No Bandwagon to the Kingdom

Matthew 8:18-22

 Open your Bibles please to page 1141. I want us to check out the bold faced headings. Take a look at the first three headings in chapter 8:

1.  Jesus Heals a Man

2.  Jesus Heals a Roman Officer’s Servant

3.  Jesus Heals Many People

Okay, turn the page and look at the next three:

1.  Jesus Calms a Storm

2.  Jesus Heals Two Men with Demons

3.  Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

Five of the six have to do with Jesus healing and the other one describes a different kind of miracle. Okay, now go back one page to our scripture reading for today: Matthew 8:18-22. The heading is: The Would-Be Followers of Jesus. Why has Matthew inserted a totally new topic in the middle of this barrage of stories about healings?

Let’s read it and see if we can figure it out.

Matthew 8:18-22.

When Jesus noticed the crowd around him, he ordered his disciples to go to the other side of the lake. 19 A teacher of the Law came to him. “Teacher,” he said, “I am ready to go with you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus answered him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.” 21 Another man, who was a disciple, said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.” 22 “Follow me,” Jesus answered, “and let the dead bury their own dead.”

 Again, why would Matthew pause from recounting Jesus miracles’ to report what he said about two men who thought they wanted to be disciples?

 To help us formulate an answer lets compare this to something we’re more familiar with. If someone went up to a presidential candidate and said I want to be part of your campaign all the way to the Whitehouse, that person would be brought on board. That person would represent one vote and maybe a campaign contribution. In fact, getting as many as possible would be the goal. It wouldn’t matter whether or not they understood the issues.  It’s called getting on the bandwagon and the term has been a part of American politics since 1848.

 The freedictionary.com says getting on the bandwagon means joining others in supporting something that’s fashionable or likely to be successful. Another scholar says: The general rule is that conduct or beliefs spread among people just like fads and trends do.[1] The problem is people want to join up with success without considering what they associated themselves with. A belief that spreads this way is superficial at best.

  Jesus would not have had to spend many days healing people until all kinds of people wanted to get on his bandwagon. Everybody would be connected with someone who needed healing. Everybody would want to be a part of something so good and so exciting. He could have the whole country eating out of his hands. People would be wearing their hair like he did, dressing like he did and wearing I’M HEALED T-shirts. The bandwagon would be overflowing with people but none of them would really know Jesus or what he wanted of a disciple. 

Unlike most candidates for public office Jesus was not interested in capitalizing on the bandwagon effect.  If he had allowed it, people would have been falling all over themselves to be a part of it – but not necessarily a part of him.

 The first man approached Jesus and claimed he would follow Jesus wherever he went. What he really wanted was to follow the excitement, to be on gravy train. He was saying I’d follow you because I want to be a part of the in crowd.

 The second man approached Jesus and said he would follow Jesus as soon as it was convenient.  That’s the nice thing about a bandwagon commitment you can hop on and off any time you want to.  

 Jesus didn’t reject them; they turned away from him. They wanted the bandwagon – not him.

  Jesus did have 12 followers and then 70 and eventually 120. But they were following Jesus not because he did miracles but because he had healed them on the inside. They had allowed Jesus to pass through the physical to take care of their sin.

Jesus knew this from the beginning and Matthew was aware of it as he wrote his gospel. He knew there would be a temptation on the part of those first reading it to think they could join a popular movement without changing. To think they could enhance their prospects without yielding to God. 

So Matthew stopped the healing stories to set the record straight. Two would-be disciples turned away when they figured out that with Jesus there was no bandwagon for them or anyone else.

It would be humanly impossible for a political candidate at the national level to relate one on one with all of his or her supporters. But that’s exactly what Jesus wants to do. And that’s exactly what people who don’t follow him don’t want to do.

These two incidents should give us some ideas on what’s involved in drawing people to Jesus. The first thing to note is that we are drawing people to him not a movement. We are not even drawing them to church. So it doesn’t do any good to beef church up. In other words, we’re not selling church membership. We do want to love people and let them be the recipient of good deeds because these may cause people to praise God. But we are not looking for praise for the church.

Second, Jesus can stand alone. He himself is the draw. Thousands of people have been sitting alone, reading the Bible and found him.  Of course, people need to be in fellowship but the bandwagon doesn’t get them there. Jesus brings them.

Third, we need to monitor our own thinking. Are we more interested in being on a bandwagon than in following Christ? Are we disappointed or hesitant when being a Christian is not popular? Are we more interested in the benefits than in the Savior?

 Today, this scripture asked us to take stock of our commitment. Who are what are we committed to? Do we have contingencies and exception clauses? Or are we simply committed to Jesus – lock, stock and barrel. That phrase was first used by Sir Walter Scott in 1817. And he had the right context to put someone in repair. That’s why Jesus came – to repair us. That’s discipleship.

 Youth Message

Caravans 

 Has anyone ever seen a camel? Has anyone ever ridden a camel? Does anyone know what a caravan is?

 Caravans are groups of camels traveling together usually in single file. People travel with their camels or cars in caravans so they can help each other, for protection and so no one gets lost. Sometimes it’s two or three cars instead of camels. The person in front is chosen because they know the way.

 Let’s pretend we’re on a journey. Each of us is sitting on top of a camel. We’re going across a huge dessert. It’s our first trip and we don’t know how to get to the next oasis so we can get some water.

 What do we want our camel to do? We want him to follow the leader. We don’t want our camel to decide it’s time to stop and take a nap and all we can do is wave goodbye. We don’t want our camel to decide that he doesn’t need water and so he heads off in his own direction even if he does say it’s a shortcut. And we don’t want our camel to decide he wants to be the leader since he doesn’t know where he’s going.

 We want our camel to stay in line and get us to water without any distractions or side trips.

 That’s what it’s like to follow Jesus. Let him be in the lead. Let him choose the route our life is going to take. Let him decide when it’s time to stop for a rests.