Word to the Wise
Monday, July 1, 2024 - Monday in the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
[Amos 2:6-10, 13-16 and Matt 8:18-22]When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other shore. A scribe approached and said to him, "Teach, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But Jesus answered him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead." [Matthew]
The Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis in the last days of World War II, wrote a spiritual classic entitled The Cost of Discipleship. In it he warns about "cheap grace" that people can try to find - a convenient faith - that makes few demands and seems to offer a sort of buffering comfort. In writing this, he merely mirrored what the Gospel According to Matthew has to say about discipleship. It is an "all or nothing" proposition. This is illustrated rather bluntly in Jesus' response to the scribe and disciple in today's gospel.
It looks like at least one scribe did hear Jesus and want to follow him. Jesus was often critical of scribes. Like many who come to faith later on in life than infancy, the scribe is enthused and ready to go wherever Jesus goes.....well, as long as the accommodations are comfortable. Jesus warns him that true discipleship means setting out without knowing where you may stay that night.
The second person is called a disciple but is so unless it interferes with fundamental Jewish filial duty - to bury one's parents. Jesus warns him that true discipleship may require placing his relationship to Jesus above duties of that kind. Otherwise the would-be disciple is as if dead while still living!
Such demands can seem harsh and unyielding, but we owe our next breath and all breaths to God's creating presence. When faith becomes a matter of convenience, discipleship can become just one option among others in a day. "Cheap grace" is an illusion. The idealism of the scribe will be tested and tempered if he continues with Jesuss. The competing "obligation" of the "disciple" must be left to providence. God will see to that burial.
Like the Sermon on the Mount, the Gospel According to Matthew continues to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." AMEN