18When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.19Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
21Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
22But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.”
Following Jesus is no small thing. The teacher of the law said he would follow Jesus anywhere, and Jesus warns him that he has no home here on Earth. Not only does Jesus not have a home, he doesn’t even have any place to get a little rest. Jesus is telling the teacher, and us, that to follow him means that we are traveling through this life, not putting down roots here. None of our possessions are lasting, not even our homes. It isn’t even that we are going to die and leave it all behind someday. Jesus is saying more than that. To truly follow him means we don’t even attempt to gain peace and rest from our “stuff” in this life, not if we are following Him.
And not only are we called to not seek rest and peace from our belongs, but also not from friends and family that are spiritually dead. Jesus is be more important to us than other people. That doesn’t mean we don’t love others, it just means they are all a distant second to Jesus. We are no more to seek peace and rest from people who aren’t following Jesus than we are to seek it from possessions.
Now when the disciple wanted to return home to bury his father, he may have meant a lot more than we readily see here. First, he doesn’t say that his father is dead, and second, when his father died, he would have received his inheritance. There is no way of knowing, but he could easily have been saying “Let me hang around till my dad dies and I can afford to quit work and follow you.” Being a follower of Jesus means following him today, not waiting till He fits a little better into our life.
Lord, I don’t think I explained this well at all, but it is hard to explain. I do know in my heart that I have no home here. Thank-you for that. But I do easily put down roots and enjoy my “stuff”. Perhaps You are about to take it all away. I know it could happen. Perhaps it is the blessing I need from You today. Do what it takes Lord to help me follow You now, this minute and every minute to come. Beginner’s Online Bible Study *obbs*
In my heart I want to dedicate my life to putting God first, but too often all the “stuff” that I have going in my life seems to overtake the time I should be spending with my Lord. Please Lord guide me more in your ways and I will practice looking past the “stuff” in this world and look to what is really going to make a difference in this journey that i am on….