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When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, \u201cTeacher, I will follow you wherever you go.\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cFoxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.\u201d (Matthew 8:18-20)

Jesus sure doesn\u2019t make it very easy to follow him sometimes.

Jesus sees the crowds coming and he gets out of there: he crosses the lake. Someone comes who wants to follow Jesus, Jesus tries to persuade him not to.

It doesn\u2019t feel so different today: we want to join together with others to worship and grow in knowing and loving and following Jesus, but the pandemic conditions that he\u2019s permitted in his world are making it really hard to do.

You know, it\u2019s a good and healthy desire to want to follow Jesus and worship him. We\u2019ve been blessed to have been able to do both easily in freedom for so long. And we would still want to! So why does Jesus make it so hard sometimes?

It\u2019s a question many have scratched their heads about when they come to texts like these in the Gospels. Willing followers come to Jesus, and he makes it hard for them, saying things like: \u201clet the dead bury their own dead,\u201d and \u201cif you want to follow, you have to take up your cross to do it,\u201d and \u201csure, you can follow, but you better know that if you do\u2014you\u2019ll be a vagabond. A wanderer like me with no place to lay your head.\u201d

So, why is Jesus making it hard on us now? Well, given Jesus\u2019 words in the Gospels: maybe the opposite question is the better one: why has it been so easy to follow and worship Jesus for so long?

Iron doesn\u2019t sharpen iron without a bit of friction. A crucible doesn\u2019t refine metal without burning heat. The way to the promised land is through the wilderness. The Bible is full of these pictures, including this one: that new life doesn\u2019t come unless we die to ourselves.

Following Jesus has never been easy. So, what if the difficulty we\u2019re experiencing right now is actually closer to \u201cnormal\u201d in the life of discipleship than the easy ways some of us have had up to now?

Following Jesus implies that Jesus is always on the move. Will you continue to follow him into unfamiliar places? Will you continue to follow him even when the path gets hard?

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