True Safety—Matthew 8:18-27

In this passage, Jesus puts a magnifying glass over the fine print of the gospel. A credit card company or a pharmaceutical company might put interest rates or side effects in fine print to keep you from reading, but Jesus wants you to know the sacrifices you have to make to be his disciple. There are two things he says you will lose: comforts and connections. If what matters most to you are the comforts and connections you had before you met Jesus, then you aren't ready to follow him.

Then why should anyone follow Jesus? This passage and the ones after it give us three reasons. Yes, you will lose comforts and connections, but you will gain true safety, real freedom, and divine forgiveness. This passage focuses on safety: Followers of Jesus lose comforts and connection, but gain true safety.

Let's think first about what Jesus says to the disciples on the shore, and then about what he does for the disciples in the storm.

The Disciples on the Shore

So Jesus is about to get in the boat to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and this scribe comes up to him, and says, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Now if someone comes up to me and says, "Pastor, I will follow you wherever you go," I get pretty excited. But Jesus doesn't shout, "Hurray! Climb in the boat!" Instead he says something that could be rather discouraging. "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." How many church websites say anything remotely like that? "Come worship with us, and you could end up homeless." But that's what Jesus means. He isn't trying to be discouraging. He's just asking this man to count the cost. Don't get in the boat, he's saying, unless you think it's worth it.

And this was written for us, so that we would count the cost. Do you want to follow Jesus? That is good. Count the cost. Are you willing to be homeless for Christ? Not every disciple will be. Jesus isn't saying everyone who follows him has to give away his house. Peter had a house -- we saw that in the last chapter. But every disciple has to be ready to lose everything. Every disciple has to count the cost.

This passage reminds me of a time during my college years in Rhode Island when I was trying to get a job, and I thought it would be cool to be a fisherman of some kind. Someone told me that I might be able to get a job if I drove down before dawn to the docks where all the shellfish gatherers started their day. So I did this, and it took me a little time to find where I was going, but I got there and I was able to talk to some gruff New England sailor. And he looked down at my feet. I was wearing Chacos, which are a durable sort of sandal, which I thought would be comfortable for working on a boat. And he said, "No one's going to hire you wearing those."

Now, Jesus, unlike this sailor, was willing to take disciples who were ill-equipped. But he told them what they were getting into. If you aren't willing to give up your comforts, you aren't ready to get in the boat.

Another man comes up and says, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." And Jesus answers, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

Now, it isn't spelled out for us whether this man's father is dead, and he's asking for a few hours to go bury him, or whether, as some scholars argue, the father is still alive, and the man is asking for permission to stay at home and be a good son until his father dies, and then to follow Jesus. Either way, Jesus' demand is very counter-cultural, and would even seem irreverent. He's clearly asking this disciple to honor Jesus above his own father. Jesus' reference to the man's living family as "the dead" must be a figure of speech of some kind, perhaps implying that they are spiritually dead -- that the clan as a whole has rejected their Savior. If this man would be a true disciple, he has to break from his family and put his Lord first.

And we have to be ready to do the same. Yes, honor your father and mother. But if they say, Stay on the shore, and Jesus says, Get in the boat, we have to get in the boat.

But what happens if you do get in the boat? Let's think about the disciples in the storm.

The Disciples in the Storm

At first glance, it would appear that being a follower of Jesus is even worse than he made it out to be. The disciples go out to sea, and there is such a terrible storm that these men, many or all of whom are experienced sailors, are afraid they are going to die. Meanwhile, Jesus, who said that he had nowhere to lay his head, has found a cozy spot in the boat and is sleeping away! How can he be at peace in such a storm?

And yes, being a disciple of Jesus often does look like sailing into the storm. It brings real danger. For many, it has brought the danger of death. But with this temporary danger comes true safety.

The disciples, scared as they are, turn to the right place for help: "Save us, Lord; we are perishing." That's a prayer you can put in your pocket for later. Jesus responds with what I would call a friendly rebuke: "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" They shouldn't be afraid, if they're with Jesus, but he doesn't call them "faithless." He calls them "of little faith." And little faith in the right Savior goes a long way.

Then, it says, Jesus "rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." What's going on here? Jesus talks to the wind and the sea, like he has a personal relationship with them, like they know him. Like you would talk to your dog. Who can talk to the wind like that? Who can tell the sea what to do?

The disciples ask the same question: "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?" The answer is, the man who is God.

And this means that it is worth it to get in the boat with Jesus. It is worth it to be his follower, even if you have to give up comforts and connections. It is worth it, because he is God, and if you are with him, then you are truly and forever safe.

Not just from storms, but from your bigger problems: sin and death.

Matthew tells us later in the Gospel how Jesus saved his people from these. He saved his disciples from the storm with a word, but he did not save us from sin and death with a word. He saved us from these by going through a storm of his own, a storm that he went through alone: the storm of the cross.

All his disciples jumped ship as his crucifixion drew near. And he whom winds and sea obey was silent, for our sake, enduring danger and death to pay for our sin, to purchase us from the storm of God's wrath. The sea did not claim him, but the grave did.

But on the third day, he exercised his divine authority by taking up his life again. And that's proof that he won the victory over the devil, over death, and over our sin. When it comes to the reality of guilt, everyone who trusts in Christ has entered calm waters.

Here's the call to you: give up your comforts, give up your connections, and follow Jesus, where you will have true safety.

Pastor Nate Jeffries