Canter Bridge

Jesus promises his followers no perks.

In fact, he suggests that perk-seekers will best look elsewhere for a north star. He, rather, welcomes those who give up everything and expect nothing.

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ (Matthew 8:18–20 ESV)

Something deep within us presumes that there is a guarantee. There is something for us in following Jesus.

The man himself, however, affirms that there is none.

In the verses quoted above, Jesus lays to rest all presumption that he will take care of his followers in the temporal sense. He himself has ‘nowhere to lay his head’. Neither should his followers expect a pillow.

Let us expand the thought: No bed. No bedroom. No home.

And yet Jesus is sure enough of himself to imagine that following him is, in spite of this, worthwhile.

Jesus’ statement in Matthew’s citation of it ends abruptly. There is no commentary, no explanation, no nuances that soften the observation he has just made.

The implication is clear. If you walk this way, you leave everything else behind. Everything else.