Reflection from Nigel PriceMatthew 8:18-22The Cost of Following Jesus 18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (NIV)ReflectionWhat is the first thing you always have to do when you get up in the morning? And what would it take to force you to do something completely different? Perhaps hearing that something disastrous had happened to a member of your family. Surely you would want to drop everything and rush over to them?But what a remarkable passage in Matthew this is! First Jesus says, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head’. He has only a temporary home on earth and now he belongs to the road – the lanes and paths of the countryside with nowhere to lay his head - until eventually it will rest lifeless against the cross. And then he will return to his Father. And Matthw introduces us to the phrase Son of Man. For Matthew this signifies authority – the authority of Jesus to teach and heal.But the most remarkable response is the reply of Jesus to the disciple who wants to arrange his Father’s funeral. We know how compassionate Jesus is and surely we would have expected him to say, ‘of course you must go and attend to your father first’. But he doesn’t. “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” The man may be hedging his bets about following Jesus, but this little exchange shows that it is urgent. What Jesus is doing is so important that it takes precedence over everything else. This must be done first, before anything else. The greatest challenge that the church faces now, above anything else, is - how do we live the life of Jesus in such a way that those who see us also want to follow him?Additional Collect Faithful Creator, whose mercy never fails: deepen our faithfulness to you and to your living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Common Worship: Collects and Post Communions, material from which is included here, is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2000
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