Matthew 8:18-22
“Notice what you notice.” As is my wont, I often look at other translations when I want to get some sense of how others have interpreted Jesus’ words. The Message is particularly good for that, but Eugene Peterson often goes to extreme lengths with some of his wording. Today I also looked at the Good News Translation. While the more traditional translations titled this passage “The Cost of Following Jesus” (ESV) and “Discipleship Tested” (NASB), the GNT titled it “The Would-Be Followers of Jesus”. That, I thought, is a very good title!
The “would-be followers”… None of the translations tell us of the final decisions of the scribe or the disciple in this passage, as to whether they followed Jesus or not. On another occasion we know the outcome of the “rich young ruler”, how …he went away grieving (Mark 10:22). The scribe and the disciple started from opposite paths, one already a follower, the other one of the Jewish leaders. By approaching Jesus with his “I will follow you wherever you go” comment, the scribe had “laid his cards on the table”; he would have had a hard time going back to his scribe and Pharisee colleagues. The disciple, however, had already been one of the many who had been following Jesus. He could easily have simply drifted away, thinking he would catch back up with Jesus later. (Did that ever happen…?) So I tend to think that the scribe continued to follow Jesus, but that the disciple went back to his family.
It makes me wonder about the people in my life with whom I have shared Jesus. Are they “would-be followers” who found the demands of following Jesus too great, given where they were in life? Or would they follow along a bit with a “wait and see” attitude? Bottom line: it doesn’t matter. My responsibility is sharing the Gospel; the rest is up to the Holy Spirit. End of story.
Slava Bohu!