Matthew 8:18-22
When dining out in an expensive restaurant, the waiter
always gives you the chef’s specials of the day, and most often not the price;
for it seems they just assume you will pay the price, no matter the cost. Often while shopping with my wife, Jan, she
will bring a shirt she thinks I will like and my first question is, what does
it cost? I may like it but it matters to
me what it will cost to have ownership.
Many years ago in a hotel room in Victoria, Texas, I opened
a Gideon Bible to Romans 10:9-10, and began to read, I do not recall if someone
had told me to read it or if that is where the Bible opened to, but that verse
grabbed my heart. “Because, if you confess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. For with the heart one
believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” That night I acted by faith on
that Scripture and God, who is always faithful to His promises, came into my
life. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians
he explained what took place in my life, but at that time, I had no real
understanding of Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me. And the life I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me an gave himself for
me.” Often, the statements of
Jesus have been laughed at, by both the religious and the non-religious; in one
such statement He told a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who
came to Jesus by night, “Truly, truly, I say
to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John
3:3) And that night by God’s grace and
the faith He gave me to believe in His Son, I was born again.
I had a new identity, but I was a long way from being a
follower of Christ. If you would have
asked me, a new creation in Christ, if I was a follower of Christ, in my
ignorance I would have said; sure I am!
If someone would have ask if there was a cost to being a follower of
Christ at that time, I would have been clueless.
Is there a cost to being a follower of Christ? Have you asked the Father about the cost of
being a follower of Christ? When you see
the restaurant specials, do you pass up the thing you want because you are not
willing to ask about the price, because you are fearful of the price?
If you have trouble asking the price, could it be you are
prideful, and often miss out on the very best the restaurant has to offer, not
because of the asking price, but your pride about someone thinking little of
you for asking. In Matthew’s account, a
scribe asked Jesus this question, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nest, but the
Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20) Did you get what Jesus is telling this
lawyer, it is going to cost you a lot to be my follower, and are you willing to
be without title, family, or home? It is
recorded that a disciple 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.” Many
a reader will not understand this reply from our Lord, it sounds harsh because
to bury ones dad will only take a week or less in our time, but that was not
the case in the time of Jesus’ walk on earth.
A Jewish burial stretched over an entire year, and the eldest son was
obligated to gather the skeletal remains and place them in an ossuary for the
second burial. To many of the Jews this
was a very high commandment to honor father and mother, the supreme
commandment, and the giving of the burial was its most important
implication. But Jesus insisted that
following Him was to be even a higher priority. (Put in my words, but taken
from page 1627 in the notes from HCSB.
Someone once said, following Jesus is like signing a
personal check and letting the Lord fill in the price.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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