If I am honest, I like to be comfortable. There is a reason why the term "comfort zone" exists. Maybe you can relate. While comfort is not necessarily a bad thing, becoming too comfortable being comfortable can hold us back. It can prevent us from trying new things or enjoying new experiences. For those of us who are followers of Christ, addiction to comfort can cause us to miss out on opportunities to fully follow Him and share our faith with others. After all, Jesus' call to follow Him never included staying comfortable.
Jesus called people out of their comfort zones throughout His ministry on earth. Matthew 8 records an interaction where He called a teacher of the religious law out of his comfort zone. This religious teacher said to Jesus, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go" (verse 19). Let's pause here because it is rare that we hear about a religious teacher wanting to follow Jesus. Most teachers were threatened by Jesus and His ministry and did not like Him. Despite this truth, this religious teacher wanted to follow Jesus. Jesus said to Him, "Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head” (verse 20). By saying this, Jesus told this teacher that following Him meant stepping out of his comfort zone. He would have to leave behind his comfortable life, home, and place to sleep if he wanted to follow Jesus. The interesting part of this story is that Matthew does not tell us how this religious leader responded. We do not know if he went back home or if he kept following Jesus. We do know, however, that the truth from this passage of Scripture that following Jesus means leaving behind our comforts still resonates today.
We may not know how this religious teacher responded to Jesus in Matthew 8, but we can answer the question for ourselves. Are we willing to let go of our worldly, temporary comforts in order to fully follow Jesus? When we do, we will get to join Him in the journey and privilege of a lifetime.
Take a step out of your comfort zone today and invite someone who does not know Christ to come to one of our weekend services with you. Reach out to them and offer to have a meal or coffee with them after the service. Your invitation may be the catalyst that ignites their faith in Him.
1Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. 2 Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”
3 Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”
5 When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, 6 “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”
8 But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 9 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! 11 And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. 12 But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.
14 When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. 15 But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.
16 That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. 17 This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said,
“He took our sicknesses
and removed our diseases.”
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.
19 Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
21 Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.”
