CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 9:57. In the way.—Perhaps to the other village. It may be, however, that this is an indefinite form of expression, owing to the fact that St. Luke here departs from chronological order. St. Matthew distinctly states that these incidents occurred at an earlier time (Luke 8:19-22). It is unlikely that the same requests or proposals should have been made to Christ, and should have been answered by Him in the same way, on two separate occasions. I will follow Thee, etc.—His self-confidence is akin to that of St. Peter (John 13:37).
Luke 9:58. Nests.—Rather, “shelters”: birds do not take refuge in their nests.
Luke 9:60. Let the dead, etc.—Any one, even one spiritually dead, could attend to this subordinate duty of burying the dead: a higher duty, which he could not delegate to another, was incumbent upon this disciple. Some have interpreted the man’s request as his asking for permission to remain at home until the death of his father; but this is improbable. Had his father been lying dead at that moment, the disciple would scarcely have been among the crowd. Farrar suggests that his desire was to go and give a farewell funeral feast and put everything in order. Some detail which would have made the matter clear has perhaps been omitted. It may be that the father was hopelessly ill, so that the delay in all probability would not have been for long.
Luke 9:61. Bid them farewell.—Cf. with this the circumstances of Elisha’s call (1 Kings 19:20). What was granted in one case, it might not have been safe to grant in another. This is a more reasonable explanation than to hold that Christ demands a more complete self-devotion than Elijah had any right to command. This third case is peculiar to St. Luke.
Luke 9:62. The plough.—The kind of plough used in the East was easily overturned: a labourer who looked back regretfully, with his heart fixed on other things than his work, would be of little profit to his master.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 9:57-62
The Three Aspirants.—The manifold wisdom of Christ, which displayed itself in His drawing and attaching of souls to Himself by ways the most different, must often fill us with devout admiration. It can never fill us more with this than when there are brought before us in quick succession moral and spiritual conditions, with much apparent similarity, which yet are most diversely treated by Him. Such we have here. There are three who, either in their own intention or in the Lord’s, are candidates for admission into the inner circle of disciples—into the circle, that is, of those who should not merely themselves receive the truth, but, as Christ’s witnesses, should be actively employed in imparting the knowledge of that truth to others.
I. The offer repelled.—First there offers himself a scribe (Matthew), and his words sound fairly: “Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.” They a little remind one of the great-hearted words of Ittai to David: “Surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be” (2 Samuel 15:21). Nor is there any reason to suppose that this aspirant to discipleship and to all which discipleship might involve meant at the time otherwise than he spoke. Yet there is not in him that true devotedness to Christ which shall lead him so to follow that Lord in this world that in the world to come he shall be free to follow Him whithersoever He goeth (Revelation 14:4). These words have more in them of Peter’s confident asseveration, “Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison, and to death” (chap. Luke 22:33). At all events, they inspire Him, who knowing all things knew what was in man, with no greater confidence than those other words of Peter hereafter should do; for, not welcoming this volunteer, but rather repelling, He answers, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” In other words: “Lookest thou for worldly commodities through the following of Me? In this thou must needs be disappointed. These cannot be My followers’ portion, since they are not Mine. The Son of man is homeless and houseless upon earth.” Nor does this answer of Christ come out to us in all its depth of meaning till we realise that hour when upon His cross He bowed His head, not having where to lay it, and having bowed it thus gave up the ghost. Whether this scribe withdrew and went away, we are not informed. That he did withdraw is certainly the impression left upon our minds. But whatever was the issue, this reply of Christ was not meant merely and only to repel. It was intended rather to throw back this candidate for the honours of discipleship on deeper heart-searchings, that, having made these, he might either fall off altogether, or else that he might attach himself to the Lord in quite another spirit from that in which he made his present offer of service.
II. A summons to heroism.—The Lord, who has checked one, incites another; for He knew there was more truth in the backwardness of him to whom He addresses Himself now than in the forwardness of that other who had just addressed Him. He has for him that significant “Follow Me” which He had for a Philip, a Matthew, an Andrew, a Peter. It is in answer to such a summons that this one replies, “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.” This may mean, “My father now lies dead; suffer me, before I attach myself to Thee, to render the last offices of pity to him.” And Christ’s answer we may interpret as implying, “The spiritually dead, those who are not quickened as thou hast been with the spirit of a new life, are yet sufficient for the fulfilling of this office which would now call thee away from Me—namely, the burying of the naturally dead; they can perform it as well as thou, and, under present circumstances, thou must be contented to leave it to them.” When duties come into collision, sacred duties such as that which this man pleaded must give way to those more sacred yet. Christ had said to this man, “Follow Me”; so that now that saying held good, “Whoso loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” And then Christ justifies His withdrawal of this man from attendance on the dead. He had a fitness for work which, if not directly with the living, was yet with those who were capable of being made alive: “Go thou, and preach the kingdom of God.” As though He had said: “Another task is thine—namely, to spread far and wide the glad tidings of life, which as many as hear shall live. One of My royal priesthood, a Nazarite of Mine, having fellowship with Me who am the Life, thy occupation is henceforth with the living, and not with the dead.”
III. Half-heartedness blamed.—A third offers himself for discipleship; yet this with conditions, and craving time for farewells which he would fain interpose. He, too, must learn that there is no dallying with a heavenly vocation; that when this has reached a man, no room is left him for conferring with flesh and blood; to him, too, as to the king’s daughter of old, the word of that precept has come, “Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house” (Psalms 45:10); while, as it may only too easily prove, his worst foes, those who will most effectually keep him back from God, may be those of his own household (Matthew 10:36-37). The Lord, therefore, will give no allowance to his request, shuts out at once all dangerous delays and interludes between the offer of service and the actual undertaking of it. He who holds the plough must not look behind him; if he does, he spoils the furrow, and mars the work which he has undertaken. The discipleship of Christ is such a putting of the hand to the plough, for the breaking up of the hard soil of our own hearts, for the breaking up of the hard soil of the hearts of others. The image sets forth the laboriousness of the work better than the more usual image of sowing; and, so to speak, carries us a step farther back in the spiritual husbandry. But he who, having put his hand to the plough, and thus begun well, shall afterwards, Christ does not say turn back, but even so much as look back, in token that his heart is otherwhere than in the task before him, he may still have his hand on the plough, but having fallen away in heart and affection from his work, he traces no straight furrows, he breaks not up aright any fallow ground; he “is not fit,” or rather, is of no service and profit, “for the kingdom of God.” Indeed, unless kept to his work as an hireling, it is likely that he will presently leave his plough in the half-drawn furrow, and be found to have exchanged toil and exposure abroad for the comforts and ease of his own hearth.—Trench.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 9:57-62
Luke 9:57-62. Would-be Disciples.—A slight examination of the three cases suffices to show that they practically break into two classes marked by the broad distinction that Christ warns and repels the one, but calls and insists upon the services of the other. One man is discouraged by Christ; two are pressed to enter on the instant into Christ’s service. And this, even though the first seems the most ready, and the other two show a desire to shirk the call. This varying treatment must turn upon some underlying contrast in their spiritual condition; for Jesus has not two sets of terms, He is no respecter of persons who picks and chooses arbitrarily, and so His methods of treatment, though opposed, are quite consistent.
I. See how He deals with uncalculating readiness.—It was a striking thing for a scribe publicly to offer to become Christ’s scholar. But he only took Jesus for another, a wiser scribe than himself—a very shallow qualification for Christian discipleship. His dilettante admiration and transient enthusiasm were unfit to stand the test of practical service. He knew nothing of the life of exposure and privation which this great Scribe led. The Son of man was often homeless and shelterless. His disciples were drawn to Him and kept by Him with a hold which made them indifferent to privation. It was a heart-hold. He had won them for ever to Himself. And to be a Christian now means separation for Christ’s sake from the spirit of the world, and makes a man more or less of an alien and a pilgrim here. It calls him to deny himself and to toil for the salvation of others. Your easy-going scribe will not do that.
II. See how He deals with reluctance.—Under this term the second and third cases are to be reckoned. The first of the two is no volunteer; but he has received the call. Concealed discipleship is no longer to be maintained. Open confession, public service, consecration of himself to the work of Christ—this is what the Lord claimed from His hesitating but genuine disciple. Such a moment comes to every true disciple. It comes as a summons to decision for and open confession of Christ. It comes as a call for testimony and service, where irksome, unpleasant toil is needed. The feeling of duty is Christ’s call, and it leaves you ill at ease until it is obeyed.
III. The great lesson taught by both instances is that such clear, imperative call from Christ sounding in the heart and conscience takes precedence of everything else.—Neither of the two of whom Luke tells us wanted to go. When called, they made excuses for not complying. They did so on the ground of something which seemed to have a prior claim. One urged a domestic duty, the other domestic affection. The first had a dead father to bury, the second had a family circle who as yet knew nothing about his new call to higher work. Yet family life, as Jesus views it, is for the present only, and not for eternity. The interests and claims of the living, spiritual world must take precedence of the dead one. In this man’s case the two duties were made to conflict that there might be a lesson to you and me for all time. Summoned to the holiest of all duties, the disciple is absolved from the holiest of earthly duties. As for the second man, it is evident that the lower affections of the natural heart were straining his devotion to higher duty in a quite perilous degree. Men who cannot steel themselves against such allurements are not fit for the work of God. Jesus is a very exigent Master. What portrait of ourselves do we recognise in these three disciples!—Dykes.
Enthusiasm, Reluctance, Compromise. Three Types of Character.
I. Enthusiasm repressed.—The prayer is not welcomed. The disciple spoke unadvisedly, and was rebuffed by Christ’s answer. We must not diminish where Christ has spoken. This is His own description of the homelessness of His ministry. It is a parable. Unrest is the trial of trials to His people. To some the words come true literally, to all spiritually. Think of it ere thou speakest the “whithersoever.” Jesus meets enthusiam with warning. None shall come after Him by mistake or in misunderstanding.
II. Reluctance stimulated.—The direct opposite. Christ takes the initiative here; summons to instantaneous decision. We know not the reasons for this special peremptoriness; but He repels the disciple’s plea, and claims pre-eminence for the reign of God in man’s heart and life. Christ is jealous of earthly duties, even the most sacred. His mandate is stern and imperious.
III. Compromise rebuked.—A wonderfully composite character! He is a volunteer, but he stipulates; an enthusiast, but he procrastinates. His prayer is denied. Christ will not allow natural affection to divert from His service. What is there in your home, your heart, your life that cannot stay there with Jesus? Count the cost. Put the hand to the plough, and look not back!—Vaughan.
Three Types of Character.—Each of the three sayings of Christ brought together in this place by Luke contains a distinct principle applicable to a particular type of character.
I. The word spoken to the scribe suggested to an inconsiderate enthusiast the lesson that one must count the cost before entering on the career of a disciple.
II. The second word is adapted to the case of a man thoroughly in earnest, but distracted by a conflict of duties, and virtually enunciates the principle that in all collisions between the duties we owe to the kingdom and those arising out of natural relations, the former must take precedence.
III. The third word meets the case of a divided heart.—The ploughman who looks back does not give his undivided attention to his task, and therefore fails to draw a straight furrow. The man who desired to bid farewell to his friends was hankering after home enjoyments, and the reply to his request taught the lesson that no one who is drawn two ways by his affections is fit for the service of the kingdom, because it demands the whole heart and mind. The very harshness and inexorableness of Christ’s sayings serve to show how exacting and inexorable is the demand of the kingdom for heroic devotion.—Bruce.
The Three Disciples.
I. The self-confident disciple.—His estimate of what Christ’s service required was far from complete.
II. The diffident disciple.—Finds himself in a dilemma which seems to warrant, if it does not necessitate, delay. Our Lord teaches that every duty, no matter how sacred or momentous, is subordinate to the primary one of following Him.
III. Offers like the first, but in general character resembles the second.—He is not constrained by any sense of duty. He does not appreciate the gravity of the moment, the pressing and august character of our Lord’s work. This is no time for saying farewells. Love dictates the sternness of our Lord’s words. He insists on wholehearted service.—Moinet.
Christ wants Followers—
I. Who have counted the cost.
II. Who are ready to follow Him at once.
III. Who will follow with an undivided heart.—W. Taylor.
Luke 9:57. The more eager the less prepared.—We must bear in mind that he was a scribe, who had been accustomed to a quiet and easy life, had enjoyed honour, and was ill-fitted to endure reproaches, poverty, persecutions, and the cross. He wishes, indeed, to follow Christ, but dreams of an easy and agreeable life, and of dwellings filled with every convenience; whereas the disciples of Christ must walk among thorns, and march to the cross amidst uninterrupted afflictions. The more eager he is, the less he is prepared. He seems as if he wished to fight in the shade and at ease, neither annoyed by sweat nor by dust, and beyond the reach of the weapons of war.—Calvin.
Luke 9:57-62. Three Would-be Followers.—Christ deals with three proposed followers:
(1) the ambitious self-seeker;
(2) the procrastinating time-server;
(3) the hesitating and half-hearted compromiser.
Luke 9:57-58. An enthusiastic disciple checked.
Luke 9:59-60. A laggard disciple stimulated.
Luke 9:61-62. An irresolute disciple summoned to choose between the world and God.
Three Impediments.—The three impediments are:
(1) earthly desire;
(2) earthly sorrow;
(3) earthly affection.
Luke 9:60. “Go thou and preach.”—Jesus forbade him to go, in order to show that nothing, not even the most important work of natural duty and affection, is so momentous as care for the kingdom of heaven, and that nothing, however urgent, should cause us to be guilty of a moment’s delay in providing first for that.—Chrysostom.
Luke 9:62. The True Follower.—The true motive to follow Jesus must absorb every other.
1. Renunciation.
2. Concentration.
3. Expectation.
“Plough.”—An intimation that the ministerial life is like that of a tiller of the ground (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:9). The Christian minister is a feeder of sheep, a dresser of a vineyard, a masterbuilder, a watchman; all these names imply duties requiring diligence, vigilance, and toil.—Wordsworth.
Reluctance for the Work.—Our Lord knew quite well that if he went away he would not come back again; it was not so much love for those at home as reluctance for the work that was in his mind.