“18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 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
At face value, this is such a puzzling way in which Jesus answers the scribe who expresses a desire, even a willingness to follow Jesus. But everything that Jesus says is laden with intention and purpose and should cause us to pause and think about every word he proclaims.
I had never given much thought to this passage prior to a year ago when it had a profound impact on me and my family’s situation at the time. We were going through a season feeling totally uprooted from a community and place that felt like home. In a spiritual sense, we felt homeless. One day I was out walking and praying, and this interesting verse and the words of Christ struck a way that resonated deeply within me.
Jesus says that he “has nowhere to lay his head.” Now, does this indicate that Jesus was homeless? Homelessness is generally defined as a person or people without a regular, fixed, and secure nighttime residence. The gospels paint a picture of Jesus having accommodation, with the exceptions of his wilderness period and rejection at Nazareth. So then, what on earth did Jesus mean in his response to the scribe and to all who desire to follow him, or are attracted to the story/ reality of his person and work
I think it is a challenge, call, invitation, to leave familiarity and even comfort to embark on a journey to imitate Christ in his ministry of caring for the lost, the untouchables, confronting injustice, challenging those who proclaim to know God, yet whose works are contrary to their proclamation. It is a call to comfort the afflicted. It is a call to bear affliction, to die to ourselves and live for others as Christ gave himself for the world as we depend upon God the Father to sustain us, as God the Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ. Following Christ is a call to the home and rest that we all desperately long for. Like Abraham, we too are called to sojourn, as the writer of Hebrews says, “8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”[1]
So where do you lay your head? Where does your hope lie? The rest we long for, the home we seek, will evade us unless we are unwilling to say, “Christ, would you lead us and teach us; Father, would you sustain us; and Spirit, would you shape us. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.”
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Heb 11:8–10.