“And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air [have] nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay [his] head.” (Mt 8:19-20 AV)
Isn’t that just like most of us? Conditional discipleship. In this case, it was ignorance that lent to conditions for following Jesus. The scribe never inquired regarding accommodations. He never asked of the nature of living arrangements nor nourishment. The question seemed genuine enough. In fact, we are not told what the scribe did in response to Christ’s statement. We don’t know if the scribe accepted the conditions or changed his mind. The only thing we know for sure is the scribe expressed a desire to follow Jesus, and the Master revealed the heart of the matter. There were no guarantees. Jesus would not provide what was dearest on his heart. The scribe, according to the statement of Jesus, harbored concerns he was unaware of. Not until the LORD told him there was no certain dwelling place did the scribe realize the severity of his desire. One would assume because of what follows that the scribe changed his mind. However, we don’t know this for certain. What we do know is that when the offer to follow Christ appears, there are things we have never considered until the LORD raises the curtain. The question will be, when confronted with deep-seated concerns of which we were unaware, will we be just as eager to follow the LORD as before we realized the depth of commitment it requires?
It is not uncommon for a mentor, employer, parent, etc, to encourage commitment from their charge without revealing the extent of what that commitment might mean. We do this because we know what we offer is for their own good, but if they knew everything that would involve the choice, it would be declined. I was an overly-cautious child. I still harbor that personality trait. This did not bode well when times of adventure presented themselves. My dad was an avid camper and outdoorsman. He would take us on all sorts of trips. We would tent camp in all sorts of weather. This meant we were in tents in the middle of winter, the heat of summer, during days of extended rain, and nice weather. He would pack us all up and head for the woods. We learned to build fires in nice weather or wet weather. We learned to cook meals over an open fire. We learned how to stay dry even when it was wet outside. We learned how to dig latrines. We learned how to boil water. We learned how to tend to land filled with thorny trees. We learned how to clear land and build a volleyball court. We learned how to blaze trails and leave other land to the wild. We learned much. But at the inception of our trip, my father never led on that our trips would be a mixture of fun and work. He never led on that regardless of the weather, we would make it work. Before we left, we didn’t know exactly where we would set up. We didn’t know every detail of what we might face. We didn’t even know what questions to ask. We simply went and trusted our father.
Deep faith is not faith to trust what we can reliably predict. Real faith is when we are confronted with things we had never thought of before. Deep faith is when the secret things of our mind or heart are brought to the surface and we are forced to trust in spite of them. Job said it well. “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” (Job 3:25 AV) When the thing that we never consider is now our reality, then deep faith is at work. The scribe was nervous about his accommodations. He didn’t know that he was. Or he would have asked about them before he offered to follow. The LORD often raises fears we didn’t know we had so that we can confront them and learn to trust. What will we do when we are face to face with a monster we didn’t know existed? Will we still follow and trust? Or will we decide the risk is not worth it? The story of the scribe is untold. It remains to be seen what he had chosen. What About your story? Is it untold? What have you chosen? Will you trust Him with the unknown?
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