Matthew 8:19-22–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

Matthew 8 19-22 PODCAST

Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 8:19-22 wherein we observe the dangers of empty promises and the ease of giving poor excuses when it comes to following Jesus.

And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  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.”  Another of the disciples 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.”

Empty promises and poor excuses.  It seems like from these verses that Jesus is responding to well meaning people with that kind of negativity.  What we’ve got to remember though is that, unlike us, Jesus saw right into people’s hearts.  Take the first guy: As a Jewish scribe, he was part of the respected group of religious leaders that held themselves above everyone else, including Jesus.  But here is a guy that apparently is willing to alter his current course and follow Jesus anywhere.  Boy oh boy, what a great way for the Messiah to bridge that gap between He and the ultra holy people that would only increase throughout His time of ministry!  As Jesus looked into this man’s heart though, He might have seen someone who thought that hanging with the famous carpenter would result in five star hotel stays, limo rides, and lots of flash bulb photography.  He needed a bit of clarification: “Wild animals have more of a home than I do” was Jesus’ response.  This was no “respectable” life that the scribe was probably looking for–Jesus knew his promise was an empty one.

Then there’s the second guy, someone who was already considered one of Jesus’ disciples, probably in the wider sense than what we observe with the core twelve.  “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  This was a reasonable request, wasn’t it?  From our perspective it certainly seems so, but Jesus again knew what was in this person’s heart and what his intentions were.  It’s likely that he was looking for a way to distance himself from Jesus rather than take a physical leave of absence, continuing at all times as a disciple.  Or perhaps he was communicating to Jesus that his devotion to his family was more important than his devotion to his Lord.  We really don’t know.  What we do understand from the Scriptures is that nothing in life is to be considered outside of our discipleship.  We, as Christians, raise families and work at our jobs and plan for the future all under the reign of Jesus.  There is no non-discipleship time when it comes to following Him.

Isn’t it easy to be well intentioned with somewhat empty promises and to come up with convenient excuses when it comes to living in complete surrender to the Lord?  Walking by faith in the Son of God means living with eyes locked and hands open.  The more we have going on in this old world with multi-layered responsibilities and overlapping commitments, the harder such surrender becomes.  We need to ask ourselves who is more trustworthy–us or God?  Remember, He is the perfect CEO of our lives and we’re simply managers in, at the most, a corner office.  Let us take care with the promises that we make and weed out the excuses we’d like to give for holding ourselves back from His service.  May we each lay down our lives today.

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