting for us in the future far
outweigh all the slight momentary afflictions we have
to endure as his disciples. But do realize that the
life of discipleship will not be easy, thats what
Jesus is telling this first fellow.
Now, as Jesus is about to get in the boat and leave,
another would-be disciple speaks to Jesus: Lord, let
me first go and bury my father. Here is somebody
else saying that he too wants to follow Jesus, but
first hes got something he wants to take care of. He
wants to go and bury his father. Sounds like a
reasonable request. Here, though, were not exactly
sure of the context of his request. Is he saying that
his father has just died, or is about to die, and he
needs to go and take care of the funeral before he can
follow Jesus? Is that it, or is this just a way of
saying, not that his father has just died or is dying,
but that the man wants to wait a few years until his
father does die and then he will be clear of his
family obligations and be able to follow Jesus as a
full-time disciple? Which is it? Well, were not
exactly sure; the text doesnt tell us. It may be
that the mans father has just died. Or it could
mean, let me wait until my father does die.
In either case, whichever it is, here comes Jesus
reply: Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their
own dead. Now suppose the mans father did just die.
Here is Jesus saying: Dont go to your fathers
funeral. Drop what youre doing, and come, follow
me. Sounds a bit harsh, a bit extreme. Radical,
even. Yes, it is. But with good reason. If this man
is going to be a disciple of Jesus, he needs to come
with Jesus, right here, right now. Jesus is saying to
him, There will be enough spiritually dead people
around to take care of burying the physically dead.
Whats important for you right now is that you follow
me, that you find your life in me. This is too
important for you to miss out on.
Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own
dead. Friends, Jesus is not saying that Christians
cannot go to funerals. Much less is he saying that we
should not honor our family obligations. By no means.
But for this man, at this place and time, the
important thing for him to do right then was to leave
what he was doing--even his fathers funeral--and to
follow Jesus. For this man, following Jesus meant
literally that--following him in person to where he
was going. The time of Jesus ministry was short and
it demanded full attention and commitment.
Again, Bonhoeffer comments: The second would-be
disciple wants to bury his father before he starts to
follow. . . . He knows what he wants and what he must
do. . . . But the call of Jesus is stronger. . . . At
this critical moment nothing on earth, however sacred,
must be allowed to come between Jesus and the man he
has called. . . . Only the Christ can speak in this
fashion. He alone has the last word.
Now for you there may not be a conflict between
burying your father and following Jesus. But there
will be situations where there will be a conflict
between what you want to do and what Jesus is calling
you to do. There will be times when Jesus is calling
you to go places and do things you would rather not
do. He will rearrange your priorities. The point
here for us is that the call to follow Jesus is a
radical call. It outranks, it takes priority over,
everything else in life. No one, nothing, is more
important. Why? Because this is the only place, the
only way, to find any life that matters in the long
run. Without Jesus we are dead in the water. Dead in
our trespasses and sins. Dead eternally, separated
from God.
But God in his mercy made us alive with Christ, even
when we were dead. He raised us up from death to
life. Through Baptism, through Gods mighty word, we
have faith and life in Christ our Savior. Jesus calls
us from out of the realm of the dead and into his
kingdom of life.
Discipleship may be costly--it can cost us some
hardships and rearrange our priorities. But at the
same time, it is completely free and of infinite
worth. It is free because Jesus paid the full price
for us with his holy precious blood. It is of
infinite worth because he gives us the gifts of life
and eternity he purchased for us. Jesus suffered the
death we deserve, in order to give us the life that is
his. Jesus is the difference between life and death.
That makes following Jesus worth any cost that
discipleship may involve.
In his book, Follow Me, Martin Franzmann writes:
To follow him is to leave death behind and to enter
upon the realm of life. He brings into the life of
the world a distinction as sharp and radical as that
between life and death. Christ is the one living Man
in all this dying world.
Christ is the one living Man in all this dying
world. What a thought! With that perspective, and
with Gods grace to help us, we will be able to handle
The Cost of Discipleship. Christ is the one living
Man in all this dying world. With that hope to hold
on to, we can hear and go where and when Jesus calls
us, Follow me.
Charles Henrickson
4749 Melissa Jo Ln
St. Louis, MO 63128
(314) 845-8811 (home)
(314) 779-8108 (cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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