The healings brought many people to Jesus, but He did not want to be carried along by crowd hysteria, and so went to the other side of the lake. We do well to follow this pattern today, it is important that we are led by the Spirit, not by emotion or human thinking.
There two people came who said they wanted to follow Him. Now in those days rabbis had disciples, but Jesus was much more than a rabbi, and following Him meant much more than just following a rabbi.
The first man was a teacher of the Law, and possibly he saw a chance to promote his own teaching ministry. Jesus warned him that following Him was no easy option. In fact Jesus' reply shows that there are no guarantees of prosperity, something we would do well to remember. We need to pay attention to both aspects of Jesus' teaching on material things. On the one hand we have the assurance (and the demonstration by miraculous means if necessary) that God will provide all that we need, He takes care of absolutely every aspect of our lives. We should be free from debt and free from anxiety. On the other hand we have verse like this that show that the gospel does not give us worldly security, but Godly security. When we follow Jesus we start to live in a different kingdom.
The next man wanted to bury his father first. It is highly likely that father was not yet dead, nor even near death. The man wanted to wait until his father had died. Now we are to take proper care of our parents, but the man here was concerned with himself. If the call comes to go, then we must go. There will always be a reason not to do what God tells us to do.
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