Matthew 8:20-22 … Nowhere to lay your Head (04/09/17)
“Foxes have dens and birds have their nests; and yet the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head … Follow me, and let the Dead bury their dead.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 8:20-22)
In order to be able to explore the deeper reaches of Truth available in the Scriptures, it is necessary that we put their teachings into practice. And in order to put them into practice in ways powerful (and thus prescient), we must remember that Jesus preached humility over all other virtues – even making it a prerequisite for entrance into his version of Heaven – the state of being he called the “Kingdom of God” (see Matthew 18:3-4 — also Matthew 23:12, Luke 22:27, John 8:7 et al).
In addition to this, Jesus quite clearly despised hypocrisy over all sins (see the majority of Matthew 23 – especially Matthew 23:3 & Matthew 23:13; also Matthew 6:1, Matthew 7:5 & Matthew 15:7-9 et al). As such — as is quite obviously the case in Matthew 16:28, there is almost no chance that Jesus is referring to himself here when he uses the term “Son of Man”, for to do so would be the epitome of arrogance – and thus, the epitome of hypocrisy as well.
No, when we look closely at the Gospels, we can actually see quite readily that Jesus was preaching a theology that was practical in this lifetime (see Luke 17:20-21 + John 13:15-17 + Matthew 6:34 + Matthew 11:7-8 et al), not one focused on any heavenly reward based in his errantly-hoped-for status as the Davidian Messiah (see Mark 10:18, John 5:41, John 7:16, John 8:50-54, John 12:44 et al).
Indeed, this is why he told his listeners to “let the dead [i.e. those concerned with religious rituals and lives after their current one] bury their dead”, and this is why he repeatedly encouraged others not to worship him, but rather to “follow” him (see Matthew 4:19, Matthew 16:24, Matthew 19:28 et al) – treating every person we encounter as a Friend (especially our enemies – see Matthew 5:43-48 &/or the downtrodden in our midst – see Matthew 25:35-40), and treating every place we are as if it were our heavenly Home.
Amen … Let it be so.
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