But another of his disciples said to him, Lord, suffer me first to go away and bury my father.
A man who is already a disciple hears Christ's call and asks for a delay. He wants to bury his father first. It is the most reasonable plea imaginable. So what happens when a real duty stands in the way of Christ's call?
The two men are opposites. One offered himself. The Lord called this one, and he felt the difficulty at once.
Again, when we listen to another — and now it is one of His disciples — faith at once shows how weak it is. "Let me first," he says, "go and bury my father." The man He had not called promises to go anywhere, in his own strength. But the man He called feels the difficulty, and pleads a natural duty before following Jesus. Oh, what a heart is ours! But what a heart was His!
Writers focus on the small word "first." It is not a refusal. It is an order of priority.
The word "first" — let me first go and bury my father — shows something put ahead of Christ. It is as though the man said, There is something I put before Your calling. Death had come in, and this very plea told Christ they were all under death. It was quite a right thing for the man to bury his father. But if life has come in, and the question is one of redemption — of being lost or saved — you must give yourself up to it.
This was no trivial excuse. Burying a father was the plainest duty a son could name, and the law itself backed it.
This man pleads the very first of all human duties. What could seem not only reasonable, but so binding on him, as to go first and bury his father? Did not the law command the child to honour father and mother? To be sure; but One was there greater than the law. The God who gave the law was calling. If He says, Follow Me, faith gives up everything for Christ's sake — father, or mother, or wife, or children... This was a test. Christ knew everything, and He chose that exact moment to call him for a moral reason. The question for him was whether Christ meant more to his soul than anyone or anything else in the world.
One writer spells out what the man was really asking for.
Faced with this difficulty the man says, in effect, "I am ready to answer the call, but let me first wait until my father has died and I have carried out my last duties to him." This does sound reasonable. The father had the first claim in nature. Christ, however, must have the first claim in the new life... The Lord is not denying or setting aside the claims of nature, but He is asserting His own paramount claims. The man did not see that if the Lord calls, His claims must come first. He also did not see that the One who calls can at the same time care for the father left behind.
The Lord's reply uses the word "dead" in two different senses.
It may be this man thought, "I have been a dutiful son. I would like to do all I can for my father till he is gone. Then I shall be free." But the Lord's claims come first. When it is a case of the Master's claims against those of nature, the Lord must have first place. He says, "Follow me." A disciple is a follower. "Let the dead" — that is, those who are dead in trespasses and sins — "bury their own dead," those who died naturally.
The One who calls has no home in this world. That shapes what following Him costs.
Whoever follows Him must follow Him with nowhere in this world to go to, and follow Him for His own sake only. And so it means following Him absolutely. It means a complete break with everything belonging to the life of the flesh, however near or dear. "Let me first" will not do, though it seemed the strongest possible claim.
One writer guards the verse from a common misuse.
This does not contradict 1 Timothy 5:8, "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." A person can do the Lord's work and provide for his own house at the same time. But this man wanted to delay the Lord's work until he was free from every obligation to his father.
- Called — the volunteer felt no difficulty. The man Christ called felt it at once. Real faith feels the cost.
- First — the answer was not "no." It was "later." That one word put something ahead of the One who called.
- Duty — the plea was a real duty, the first of human duties, commanded in the law. But One greater than the law was speaking.
- Undivided — Christ will not share a heart. Where His claim and family's claim collide, His comes first. Yet He never treats family ties as worthless, and He can care for the father left behind.
- Follow — He calls us to follow Him for His own sake, down a homeless road, and He calls now.
But Jesus said to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.
Two men come to Jesus one after another — one offers to follow, the other is called. The second asks only for time to bury his father first, and the answer he gets has troubled readers ever since.
Put the two men side by side. One writer says the difference between them is not what we would expect.
To a disciple who said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father," the Lord could say, "Follow Me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead." Notice the difference. Where Christ calls, nature may feel great reluctance, trial, and struggle. Still the word is, "Follow Me." Put a thoroughly worldly man in front of the gospel, and there is none of this holding back — none of this trial. He thinks it is all beautiful, but it does not take hold of his soul.
The saying uses one word twice, in two senses. Grasp that, and it stops sounding harsh.
So He says here, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead." That is, let those dead in spirit bury those dead in body. And He adds, "But you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Christ called this man not only to follow Him, but to be a witness for Him, a proclaimer of God's kingdom. How could it fare with others, if there was not faith in him to give up all for Christ?
Another writer asks what that disciple was being held back from.
In this case it was only a dead father needing burial. The living disciple, the messenger of life, was not to be held back in the region of death, away from delivering his gracious message. Let the dead attend to death, is the Lord's word.
Why should Christ's call outrank a duty as basic as burying a parent? One writer answers by naming the kind of claim Christ was making.
A father had the first claim in nature, and above all to a Jew. But Christ says, I am calling you out in the power of life. I am putting in My claim for the life I give you, and it breaks every bond here. It is a question of life in the middle of death. The word "first" — let me first go and bury my father — shows something put before Christ. It is as though the man said, There is something I put before Your calling.
The man's plea named the most obvious duty a son could have, and the law had commanded it.
This man pleads the very first of all human duties. What would seem not only reasonable, but so binding on him, as first to go and bury his father? Did not the law command the child to honour father and mother? To be sure; but One was there greater than the law. The God who gave the law was calling. If He says, Follow Me, faith gives up everything — father, mother, wife, or children — for Christ's sake.
One writer warns against pushing the words too far.
This does not mean we are to give up natural relationships. God formed them. We are to bring the grace of Christ into them. But we must not let them hinder us in the path of God's will.
"First" is a small word with a long shadow. One writer finds its cost in Abraham's own family.
"Leave the dead to bury their own dead" is a clear call. Lay aside everything that would delay obedience to His call — even a thing that looks like duty itself. Even Abraham let his father take the lead, though the call had come to Abraham himself. So we read that "Terah took Abram his son... to go into the land of Canaan." What came of it? "But when they came to Haran, they settled there." While Terah was alive, they never reached the place they had set out for.
One writer pictures the thinking behind the delay.
In the next verse, the Lord shows that He will not have a divided heart. It may be this man thought, "I have been a dutiful son, and I would like to do all I can for my father till he is gone; then I shall be free." But the Lord's claims come first. He says, "Follow me." A disciple is a follower.
- Called, not volunteering — the man who offers himself feels no difficulty. The man Christ calls feels the struggle at once.
- Dead twice over — one word, two senses. Let those dead in spirit bury their dead. The living have living work — a kingdom to proclaim.
- Life outranks nature — Christ claims the life He gives, and that claim breaks every bond here. Family is not worthless; grace still belongs there.
- First is the test word — "let me first" is where obedience stalls. Terah led the way, and they settled in Haran instead of Canaan.
- Then follow — the call is not a rule about funerals. A disciple is a follower, and Christ takes the first place.