Matt 8:19-22 reminds us to reflect on what truly comes first in our lives: comfort, intellect, family, position, or power. Jesus responds to two men with a clear message—following Him means placing Him first.
We face choices every day, and we must ask ourselves whether we are like the men who wanted to follow Jesus but used excuses to delay their commitment.
Here is a list of excuses adapted from Nasser’s “A Call to Die”:
- I’m only going to do it just this once.
- Nobody’s looking.
- It’s not going to hurt anybody.
- Everybody’s doing it.
- Well, we’re not living in Biblical times.
- If I do what God wants, people will misunderstand. They’ll think I’m a religious fanatic or something.
- Doesn’t God want me to fit in with my old friends?
- It’s just too hard to do what God wants.
- I don’t have time.
- Well, it’s not exactly like that situation in the Bible when God specifically said, “No.”
- I don’t really know what God wants me to do. Until He makes it clear, I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing.
Consider this: Many of life’s decisions can be guided by the question of how God is glorified in our actions. When we place Christ first, everything we do can bring glory to God (1 Cor 10:23-33).
Proverbs teaches us to honor God by acknowledging Him in all our life decisions:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:5-8)
It’s noteworthy how seeking God’s glory and acknowledging Him reverses the choices made in Eden, where man sought glory and knowledge apart from God.
We often make subtle excuses that prevent God from fully enveloping our lives. Recently, I watched movies with vulgar language and thought, “At least there wasn’t any nudity. It’s just entertainment.” But I must ask—does that fit into the category of “all things”?
My challenge is to live without justifying or making excuses in those areas where I’ve allowed the flesh to take over. Let’s follow Christ without excuses and truly place Him first (1 John 4:9).
inspired by David Nasser a call to die
The first two letters of the word Gospel is “GO”. That’s something I take seriously. I love getting out and doing things that glorifies God. I’ve always been active, but in the past, my heart was in it for my enjoyment, excitement, entertainment. I now find myself looking for ways to focus on Jesus in the things I do and opportunities to shine God’s love. The firewood ministry, Goodies From the Heart, Habitat for Humanity, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief, the Beacon Mission Team and many of the organizations I’m drawn to are groups that allow me to actively respond to God’s request to GO.
It is so easy to make excuses when faced with temptation. In these times, I remind myself of this statement the apostle Paul made in his letter to Timothy- “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12 ESV.
Since I was a kid, I always have enjoyed a good fist fight. There is something about winning a tough fight that really makes you feel alive. As a man of God, my opportunity to fight now is when I am faced with temptation. This is my opportunity to stand and fight the enemy that I hate so much. I try to focus on the joy that comes from knowing that I have delivered a good punch to the enemies face. I have found this to be an effective motivation tactic to help me win the battle of temptation and deny the humanly excuses that attempt to justify the sin in my life. I certainly don’t win every battle, but I am trying hard to hold my own, and I know that with God all things are possible.
Matthew 8:19-22
And a scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go!” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” And another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead!”
There are a few questions that come to mind here with the opening question. One, was this scribe something like a paparazzi back then, and this statement of “i’ll follow you wherever you go” more like a threat of some sort? Second, was Jesus going somewhere and if so where? I tend to think the first question is along these lines, just another person in the crowd, eager to follow Jesus yes, but also eager to do it for selfish gains, for his own notoriety. In response to this, Jesus tells him essentially “go where? I have no place to lay my head.”
Perhaps the scribe knew Jesus had called for a boat to go across the sea, and thus telling Jesus, “go where you like, I’ll be there regardless.” In this, Jesus could be saying “you will be following me endlessly because I have no place to rest like the fox and the bird of the air do.” I believe that is a call to us all as well, if we wish to follow Jesus, we must be willing to give up the comforts that come with dens and nests. Now, that is not to say that we will not have them, but that we must be willing to lay even comfort on the altar before God just as Abraham did with Isaac.
Then it reads “another of His disciples”, so perhaps the scribe was one of His disciples. Regardless, this other disciple says they want to go but needs to bury his father first. Here we can look back to verses 5, 18, and 28 to see about this journey across the sea. We find in verse 5 that Jesus was in Capernaum; in 18 He “gave order to depart to the other side”; and in 28 He went to Gadarenes. This is from the northern part of the sea to the eastern portion, but also not a long journey – even walking on roads today would take about 4 hours. This man seems to have a lot of good intention by the words of his mouth (be that for tradition or duty), but his heart was not with Jesus but on his own desires. As to say I want to be with Jesus when it’s convenient for me. There comes a time when we must put away the treasures of this world for the treasures promised to us by our Lord.