The Exposition of Matthew (Matthew 8:18-22)

October 27, 2020

(The Miracles of Jesus)

“Even though there are days I wish I could change some things in the past, I realize where I am now and where I’m headed is much more important than what I’ve left behind.” – unknown.

Questions to be answered in this study

1. What is the one thing that each of us must figure out before life makes sense?
2. Mary Magdaline was a dedicated disciple of Jesus. Where was her hometown?
3. Jesus healed Mary Magdaline. What was her problem?
4. How did Jesus refute the progressive theology of today, which teaches the “name it and claim it gospel?”
5. Even though true discipleship does require sacrifices and denial of some of the amenities and pleasures the world offers; It also provides something that cannot be found in the world. What is it?
6. What does what Jesus said inMatthew 16:24 mean,“…let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me?”
7. What is the test for true discipleship?
8. What is the definition of true discipleship?
9. If the first rule for being a true disciple it to deny self, what is the second one?
10. What did Jesus mean when He said “Follow me and let the dead bury the dead?”

Introduction

Today we come back to our study of Jesus’ miracles in His Galilean ministry. We are moving into the second section of miracles of the ten miracles Matthew recorded to prove that Jesus was the Messiah as foretold in the Old Testament. They are grouped into three groups, which are of like-kinds. The first group, which we just finished, was miracles of physical healing or miracles over the body. These miracles proved Jesus has power over the body. The second group of miracles proves Jesus has authority over the Creation.

Before starting the second section, let’s note the scenes between Jesus and His disciples; this is the challenge Jesus makes to believers to become disciples. Matthew includes two scenes, which separates the first group of miracles from the second and third group. The first scene shows Jesus’ authority over His disciples. The second shows Jesus’ power over His enemies. In all, the settings and the miracles show Jesus’ control over all His Creation. So, let’s look at the first of these two scenes. Here Jesus explains His authority, what He expects, and the challenge He sets before His disciples that they are to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him.

I think the problem for many, as included in the quote at the beginning, is figuring out where they are going. Someone said life is like driving a car; you have a broad windshield and a tiny review mirror, and most people spend most of their time looking in the rearview mirror instead of looking ahead to make sure where they are going. 

A few years ago, I watched a movie called “City Slickers” starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance. Three upper-class guys decided to go out west to a dude ranch for a couple of weeks to work out some of their frustrations with life. While he and his friends were on a cattle drive, Billy Crystal struck up a conversation with an old cowboy, played by Jack Palance.

Here’s how the conversation went: Palance said, “Yeah, you guys come out here every summer at about the same age and you have the very same problems. You spend fifty weeks out of each year getting knots in your ropes, and then you think that two weeks out here will untie them for you. None of you get it.” He pauses a long time and then says, “Do you know what the secret of life is?”

Billy Crystal says, “No, what is it?”

Palance holds up one finger, his index finger, and says, “This.”

“Your finger?” exclaims Crystal.

Palance replies, “One thing, just one thing. You stick to that and every-thing else doesn’t mean a thing.”

“One thing?” Crystal says, “Well, that’s great, but what is that one thing?”

Palance throws his head back and laughs out loud, and then says with a big smile, “That’s what you’ve got to figure out.”

Life is different for different people; I don’t know what the one thing Palance had in mind, but there is one thing that is the same for each of us. The one thing we have to figure out for life to make sense is our purpose for being on earth. Until you figure that out, your life is not going to amount to much. Although a person may be the CEO of a large corporation, a movie star, or a well-known celebrity, without a life purpose, life may not be worth much.

Many Christians are still trying to figure life out; even though they have made the first step, which is trusting Christ for salvation, they haven’t taken the next step, becoming a faithful disciple. That is the great challenge of the Christian life and the focus of today’s study from the gospel of Matthew. Becoming a faithful disciple of Jesus is not only a purpose for being alive, it also garners excellent eternal rewards. I don’t think we realize just how great the potential for eternal rewards is; if we did, there would be a lot more genuine disciples of Jesus Christ instead of a bunch of Mediocre part-time Christians. Now let’s step into today’s study:

Matthew 8:18-20, “Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. 19And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee where ever thou goest. 20And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” 

Matthew doesn’t say, but according to the gospel of Luke, Jesus was in the area of Magdala, a small town on the northwestern shore of Galilee. My wife, Margaret, and I visited Magdala in our recent trip to Israel and saw the ruins of the synagogue where Jesus preached. The village is best known as the hometown of Mary Magdalene. When Jesus visited there, He healed Mary and several other women of demon possession. Mary became one of the most faithful followers of Jesus, financially supporting His ministry.

According to Mark and Luke, Jesus had just taught the parable of the Sower and Seeds in the area of Magdala. After this, Matthew takes up at Matthew 8:18 and tells us, Jesus is preparing to cross the lake but leaves out the parable of the sowing of the seeds until later in chapter 13.

Magdala is by the Mitterrandian Sea, and according to the gospel of Mark, Jesus taught the parable of the Sower and Seeds from a boat a little offshore before a multitude of people who were seeking healing. Now according to Matthew 8:18, as the crowd grew restless, Jesus remained in the boat and commanded the disciples to journey across the sea to the land of the Gerasenes. Garza was the name for the east side of the Sea of Galilee, settled mainly by Gentiles.

In Matthew 8:18, as Jesus is about to start the short journey across the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee, a scribe proclaims that he will follow Jesus wherever He goes. This scribe is an example of Pharisaic Judaism; he wanted to gain attention to himself and win the praise of Jesus for his dedication, but Jesus did not fall for it. Instead, He says: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” This scribe was not quite ready to exchange the comfort of home for a fox’s hole in the ground.

Jesus was revealing the scribe’s false assumptions about discipleship, that it did not include the fine things of life but was a life of sacrifice. That is something that refutes the so-called progressive teachers of today who teach that God wants Christians to have all the finer things of life, including wealth. True discipleship requires sacrifices and sometimes suffering and doing without. Unlike the rabbis, who used their position to enrich themselves, Jesus pursued the Kingdom of heaven, sacrificing riches and life’s daily pleasures. His Kingdom was not of this earth, and neither is yours or mine. The sacrifices of this life are made to promise a better eternal life in the Kingdom of heaven. That does not mean that we have to take a poverty vow to follow Jesus; it means that our primary purpose in life is our dedication to Him and not the pursuit of the things the world offers. Jesus makes it clear what it means to follow Him later in the gospel of Matthew: “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me,” Matthew 16:24. 

The disciple of Jesus must be prepared to deny himself of those things that the world seeks after so that he may follow and serve Jesus. We, as disciples of Christ, are on a different schedule from that of the world. The desires of the flesh are to be set aside to pledge ourselves to follow and serving Jesus. Even though true discipleship does require sacrifices and denial of some of the amenities and pleasures the world offers; It also provides something that cannot be found in the world: joy, peace, and contentment.

Let me point out here; there is a difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and becoming a disciple of Jesus. There are a lot of church members today but few disciples of Christ. Faith alone is all that is required for salvation. Salvation is a gift:Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV), “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Salvation is not based on what we have done or will do in the future. Salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit:1 Corinthians 12:13 (KJV) tells us, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

Becoming a disciple of Jesus is different from the salvation experience. It requires commitment and sacrifice; this is how we serve Him and not how we are saved. Some have the cart before the horse. They contend we serve the Lord to be saved when it is quite the opposite. We are first saved, and then we serve the Lord, and the service has nothing to do with salvation.

Sadly, not all who are saved become disciples of Jesus. The scribe in the text had other things that were more important to him than being a disciple. What does what Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 mean, “…let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”The cross is a symbol of death: We are saved because God allowed Jesus to be crucified. We are servants because we in turn crucify the flesh. Typical Christians today are far from being the disciples of Jesus because they fail to measure up to the requirements. What are the requirements of a disciple of Christ?

• A changed life
•  Jesus our #1 Priority
• Self-denial
• Complete dedication
• Willing obedience
• Total commitment 
• Willing to commit even unto death
• Not letting a career, pleasure, hobbies, or anything else be first

Luke 14:27 (KJV) says,“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Some trade pursuing the world destined for destruction to building an eternal kingdom. Satan has deceived many in the 21st century to believe that following Jesus is only something we do when we feel like it, not a way of life. Some would go to a ball game in freezing weather and stay home from church because of the rain, and they claim to be a disciple of Christ?

We need to work in the world to provide a living, but the world is not our priority. It is not what defines our goals and the motivation for our life. Take the test: Is your life about pleasing yourself, or is it about pleasing the Lord? Are you more concerned about receiving the world’s approval or the Lord’s approval? We need to have our eyes on eternity and not this fading world.

What is the definition of discipleship? Is it following Jesus as long as it serves our purpose? Is it following Jesus as long as it does not disrupt our plans for our life? That is not the discipleship of which Jesus is describing. True discipleship requires a death to self and a personal sacrifice. Anyone desiring to be a disciple of Christ must be prepared to deny himself. It is easy to become a Christian, but it is something else to become a disciple and sacrifice the time you had before to use for yourself to follow Jesus, and give the money that you could use otherwise to support God’s work on earth. As I said before, you don’t have to take a poverty vow to be a disciple, but you need not let money be your priority. You may have to do without things. It may require persecution and discomfort. The bottom line is, a disciple of Christ must be willing to deny himself or, in other words, die to self.

So, we see the first rule to become a disciple is to deny self. Now consider the second rule:

Matthew 8:21-22, “And another of his disciples said unto him, LORD, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”

The second rule of discipleship requires placing the Kingdom above any earthly needs, obligations, or commitments, which the disciple in this verse was unwilling to do. Have you ever wondered if you are like this man? Consider these questions:

• If it meant losing your closest friends, would you still follow Jesus?
• If it meant alienation from your family, would you still follow Jesus?
• If it meant the loss of your reputation, would you still follow Jesus?
• If it meant losing your job, would you still follow Jesus?
• If it meant losing your life, would you still follow Jesus?

We have it easy in America, but these are the things any convert in the Muslim world must face today. As many as two hundred million Christians worldwide are being persecuted, including being Isolated, disowned by family, losing their job, imprisoned, and tortured. Matthew shows us these men who expressed a willingness to follow Jesus, but when Jesus asked them a few more questions, He revealed that their desire was ill-considered. They had not counted the cost of following Him. None of them was willing to take up his cross and forsake his interests for Christ’s. It seems clear then and now, people always struggle with putting their ideas, plans, ambitions, and desires to death and exchange them for those of the Lord.

This person in verse 22 of today’s text wanted to become a disciple before he counted the cost. There is a need here to understand the context in which this man is requesting to bury his father first before committing to following Jesus. It may seem that Jesus was making a harsh and uncompassionate request of this man: “Follow me and let the dead bury the dead.” To take time to bury his father seems like a reasonable request. There is more to this than what meets the eye. This man was not requesting just a little time to take care of family matters. The Jewish culture needs to be understood here. It was not that this man’s father had died and needed to be buried. In their culture, the oldest Son was expected to remain with the family until his father died and then take up the family business of burial and other things, such as managing possessions, land, etc. He was expected to stay with the family and help the father in his business and old age until he died. That might require years before he would be free to leave.

So, it is not just a short delay in following Christ that is in question; it could be a matter of years. Jesus does not yield but says, “Let the dead bury the dead.” What did that mean? It was a euphemism; meaning let the spiritually dead take the responsibility of fulfilling the requirement of culture. The book of Ephesians refers to those dead as the one’s dead in trespasses and sins.

The culture of this world is that of unbelievers. Believers enter into a new culture, the culture of the Kingdom of heaven. This world is not our home; we are citizens of heaven just passing through. Jesus is saying let the unbelieving world take care of the things of the world while disciples are concerned with kingdom matters.

Listen to how Abraham’s family of old lived their lives: Hebrews 11:8-16 (KJV),“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. 13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

• Abraham was a disciple of the Lord who lived as a nomad in a land he knew would never be his until after the resurrection at the coming of the Kingdom of heaven.
• Abraham followed God’s leadership, not knowing where he was going. § He was content to set his sights on eternity and not this world.

So, the second rule of discipleship requires placing the Kingdom above any earthly needs, obligations, or commitments. We should set our face like flint on our mission and let nothing come in between us and our purpose. This world should have no hold on us now that we’ve come to Christ. We are ambassadors for Christ passing through this life, looking for that city God has prepared for us in the Kingdom. These are the two rules that keep our discipleship on track, and we must never take a backseat to anything else. Here they are:

• Rule #1: Don’t let the desires of the world steal your obedience to the Lord.
•  Rule #2: Keep your eyes off the world and focused on eternity.

Jesus lays our responsibilities out concerning discipleship: Matthew 16:24-27,“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.”

We have heard or read this verse many times:“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?There are two applications for this verse. What does it profit a person if they have everything the world offers and die losing their very soul in hell for eternity? Secondly, what does profit a person if they gain the whole world and miss the true purpose of life, sacrificing joy and peace?

We see in Luke 9:22 (KJV), they were shocked when Jesus began to talk about death to self and carrying the cross. They left Him in droves because of these teachings. Similarly, sometimes believers today misunderstand the call of Jesus as a call to health, wealth, and prosperity. Nothing could be further from the truth. The call of Jesus is a call to die, but today some, are unwilling to accept a call to die; they had rather leave Him or change His message to something more pleasant.

One day in the future, Jesus will return, and to those who have been faithful to Him He will say: Matthew 25:23, “His LORD said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy LORD.” One day in the future, Jesus will set up His Kingdom here on earth, and those who have been faithful disciples will rule and reign with Him for a1,000 years. After this, they will live eternally with God in the heavenly age.

The cost of discipleship may seem too high and out of reach, but it is attainable to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. It does not happen all at once. It is a step-by-step process for those committed to the Lord. It starts with a commitment to push aside any love for the things of the world. It is God Himself who molds us and moves us along in the right direction, moving us a little closer each day toward the mark.

Paul, by inspiration, gives us the key to discipleship: Philippians 3:14 (KJV), “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The first step is yielding to the thing God is leading you to do, which is different for each person. Then it is just trusting Him to guide you along the way a little each day until you reach that mark of the high calling of Christ. Would to God that we could be as Paul and set our eyes on eternity, the high impact of the high calling, and let nothing defer us from reaching that goal. Are you ready to commit your all to Jesus to be His faithful disciple?