"No Fixed Address" (Matthew 8:18-22)

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”.

Strange Christmas text you may think! But what might this verse link to???

The Christmas narratives in Matthew and Luke are exciting and encouraging,

but they are also designed to lead us into deep considerations of who Jesus is!

1. “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son … and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). There was no particular room for Jesus to be born in. Jesus would have a modest and humble birth in no place to speak of. Even though there was not enough beds in town due to the census of the time, this could still be seen as a discourtesy to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, with all the good accommodation going to the well-to-do – but it also makes total sense … in the context of the whole Jesus story!

Like so many parts of the nativity stories, we can see this ‘lack of place’ as indicative of the type of life Jesus would live. Born in Bethlehem, having to flee to Egypt as a refugee, growing up in Nazareth – yet rejected there as an adult, a 3-year itinerant ministry around Palestine … eating in many different homes, moving about in boats on sometimes stormy seas, spending time in so many different towns, facing opposition and rejection, praying wherever he could, then dying in Jerusalem.

Whatever the reference (in Luke’s narrative) to an “inn” means … in terms of the actual place where we read there was “no room”, we can gauge that Jesus was born in the least comfortable part of that property. The description of Jesus being laid in a “manger” (or a ‘feeding trough’), certainly indicates the presence of animals. So this could have been a stable, barn, or a cave used to house animals; or perhaps a basement type area … where animals had cover; or conversely, just outside in the elements. This could be viewed as pretty close to being born on the street! Again, the emphasis is on modest beginnings; far different to the confines of a royal palace, and to what the religious elite and Roman officials enjoyed.

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”. As people begin to consider the origin and significance of Jesus, they would come to understand that he was a different sort of king … than what they were used to, and indeed expected (in terms of the coming of a Messiah). The “Son of Man”, whilst being God, would be just an everyday type of guy … who connected well with everyday type of people! Jesus’ itinerant life of service would contrast with the settled power of the elite.

2. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14a), or as The Message famously translates, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood”. The sense of this is Jesus “pitching his tent” in the neighbourhood, or we might say here in Bright, that Jesus ‘parked his caravan’ amongst us. Jesus came in a fashion that was mobile … house to house, and community to community. By the time John’s Gospel was written late in the 1^st century, the focus had moved from just Palestine to the wider region of Asia Minor. The Gospel had spread from Galilee to Rome. The birth of Jesus had become universally significant. Jesus had moved into the neighbourhood – every neighbourhood … including ours. Jesus is not limited to anywhere, because he is everywhere.

Jesus was able to freely share his message of salvation across many different towns, finding many people who were ready to listen and respond. And Jesus immersed himself deeply within the prevailing culture with all graciousness, expressing truth without being hurtfully judgmental. Jesus honoured the public space with expressions of acceptance and hospitality. For example, the Samaritan woman at the well (in John 4), who despite a very chequered history with relationships, was able to have her deep ‘thirst’ quenched by the ‘living water’; and then herself become a witness to Jesus. Later, the woman who was allegedly caught in adultery, and about to be stoned (in John 8), was given another chance in life through Jesus challenging the undoubted sinfulness of her accusers.

Then there was the prostitute (in Luke 7) who responded to Jesus’ appearance by bathing his feet in her tears, dried them with her hair, then anointed them with ointment. There was the hated tax collector Zacchaeus who Jesus wanted to eat with (in Luke 19), who subsequently committed to giving away his wealth in repentance for his thievery. There was the criminal on the cross next to Jesus (in Luke 23), who acknowledged his own guilt and Jesus’ innocence, and as a result was given a ticket to paradise. Not to mention all the blind, lame and demon-possessed that received new life opportunities … all across the region. And, as he witnessed the scene of the cross, there was the Roman Centurion who declared Jesus to surely be God’s Son (in Mark 15). This is the impact Jesus had as he roamed his neighbourhood.

What we say about place, we could say about time. Jesus is not only an everywhere man, but also eternal (right across our time spectrum). The Word (Jesus) was with God at the beginning. The risen Jesus said, “And remember, I will be with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20b). Jesus would be with us, on an ongoing basis, through the Holy Spirit bearing witness to him in us. Jesus went on to say, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus lives on, not only in heaven, but also in the lives of his disciples. And then, a few verses later in Acts chapter 1, we read, “This Jesus, who has been taken up into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (1:11b). Jesus is free to roam place and time.

This is all about a witness to the presence of Jesus in real life on earth in each generation. Being a witness to Jesus is to be acting as he would act and live as he would live. At the other end of John’s Gospel we read these deep impacting words of Jesus, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). As we go in Jesus’ name, this points to the reality of Jesus, and to the fact that he is alive.

There is no more impacting understanding of this than the parable we read in Matthew chapter 25. In describing how the true disciple of his behaves, Jesus says (25:34-40):

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me”.

So this is a case of the Jesus in me (and the Jesus in you) … engaging with the Jesus seen in another person. Jesus is everywhere to be seen … everywhere to be encountered. This is especially so as we encounter the normally ‘unwelcome’, and the regularly ‘unappreciated’ – the “least of these”. It’s when we see the possibility of Jesus in others, that they might begin to see Jesus in us.

This brings us back to – “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”. This saying itself was given while Jesus was on the move in the midst of his 3-year ministry. He had just healed Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever. When word got around where Jesus was, he healed all those who turned up. This was a busy and strenuous time. You would have thought that a comfortable bed back in Nazareth, or in a quiet room upstairs at Peter’s place, would have been on Jesus’ mind. But, no. Jesus went as far as taking his boat over to the other side of the lake … to beat the pressing crowds. Yet even then … he was confronted by a “scribe”, who may have unexpectedly had thoughts of following this Jesus … who could heal the way he did.

As said earlier, there were many interested in Jesus’ message, and one of these was even this “scribe” – a religious leader of the time. This “scribe” was thinking of breaking away from his group to follow Jesus. But was he really up for it?! To follow Jesus, to be his disciple, means living as Jesus lived, adopting the priorities and attitudes he taught and modelled. Yet it is likely that this “scribe”, and many others, had the thought that this Jesus was eventually going to use his power to overthrow the Romans and bring in his Kingdom by force. No such thing! This was a spiritual movement … grown through changing hearts and minds from the bottom up.

The scribe’s enquiry, brought the opportunity for Jesus to explain what it would mean for anyone who wanted to follow Jesus. Jesus’ itinerant ministry, being an everywhere person, was the new normal for his followers as well. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”. Comfort is NOT promised nor assured. As Ed Stetzer puts it, “The Christian life is NOT about safety and comfort, but rather about finding yourself in a dangerous place of vulnerable compassion”. Part of our discipleship is being willing to be ‘stretched’, and thereby grow.

Even other responsibilities may have to be left behind, or at the very least, brought into a different perspective. Check out verses 21-22. As in that culture, burials happened very quickly after death, this could mean … that this particular person, wanted to finish his period of grieving first. More likely though, his father was still alive, and, before following an itinerant Jesus, he wanted to wait for his father to die first, no matter how long that might be away. It could be days away, or years away! This is somewhat understandable, given the cultural obligation toward parents in vogue here; but, there could be quite a delay!!

The response we get from Jesus is stark, shocking, maybe even brutal – certainly impacting … with Jesus overriding such religious and social obligations … saying, “… let the dead bury their own dead”! A tough saying – but I reckon we must give this due attention, and I’ll give it a go! This could mean that those who aren’t associating with Jesus, and might be regarded ‘spiritually dead’ or perhaps ‘spiritually disinclined’, should be left to deal with such tasks (as burying the dead); and thus ‘disciples’ are free to follow Jesus elsewhere.

Or, this is more of a throw-away line … denoting that the concerns of Jesus are all around the living, and only the dead should worry about the dead. We could imagine that the original listeners would have been gobsmacked, given the cultural priority given to providing for a parent’s burial. Yet Jesus often realigned cultural or religious priorities toward the real priorities of the Kingdom of God. As well, Jesus knows human nature well – Jesus probably knew this person well enough to know, that if he delayed like this (until his father’s eventual death), he would actually never really come to follow Jesus! We should never put off following Jesus, or we will continue to find reasons not to! In effect, Jesus responded that this person had things around the wrong way! The time to follow Jesus is always now.

Doing God’s will and advancing the Kingdom of God is paramount, above even the most pressing human duties. Do you recall the only recorded incident when Jesus was a young boy? When Jesus was twelve, he stayed behind at the temple when his parents had started to make the trek home. When asked for his reasons, Jesus said boldly, we may even say precociously, “Why were you searching for me – did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49). As an adult, Jesus upset his (largely unbelieving) family by saying that his real family were those who were likewise intent on doing God’s will (Matthew 12:46-50).

This is not to say that we can’t live in a home or build a family, far from it, but it DOES say … that we need to be (freely) responsive to God’s Holy Spirit leading into all sorts of situations and places, that may have not have been our first choice, and that may have a sacrificial impact. This is especially so while opportunity knocks! We need to follow Jesus first, and then address other life and family matters in the context of (already) being this Jesus-follower. We will never adequately address difficult family situations, or even build our family with a strong faith foundation, if we step aside from first and foremost being a Jesus-follower.

Jesus is saying to be careful not to get things around the wrong way, and thereby lose our way with him. Our first allegiance is always to Jesus. This remains the case, even when the modelling of Jesus-following around us has sometimes been lowered in its impact or simply become ‘hollow’. We should delve deep into Jesus ourselves, and never be deterred from doing so (by the apathy of others). Craig Keener puts it this way, “Jesus scandalously claims the supreme position of attention in his follower’s lives”. The question sits here for us to consider – does Jesus have the right to make these claims upon us?!

If our answer is “yes” … then what are we waiting for!? If we’ve been on the journey for a while … are we expressing our discipleship in the context of our movement around the neighbourhood?

If we are left undecided about Jesus’ claim about being number one, then what do we need to do about that? Who do we need to talk to? What do we need to read? What experience in life do we need some healing in? Can we find a love for Jesus sufficient to give our lives over to him? Try abandoning yourself in worship – being moved by the music and reflecting deeply on the words – releasing the Holy Spirit to do something new. Try persisting in prayer – having conversations with God that lay everything on the line. And tell me (or someone else you trust to guide you well) how it is all going.

The ministry of Jesus, that we are engaging with, is, from beginning to end, based on selfless love and service. No comfortable room in the inn to be born in, and an active life throughout the whole neighbourhood. This is the Christ child whom we worship at Christmas!