09.04.01 Mt. 8:18-20 (See also Lk. 9:57-59)
THE COST OF FOLLOWING JESUS
18 When Jesus saw large crowds around Him, He gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A scribe approached Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go!”
20 Jesus told him,
“Foxes have dens
and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
There are two possible interpretations to this parable.
- The most common interpretation is that Jesus did not own a home and, therefore, is often identified with the foxes and birds who made a temporary home somewhere in nature.
- A minority viewpoint is that Jesus is the ruler of the Kingdom of God. His reference to the fox was most likely a reflection upon the Roman ruler Herod who, because of his sly and evil ways, was referred to as “that fox.” The “birds of the air” refer to the eagle that was carried high on a standard when a Roman army was on the march; the eagle was a powerful image of the Roman Empire.
In the first account, the creatures of the wild have homes, but Jesus had no home. In the second, the powerful rulers of the world had their palaces, but the Prince of Peace had no palace on earth. Both interpretations are correct.