Faith to Follow Fully

Matthew 8:18-34

The Cost of Discipleship

18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go."

20 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."

21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."

22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Wind and Wave Obey Jesus

23 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"

26 But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"

Two Demon-Possessed Men Healed

28 When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. 29 And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?"

30 Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the demons begged Him, saying, "If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine."

32 And He said to them, "Go." So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.

33 Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

Here is the call of faith to follow Jesus fully as we count the cost of it all (Luke 14:28, 33).  It is first seen in the response of a certain scribe who knew the word of God well and saw all Jesus Christ had been saying and doing.  He enthusiastically promised to follow the Lord wherever He went, but Jesus reminded him straightaway that discipleship comes at a high cost, including giving up all we hold dear in the process, beginning with the possibility of no set place to live.  This is a hard truth that foreign missionaries still deal with as they leave the security of house and home to follow and serve Him.  Then it is seen by another disciple who wanted to delay following until he first buried his father.  This did not mean that he was going to a funeral yet, but most likely that he wanted to be there when the passing happened to take care of the arrangements.  This was more likely an excuse to avoid total commitment to following Christ at any and all costs over even familial responsibilities.  

After these declarations of counting the high cost of discipleship, the core disciples (apostles) joined Jesus in a boat to cross the sea.  But when the tempest tossed the small craft about, they cried out in fear instead of trusting the Lord with relying faith.  They had to wake Him up to beg Him to save them from what seemed a certain death.  He spoke peace to the sea and peace to them to trust Him more instead of being overwhelmed by fear of death.  The disciples spoke only of who Jesus could be to be able to control the weather like that instead of considering the greater lesson of walking by faith without fear.  That is still a poignant reminder for us all to trust Him more, only trust Him and turn to Him who is always awake and aware to calm our souls in trouble.  

Next we find Jesus encountering the demon-possessed who only wanted freedom from the oppression as the demons defied the Lord who stood before them.  It is noteworthy that the demons knew they would face a certain fate (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6), and yet thought they were about to face eternal torment at that moment because they are not omniscient like God nor did they know the timing of God’s final judgment coming on them into the lake of fire.  When it seemed that was not yet to happen they begged the Lord to cast them from the man to animals and then destroyed those they inhabited for a short time before crashing them violently over a cliff into the water.  Since they could not follow Jesus and awaited a horrible end, they poured out what spite they could in killing and destroying like their fallen master the devil (John 10:10).  This frightened those who watched the possessed and they gathered others to beg Jesus to leave instead of worshiping Him and following themselves like the other disciples.  Fear kept them as the cost was counted as to what that really meant.  Do we draw back (Hebrews 10:39) to destruction or have we believed and therefore now continue to follow by faith after hearing the gospel of salvation and go on making disciples ourselves without fear of eternal punishment (1 John 4:18) and at all costs, or do we waver and find excuses or let fear immobilize our actions?  His yoke is easy compared to hopelessness apart from Him and it is light in contrast to our own works and the resulting burdens we bear when we do not trust Him fully in all aspects of life.  May we rely on faith to follow fully instead.