Matthew 8:18-22
The key words in this section are the titles attributed to Jesus. A teacher of the law calls him "Teacher" (which is probably "Rabbi"). Jesus calls himself the "Son of Man". A disciple calls him "Lord". Jesus contrasts foxes who have dens and birds who have nests to himself who has no place to call home. He then compares those who are physically dead to those who are spiritually dead.
The implication of Jesus' words are that if someone wants to follow him they must be willing to give up their home and any relational connections. Jesus is saying that following him must be the absolute priority and that nothing must compete for allegiance to him. This is pretty radical teaching.
For me, this means that I must love Jesus more than I love his blessings. Lets face, I really like his blessings: a great wife, a great son, a great job, a great house, a great faith community, good friends, good health, good food, etc. Even beyond the physical and emotional blessings of Christ, there are the spiritual blessings of comfort, confidence, direction, purpose, hope, etc. The question I must keep asking myself is, do I love Jesus more than I love his blessings? Would I be willing to give up my job, my faith community, my health, my son for the sake of Christ? I was doing ok up until my son... The point is that nothing must compete for my allegiance to Jesus.
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It's a pretty sobering thought isn't it. Being willing to give up anything for Christ. I am with you, giving up my wife and daughter would be very difficult. I think of Job and all he lost and still followed God, what a faith he had. May we have the strength in Christ to endure anything for him. May we serve and love him and count his blessings as extra, knowing that the biggest blessing we have recieved is the gift of life, for our wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
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