Anyone who makes a decision should base it on careful calculation. If you lose, you can measure it without destroying the entire plan. Conversely, if you gain a profit, it shows the initial calculation was correct. Likewise, the decision to become a disciple and follower of the Lord Jesus must be based on careful consideration. For example, someone may be moved by the proclamation of God’s Word and say, “I truly want to follow the Lord, but later, after these matters are settled.” Responsibilities for raising children, meeting various life needs, and many other reasons can cause someone to postpone. Those reasons often sound reasonable. However, “later” never truly arrives. Life’s issues will never subside, let alone stop, as long as people live. Joys and sorrows, hardship and comfort, health and sickness will continue to be part of life. Those dynamics can eventually bury or cover up the promises once spoken.
Matthew 8:18–22 discusses two people who decide to become disciples or followers of the Lord Jesus. Both have the same desire but show different attitudes, and the Lord Jesus gives a firm, direct, and integral answer. A scribe said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests. Still, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Meanwhile, another who was one of His disciples said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus replied, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
In this passage, the Lord Jesus faces two people who actually represent two patterns that can hinder someone from becoming His disciple or follower. This story is not meant to shame or corner either of them, but to teach believers that they must decide to become a disciple and follow the Lord Jesus rightly. The first pattern appears in a scribe who speaks and promises too quickly without first calculating his decision. The second pattern appears in the disciple who delays with an excuse. The Lord Jesus does not merely reject both, but declares the cost and consequences of being His follower. Jesus’s response to both is truly unexpected and forces everyone to rethink the meaning of the words, “I will follow the Lord Jesus. I will be His disciple. I will go wherever He goes.”
A person’s reason for becoming a Christian, a believer, or deciding to serve the Lord Jesus can vary. Some decide because they have experienced God’s extraordinary power in their life, were healed from a life-threatening illness, or were delivered from the bonds of darkness and sin. Those reasons are not wrong or mistaken as a starting point for someone deciding to follow the Lord Jesus. However, all of that is only the beginning. Time and life’s events will prove the quality of a person’s discipleship.
Therefore, the decision to follow the Lord Jesus must not be born only from a momentary emotional impulse. Still, it must not be continually postponed under the excuse of waiting for circumstances to improve. Following the Lord requires careful calculation regarding the price that must be paid. There may be comforts to give up, personal interests to deny, and private wills to submit. Counting the cost does not mean looking for reasons to retreat, but understanding from the start the consequences of that decision so that one’s discipleship does not stop when circumstances become difficult. Being a disciple is not merely having the courage to say, “I will follow the Lord,” but being willing to prove those words through faithfulness throughout life’s journey.