Day 11
Genesis 24:52-26:16; Matthew 8:18-34; Psalm 10:1-15; Proverbs 3:7-8
Radical Commitment
In our passage today in Matthew, we can experience, with Jesus’ disciples, several aspects of Jesus’ ministry and mission. We learn something of the radical commitment necessary to be a follower when Jesus asserts His power over nature as He calms a raging storm, and over spiritual forces as He drives out demons. At the heart of this passage is a question the disciples ask as they witness Jesus calming the storm: “What kind of man is this?”
And this is the question we must answer for ourselves. Is Jesus the “kind of man” we can follow unreservedly, despite His warning of what this means for us? Jesus tells us that following Him will make us in one sense homeless—no longer totally at home with our culture, and with a higher allegiance than to our families, countries, or anyone else.
Is Jesus the “kind of man” we can trust amid all the storms that will come our way? Can we respond to His invitation to “follow Me” or will we, like the residents of the Gadarenes, turn Him away out of fear of the disruption of our lives that He may bring?
Laura Madison