Sermon Recap
You’re Not Being Very Sensitive, Jesus
Scripture referenced
- Luke 9
- John 14
- Matthew 15
- Matthew 8:14-27
- Matthew 8:18-22
This was the fourth and final week of "Jesus Would Get Canceled for That," preached outdoors at Powderhorn Park on the last Sunday of Outdoor August 2026. Brian Hunter walked through Matthew 8:18-22, slowing down on two exchanges between Jesus and would-be followers that most people read right past. The bottom line of the morning was this: Jesus cares more about your transformation than he does your comfort.
What was said
The series has been asking the congregation to read familiar moments in Jesus's ministry not from a safe distance but from inside the cultural moment, where his words would have landed hard and strange. Week one covered laying down your life to find it. Week two covered "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Week three covered Jesus calling the Canaanite woman a dog, and what that moment was actually doing. Week four picked up another passage that tends to get read right past: two quick exchanges in Matthew 8 where Jesus says something that, in any setting, would read as tone-deaf at best.
The first thing worth noticing in the passage is that Jesus tells his disciples to cross the lake right in the middle of a growing crowd. He had just healed Peter's mother-in-law, cast out demons, and healed every sick person brought to him. The crowd was growing. Momentum was building. And Jesus said, let's boogie. Brian noted that this is counterintuitive in the same way you never leave elk to go find elk, and that it connects directly to what Tribe has experienced repeatedly, from Snow King Hotel to homes during COVID to the hillside at Snow King to the TMC to Powderhorn Park to, next week, First Baptist Jackson at 5PM. Every time a good thing gets going, Jesus tells the tribe fam to pack up camp and move.
The first exchange in the passage is with a teacher of religious law who says he will follow Jesus anywhere. Jesus does not say no. He also does not say come on in. He tells the man that foxes have dens and birds have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Brian pointed out that rabbis of that era typically built a synagogue, established a school, and became sedentary, with followers coming to them. Jesus was telling this man that is not how this works. The relationship with Jesus is always on his terms, and the good news is that his terms are always the best. The cost Jesus named was apparently too steep, because the man disappears from the text.
The second exchange is different in one telling detail. Where the teacher of religious law addressed Jesus as "teacher," the next man addresses him as "Lord." He is a disciple, not just a curious bystander. He asks to go home and bury his father first. Brian walked through what "bury my father" would have meant in a second-temple Jewish context, where burial could involve months or even more than a year before bones were gathered into an ossuary and placed in the family tomb. Some scholars read the original Greek as leaving open the possibility that the father had not even died yet. The point is that "let me bury my father" was not necessarily a simple request to attend a funeral this week. It was a way of saying, you are a priority, just not the highest one.
Jesus's reply, "let the spiritually dead bury their own dead," is what one congregation member flagged as the hardest line in the passage. Brian acknowledged it directly: Jesus just told a man who may have recently lost his father that the dead can handle it. That is not sensitive. But Brian's reading was that Jesus saw through the framing. The request was a smokescreen. Something real and even noble was being placed above following him, and Jesus named it.
The question Brian left the congregation with was personal. Are there smokescreens in front of Jesus right now? A mouth that says Lord, a life whose actions are saying something else. He was clear that Jesus is not looking for a grand proclamation in response. The prayer he suggested was simple: "You're right. Jesus, help me." The service closed with the congregation standing together, hands on each other's shoulders, as Brian prayed over the tithes and offerings, over the move to First Baptist next Sunday, and over an all-cash offer that came in on the TMC while the service was happening.
Touch points
- Sit quietly for a few minutes this week and ask the Holy Spirit to show you one thing you are placing as a higher priority than following Jesus, then tell him honestly what you find.
- If you have been telling Jesus you will follow him once you finish some other thing first, name that thing out loud to God and ask him to help you put it in its right place.
- Show up at First Baptist Jackson at 5PM on September 6 ready to meet in a new place, and introduce yourself to at least one person there you do not already know.
- Scan the QR code and set up a recurring tithe to Tribe, or if you already give, choose a specific offering from the drop-down for one of the causes the church is supporting right now.
- Think of someone in your life who needs to be within proximity of Jesus for something to change, and make one concrete move this week to bring them closer, the way someone brought a friend to Jesus in verse 16.
Doing a Bible study?
- Brian described Jesus telling his disciples to leave a crowd where healings and momentum were building, and compared it to Tribe's own moves from Snow King to homes to the hillside to the TMC to the park and now to First B. When has following Jesus meant leaving something good behind, and what made that hard to do?
- Brian pointed out that the teacher of religious law called Jesus 'teacher' while the disciple called him 'Lord,' and said there is a big difference between the two. What does it look like in day-to-day life when someone treats Jesus as a teacher worth listening to versus a Lord worth obeying?
- Brian said that when the man asked to first go bury his father, Jesus saw it as a smokescreen, and that the man was essentially saying Jesus was a priority, just not the highest one. What are some things in our own lives that are genuinely good and noble but can quietly become a smokescreen like that?
- The bottom line Brian landed on was that Jesus cares more about your transformation than your comfort. Where have you personally felt the tension between those two things, and how did you respond?
- Brian closed by asking people to pray a brave prayer: 'Holy Spirit, is there anything in my life right now that I am placing at a higher priority than you?' What makes that prayer hard to actually mean, and what would it look like to act on whatever answer came up for you?
Resumen en español
El pastor Brian predicó la cuarta semana de la serie "Jesus would get canceled for that" (Jesús sería cancelado por eso), enfocándose en Mateo 8:18-22. Usando como telón de fondo el último domingo al aire libre antes de que la congregación se mude a su nuevo lugar de reunión, Brian señaló que Jesús, en medio de un momento de gran momentum ministerial, le dijo a sus discípulos que recogieran todo y cruzaran al otro lado del lago. Eso es exactamente lo que Tribe está viviendo ahora mismo: cada vez que parece que las cosas están tomando impulso en un lugar, Jesús los llama a moverse de nuevo.
Luego Brian se detuvo en dos personas que se acercaron a Jesús en ese pasaje. El primero, un maestro de la ley religiosa, dijo "te seguiré a donde vayas", pero Jesús le respondió que él no tenía ni siquiera un lugar donde recostar la cabeza. No lo rechazó, sino que le dejó ver el costo real de seguirlo. El segundo, un discípulo que ya lo llamaba "Señor", le pidió permiso para ir primero a enterrar a su padre. Jesús le respondió: "Sígueme ahora. Deja que los muertos entierren a sus muertos." Brian explicó que en la cultura judía del primer siglo ese proceso podía durar meses o incluso más de un año, y que lo que el hombre estaba haciendo en realidad era poner otra prioridad por delante de Jesús, aunque sonara noble y razonable.
La idea central del mensaje fue esta: Jesús se preocupa más por tu transformación que por tu comodidad. Brian invitó a la congregación a preguntarse honestamente si hay algo, por más bueno o legítimo que parezca, que ocupa un lugar más alto que seguir a Jesús. También anunció que a partir del 6 de septiembre la iglesia se reúne los domingos a las 5 de la tarde en First Baptist Jackson, y durante el servicio llegó una oferta en efectivo por el edificio TMC que la iglesia recientemente puso en venta.
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Pasajes bíblicos utilizados
- Lucas 9 (el camino a la vida es rendirla)
- Juan 14 (Jesús como el camino, la verdad y la vida)
- Mateo 15 (Jesús y la mujer cananea)
- Mateo 8:14-27 (sanidades, la tormenta calmada, y el costo de seguir a Jesús)
Topics
Comfort Vs Growth Cost Of Discipleship Excuses Following Jesus Priorities