"Lord...first let me go bury my father." And Jesus said, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
Tonight I asked our High School students, "Who do people in our culture follow?" The answers ranged from athletic superstars such as Tiger Woods to Hollywood superstar Ashton Kutcher. Then I asked, "how is it that these superstars are followed?" One of the seniors said that people follow Ashton Kutcher on twitter. Another student said that people follow Tiger Woods by walking the golf courses to see him shoot a double eagle.
After further discussion, I asked "how is it that we follow Jesus?" According to Matthew 8, Jesus instructs a young man to Follow Him. But what does that really look like? Bible Scholars have a few different takes on what happened that day. It's possible that the young man put off following Jesus until his father died. Maybe his father was sick and the young man was just waiting until that moment. Or maybe he didn't want to follow Jesus because he wanted to ensure he received his father's inheritance.
Why do you think the man asked to bury his father? What's wrong with his request? It seems reasonable and responsible for this young man to look out for his family and bury his father.
Here's my take: I think the young man was doing what many of us do. He turned responsibility into an excuse. The young man was allowing an arguably legitimate responsibility - burying his father - to get in the way of embracing his greatest responsibility - following Christ.
I pray that students can stop making excuses for not following Jesus. Following Jesus means that we put him first and obey his commands. Following Jesus means that we leave the world a better place than we found it. Following Jesus means that we know Jesus' voice so well that when he calls us; we listen and are able to hear his voice.
Next week our students will talk about "Why" people followed Jesus. We'll be using 3 or 4 clips from the movie Braveheart to jumpstart our discussion.
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