A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Matthew 8:19 (CSB)
A scribe was an expert in the Old Testament law, the kind of person others came to for teaching. This scribe came to Jesus and promised to follow Him anywhere.
The scribe called Jesus “Teacher,” and Jesus is a teacher. But in Matthew, the people who call Jesus “Teacher” are not His followers, while His disciples call Him “Lord” (Matthew 8:21). Lord means the one in charge of our lives, the one we obey and not only learn from.
The scribe’s promise sounds like Peter’s. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers, said, “Even if everyone falls away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matthew 26:33). Later that night Peter said three times that he didn’t know Jesus. We can make big promises to God too, like “I’ll never do that again.” When we do, we ought to lean on God’s strength to keep them, not on how sure we feel.
Peter failed, but Jesus did not give up on him. After Jesus rose from the dead, He restored Peter and gave him work to do (John 21). Our hope is in Jesus, who stays faithful to us. He died for our sins and rose again.