Recently, as I have been preaching through the Gospel of Matthew, we covered chapter 20 and I noticed a jarring reality about the actions of Jesus’s closest, most devoted and beloved followers. It had nothing to do with their impressive or radical commitment, love, and care for Christ, but instead was marked by a severe disregard and careless attitude at a time when you would expect the very opposite.

Jesus has just finished giving an urgent warning to the disciples of the dire future that awaited Him. He explained to them the excruciating suffering and even death that He was about to experience. In return we see them respond with what can only be described as selfish indifference. You would expect them to react with care and concern for Him and His wellbeing and yet, instead of being overwhelmed by the words of Jesus, this significant topic is ignored because they are unable to take their attention off themselves.

Jesus says “I am going to be spit on, suffer, be tortured to the very edge of death, and then I will be killed. By the way, I am doing this for you.” With these words, you would expect the disciples to be overwhelmed — to focus their attention on Jesus’ unimaginable suffering. But instead, what do they do? The disciples hear this stirring warning and in response, they decide that it is a great time to start demanding their place of power and importance. And this is not the only time Jesus calls their attention to Him only to be ignored. Earlier in Matthew, Jesus gave the same warning only to be followed by the disciples’ all too common argument about which one of them is the greatest.

It seems absurd, doesn’t it? How could they be so foolish? How could they be so self-focused and self-consumed in the face of Christ’s suffering? We better be careful before we go pointing our fingers in accusation because the reality is, it is really not much of a surprise. Take a look around — we live in a world that constantly pushes us to focus on ourselves: from social media to self-help culture, it’s all about “me.” People are so self-focused and self-concerned that we see little concern or thought to those around us even including the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus should not have to jump up and down screaming to get our attention. Our eyes should always be locked on Him, but that would require we take them off ourselves. That is an act most seem so unwilling to do these days.

People love to claim concern for Jesus and yet their actions prove otherwise. The reality is that many professing believers show more concern for what clothes they are going to wear on any given day than for Christ and His kingdom. The disciples ignored God in the living and breathing flesh right in front of them. We still do it now by our disregard for His Bride, the church. It’s all too easy to be consumed by our hobbies, careers, and comforts. We close our eyes to the things of greater importance because we have allowed ourselves to become self-important.

Let us become like John the Baptist and say not just with our words but with our lives “He must increase. I must decrease” In short, let us get over ourselves. It would be such a shame to waste our lives away concerned with things that will only prove in the end to have been fleeting and of no real significance.

Before Jesus even left this world, people began to close their eyes to Him distracted by their own self-obsession. Jesus suffered and died for us — is that not enough to shift our focus from ourselves to Him? Is that not enough to turn your concern and attention from your own cares, desires, and purposes to the ones that He holds as important?