When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.
Matthew 8:1 (CSB)
Jesus has just finished the Sermon on the Mount, His long teaching in Matthew chapters 5 through 7. Matthew tells us that large crowds kept following Him, which means they walked along with Him wherever He went.
Matthew uses that same word, “follow,” for something deeper. When Jesus called two fishermen, Peter and Andrew, “Immediately they left their nets and followed him” (Matthew 4:20). They were not just walking along with a crowd. They became His disciples, which means students who give their whole lives to learning from Jesus and obeying Him.
So there are two ways to be near Jesus. A person can go along with the crowd because Jesus is interesting, or a person can follow Him as a disciple because He is the Lord. We ought to follow Jesus in the places where it costs us something, like forgiving someone who has hurt us or giving to someone in need without telling anyone about it.
Jesus later explained what following Him means: “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). That sounds hard, and it is. But the One we follow is the good shepherd who laid down His life for us (John 10:11), and everyone who trusts Him has eternal life.