Matthew 16:24 - Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
We've all heard this, right? Put away your old self and put on the "new man" that Christ has given you and follow Him. And as Christians, that is what we're doing every day, right? Or at least we should be.
I know, personally, that denying yourself every day, every moment, takes a lot of work. It takes diligence and determination. It takes a heart that fully believes in God and is daily saturated in the scriptures. Maybe you're still working on that and maybe you've got it down. So let me put a twist in the commandment for you:
Not only did Jesus call us to let go of our old lives and follow Him, but He asks us to do it with urgency.
Matthew 8:22 says, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
At first glance, this verse caught me really off guard. Upon a little research, I figured out what the passage was about. Many of Jesus' followers were telling him that they wanted to follow Him and He was explaining to them the costs of truly following Him. The verse before this one (Matt 8:21) says, "Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father.'"
In today's speech, that may seem like this man was only mourning the recent death of his father and needed to take care of his funeral and burial, etc. However, in those days, language of this sort often meant that his father was not yet passed away. Maybe he was elderly or sickly, but often words like this would mean that he intended to stay with his father until he reached death and that could be weeks or it could be years.
So basically the man was telling Jesus that he wanted to follow Him as soon as his father passed away but it might be a while. He was telling Jesus that he believed what Jesus was teaching and he wanted to make a difference but what was most important to him at this moment was spending the final days of his own father's life with him.
Now that doesn't seem too selfish of a motive to stay home, right? I mean, yeah, maybe he should just let it all go and follow Jesus right then and there but would you? I mean, think about it: If it was your mom or dad and they were elderly or maybe sickly, would you leave them to follow Jesus and possibly miss the last days of their life on earth?
It's a lot to commit to.
And since Jesus is God and God knows everything, He knew exactly what that man's family situation was like. He knew if his father was actually dead or not. He knew if his father was old or sick or dying. He knew.
And this is how he responded: "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:22
Again, I questioned the deeper meaning behind these words and found that Jesus was telling him to leave the spiritually dead to bury the physically dead. Wow. That seems pretty harsh. He was basically telling the man that he needed to leave his father and follow Him and leave those who were spiritually dead to wait around on his father's death and let them worry about burying him.
That's a lot to take in. But the one thing I understood clearly from these 2 verses is that Jesus wasn't playing when He asked us to follow Him. That wasn't just a polite gesture or a nice option for Christians who wanted a more fulfilled life. He commanded us to follow Him and He expects us to do it with urgency.
WHY?
1 Peter 2:21 says, "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps."
Because Christ suffered and died on the cross so that it was even possible for us to go to heaven, that's why.
And He knows that anything in this life, even good things like our family, can get in the way of His command. We need to reevaluate our walk every single day and ask ourselves if we're following Him with urgency.
He doesn't want you to wait until you've graduated high school and have a "real job."
He doesn't want you to wait until you're a college grad with a degree and a "direction."
He doesn't want you to wait until you're married or married with children.
He doesn't want you to wait until your kids are grown or your parents' health is better.
He doesn't even want you to wait until you're financially stable.
Matthew 8:20 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."
Jesus wants you right here, right now, no matter what personal circumstances you are going through, to lay down your own life and to pick up the life He gave for you and follow Him. No matter how crazy or "irresponsible" or insane that might sound, He made you, so He knows what is best for your life. He knows that the life He has for you, even if it includes not having a permanent place to lay your head, He knows it is better than anything you can do on your own. He also already knows what you will choose to do.
And what is absolutely, most beautiful about Jesus, is that despite what we choose, He will love us and continue to make a way for us, no matter what.
That's incredible love.
To me, that's worth giving up everything I'll ever have to follow Him.
Ask yourself in your heart, are you willing to leave everything and everyone behind and say "yes" to following Jesus no matter where it takes you?
I hope so.
