WORDS OF JESUS - READING THE RED
Discipleship Tested
Matthew 8: 18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to cast off for the other side of the Sea of Galilee.19 Then [on His way to board the boat] a scribe [who was a respected and authoritative interpreter of the Law] came and said to Him, “Master, I will accompany You [as Your student] wherever You go.” 20 Jesus replied to him, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
21 Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father (collect my inheritance).”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me [believing in Me as Master and Teacher], and allow the [spiritually] dead to bury their own dead.”
23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.
24 And suddenly a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping.
25 And the disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us, we are going to die!”
26 He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was [at once] a great and wonderful calm [a perfect peacefulness].
27 The men wondered in amazement, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
http://www.family-times.net/commentary/motives-of-service/
In this section Matthew gives two illustrations of men who said they wanted to follow the Lord and serve Him but had the wrong motives.
- Desired fame - Because great crowds followed Jesus and there had not been much opposition up to this point, many expressed a desire to follow Him (vv. 18-20). However, they would not be willing to pay the price. One of these men was a scribe who apparently blurted out, “Master I will follow you wherever you go” (v. 19). The Lord obviously knew his heart and saw that he desired fame in following a prominent teacher. Instead of making it easy to follow Him, Jesus insisted that he count the cost of discipleship.
- Desired personal convenience - The second man who was already a disciple of Jesus requested that he be permitted to return home and bury his father (v. 21). It appears that the man’s father was not dead or even at the point of death. This man was simply saying that he wanted to return home and wait until his father died. Then he would return and follow Jesus. His request demonstrated that he thought discipleship was something he could do when it was convenient. Jesus response was “Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead” (v.22). Jesus did not mean disrespect to the father but that it was better to teach the Gospel to those who are spiritually dead, than to wait until the father dies and then bury him.
The IVP New Testament Commentary
Jesus' Ministry Exhausts Him (8:23-24)
Jesus' exhausted slumber in the boat passage incidentally illustrates his statement in verse 20 that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Perhaps as if to underline the point, Matthew omits Mark's mention of the makeshift cushion (Mk 4:38). Matthew also purposely emphasizes that Jesus' true disciples followed him (8:22-23).
Jesus Reproves the Disciples for Their Fear (8:25-26)
Jesus Reproves the Disciples for Their Fear (8:25-26)
Jesus' peace (v. 24) contrasts starkly with the disciples' fear (v. 25); they are of little faith (v. 26), just like those who are anxious for tomorrow (6:30) or who doubt Jesus' power to work extraordinary miracles (14:31; 16:8; 17:20). Ability to sleep during trouble was often a sign of faith in God (Ps 3:5; 4:8), and the Greeks also praised philosophers who demonstrated consistency with their teaching by maintaining a serene attitude during a storm (Diog. Laert. 1.86; 2.71; 9.11.68). Just as Jesus demands that we express our love for God by trusting him for material provision (Mt 6:25-34), he demands that we trust him for safety. Our heavenly Father may not always protect us from earthly ills, but he will do with our lives what is best for us (10:29-31). By this point in the narrative the disciples appear without excuse for their unbelief, like Israel in the wilderness; "Jesus expects them to have taken charge of the storm themselves" (Rhoads and Michie 1982:90, 93).
Jesus' Power Reveals His Identity (8:27)
Jesus' Power Reveals His Identity (8:27)
If the disciples thought the boat might sink with Jesus aboard, it was because they did not understand Jesus' identity. His power over the sea, however, forces them to grapple afresh with that question. Faith in Jesus' authority flows from conviction concerning his true identity (compare 8:8; 9:6).
Stories about nature miracles occasionally circulated in antiquity, usually either stories about deities (R. Grant 1986:62) or legends about heroes of the distant past (as in Diog. Laert. 8.2.59; Blackburn 1986:190; compare t. Ta`anit 2:13). Parallels to the Jonah story (Cope 1976:96-98) can link the disciples' amazement at Jesus' stilling of the storm to God's stilling the storm in the Jonah story (Jon 1:15-16); other backgrounds in the Hebrew Bible also point to Jesus' identity with God (see in Lane 1974:176). In biblical tradition it was God whom the seas obeyed (as in Job 38:8-11; Ps 65:5-8; 89:8-9; France 1985:162). The astonishment of Jesus' disciples is therefore understandable (Mk 4:41; 6:51)! Their cry for Jesus to save them reflects one sense of the Greek term save ("deliver safely") but probably also alludes on a literary level to Jesus' broader mission (Mt 1:21).
Stories about nature miracles occasionally circulated in antiquity, usually either stories about deities (R. Grant 1986:62) or legends about heroes of the distant past (as in Diog. Laert. 8.2.59; Blackburn 1986:190; compare t. Ta`anit 2:13). Parallels to the Jonah story (Cope 1976:96-98) can link the disciples' amazement at Jesus' stilling of the storm to God's stilling the storm in the Jonah story (Jon 1:15-16); other backgrounds in the Hebrew Bible also point to Jesus' identity with God (see in Lane 1974:176). In biblical tradition it was God whom the seas obeyed (as in Job 38:8-11; Ps 65:5-8; 89:8-9; France 1985:162). The astonishment of Jesus' disciples is therefore understandable (Mk 4:41; 6:51)! Their cry for Jesus to save them reflects one sense of the Greek term save ("deliver safely") but probably also alludes on a literary level to Jesus' broader mission (Mt 1:21).
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