Matthew 8:18-22 The Cost of Following Jesus

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea.  Then a scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." 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."  Another of the disciples said to Him, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead." [Matthew 8:18‭-‬22 NASB]

Jesus proved Himself to be contemptuous of religious practices of the day. I believe He is just as contemptuous of our religious practices today.

Jesus' response when He saw a large crowd was to give the order to leave the crowd behind, and go to the other side of the lake. He never set out to draw a crowd, and was happy to leave it behind. Churches today measure their success by the size of the crowd attending their services. Church growth seminars and conferences exist for pastors. I have attended these seminars, and can tell you that the emphasis is not on winning the community for Christ, so that they fill the church. They emphasize programs and orders of service. Music leaders are given formulas for how to conduct an effective "worship" service.

Pastors of mega-churches are held in high esteem. They must be very blessed by God to have so many followers, right? Don't count on it. A charismatic speaker who tells people what they want to hear will most often draw bigger crowds than the man of God telling people what they need to hear.

Then there's the way Jesus recruits followers. He doesn't make it easy. In evangelical churches, it is common to end the service with a call for salvation. Typically the pastor will say something like "With every head bowed and every eye closed, if you want to follow Jesus today, raise your hand. Don't worry, nobody is looking." This is not a call for public testimony or commitment.

I want to see people get saved as much as anybody, but I sometimes think we make it too easy. If you count the number of people who have raised their hand for salvation in the last year, the local church would not be able to hold them all. There should be no empty seats. So where did they all go?

I think many are like the scribe who came to Jesus. Making an emotional decision, they say, "I will follow you." Then reality sets in. The heavens didn't open up for them in glory. They weren't instantly blessed with abundance and riches. In short, nothing got better. Jesus dealt with the scribe by saying, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Perhaps we should make it a little harder. Let people know that there is a cost to following Jesus. Jesus promises trials, tribulations, and persecution for those who follow him. It doesn't make for a good sales pitch, but if they count the cost before they commit, they are less likely to be disillusioned by reality.

Some others are like the disciple who wanted to bury his father. In the idiom of the time, this didn't mean that his father was dead, and he needed to go dig a grave. I meant that he would put off following Jesus while he took care of his father. That could be a year or twenty years - the meaning is the same. Some make an initial commitment (remember that this was a disciple who came to Jesus), then the responsibilities of life intrude. They have to choose between commitment to the world and commitment to Jesus. Jesus said, "Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead."

I bless soul winners. I bless the pastors and ministers who give a call for salvation at each service, inviting people to know Jesus. I invite these wonderful people to consider the tactics of Jesus when dealing with new recruits. They don't need a sale pitch. It is the Holy Spirit who draws them. What they need is education. Let them know that it is not always easy being a Christian, and that once they are committed, they need to be fully committed to Jesus. Then they need follow-up so that they know where to go from here.