And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Since this is more fully given in Luke, we must take both together. "And He said unto another of his disciples, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead" - or, as more definitely in Luke, "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." This disciple did not, like the former, volunteer his services, but is called by the Lord Jesus, not only to follow, but to preach Him. And he is quite willing; only, he is not ready just yet. "Lord, I will; but" - `There is a difficulty in the way just now; but that once removed, I am Thine.' What now is this difficulty? Was his father actually dead-lying a corpse-having only to be buried? Impossible. As it was the practice, as noticed on Luke 7:12, to bury on the day of death, it is not very likely that this disciple would have been here at all if his father had just breathed his last; nor would the Lord, if He was there, have hindered him discharging the last duties of a son to a father.
No doubt it was the common case of a son having a frail or aged father, not likely to live long, whose head he No doubt it was the common case of a son having a frail or aged father, not likely to live long, whose head he thinks it his duty to see under the ground before he goes abroad. 'This aged father of mine will soon be removed; and if I might but delay until I see him decently interred, I should then be free to preach the kingdom of God wherever duty might call me.' This view of the case will explain the curt reply, "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." Like all the other pardoxical sayings of our Lord, the key to it is the different senses-a higher and a lower-in which the same word "dead." is used: 'There are two kingdoms of God in existence upon earth; the kingdom of nature, and the kingdom of grace: To the one kingdom all the children of this world, even the most ungodly, are fully alive; to the other, only the children of light: The reigning irreligion consists not in indifference to the common humanities of social life, but to things spiritual and eternal: Fear not, therefore, that your father will in your absence be neglected, and that when he breathes his last there will not be relatives and friends ready enough to do to him the last offices of kindness.
Your wish to discharge these yourself is natural, and to be allowed to do it a privilege not lightly to be foregone. But the Kingdom of God lies now all neglected and needy: Its more exalted character few discern; to its paramount claims few are alive; and to "preach" it fewer still are qualified and called: But thou art: The Lord therefore hath need of thee: Leave, then, those claims of nature, high though they be, to those who are dead to the still higher claims of the kingdom of grace, which God is now erecting upon earth-Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.' And so have we here the genuine; but procrastinating or entangled disciple. The next case is recorded only by Luke.
III. THE IRRESOLUTE OR WAVERING DISCIPLE (= Luke 9:61-62 )
Luke 9:61. "And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house. Luke 9:62. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." But for the very different replies given, we should hardly have discerned the difference between this and the second case: the one man called, indeed, and the other volunteering, as did the first; but both seemingly alike willing, and only having a difficulty in their way just at that moment. But, by help of what is said respectively to each, we perceive the great difference between the two cases. From the warning given against "looking back," it is evident that this man's discipleship was not yet thorough, his separation from the world not entire. It is not a case of going back, but of looking back; and as there is here a manifest reference to the case of "Lot's wife" (Genesis 19:26; and see the note at Luke 17:32), we see that it is not actual return to the world that we have here to deal with, but a reluctance to break with it.
The figure of putting one's hand to the plow and looking back is an exceedingly vivid one, and to an agricultural people most impressive. As plowing requires an eye intent on the furrow to be made, and is marred the instant one turns about, so will they come short of salvation who prosecute the work of God with a distracted attention, a divided heart. The reference may be chiefly to ministers; but the application at least is general. Since the image seems plainly to have been suggested by the case of Elijah and Elisha, a difficulty may be raised, requiring a moment's attention. When Elijah cast his mantle about Elisa-which the youth quite understood to mean appointing him his successor, he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, the last pair held by himself. Leaving his oxen, he ran after the prophet, and said, "Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and [then] I will follow thee."
Was this said in the same spirit with the same speech uttered by our disciple? Let us see. "And Elijah said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee." Commentators take this to mean that Elijah had really done nothing to hinder him from going on with all his ordinary duties. But to us it seems clear that Elijah's intention was to try what manner of spirit the youth was of: 'Kiss thy father and mother? And why not? By all means, go home and stay with them; for what have I done to thee? I did but throw a mantle about thee; but what of that?' If this was his meaning, Elisha thoroughly apprehended and nobly met it. "He returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen [the wood of his plowing implements], and gave unto the people, and they did eat: then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him" (1 Kings 19:19-21).
We know not if even his father and mother had time to be called to this hasty feast. But this much is plain, that, though in affluent circumstances, he gave up his lower calling, with all its prospects, for the higher, and at that time perilous office to which he was called. What now is the bearing of these two cases? Did Elisha do wrong in bidding them farewell with whom he was associated in his earthly calling? Or, if not, would this disciple have done wrong if he had done the same thing, and in the same spirit, with Elisha? Clearly not. Elisha's doing it proved that he could with safety do it; and our Lord's warning is not against bidding them farewell which were at home at his house, but against the probable fatal consequences of that step; lest the embraces of earthly relationship should prove too strong for him, and he should never return to follow Christ. Accordingly, we have called this the irresolute or wavering disciple.
Remarks:
(1) Rash or precipitate discipleship is scarcely to be looked for in times of spiritual death in lethargic conditions of the Church. The man who said he would follow Christ wherever He went had doubtless had his enthusiasm kindled, as we have said, by Christ's matchless preaching, though possibly also by the sight of His miracles. Even so an earnest, warm, rousing ministry, or a season of unusual awakening, stirring the most thoughtless, calls forth the enthusiasm of not a few, particularly among the young and ardent, who resolve-perhaps with tears of joy-that they will henceforth abandon the world and follow Christ. "Yet have they not root in themselves, but endure for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, presently they are stumbled." They want depth of solid conviction. Their spiritual necessities and danger have never led them to flee from the wrath to come. Their faith in Christ, then, and joy in the Gospel being but superficial, it gives way in the day of trial. The thing which such require is to 'count the cost;' and while rejoicing to see men, in a time of general awakening, drinking in the truth, melted under it, and giving in their accession to Christ, let them see to it that they "break up their fallow ground, and sow not among thorns."
(2) How many real disciples are not ready disciples. The Lord hath need of them, and they are heartily desirous of serving Him - "but." They will do this and that-but: they will go here or there when called to do so-but. There is a difficulty in the way just now. As soon as that is out of the way they are ready. But what if the work required of them can only be done just now-cannot stand still until their difficulty is removed? What if, before that is out of the way, their disposition to go has evaporated, or, if still there, has no field - "help having some from another quarter"? Young ministers are wanted as missionaries abroad, and young, ardent, female disciples, who are wanted as helps meet for them, both hesitate. 'But for those aged parents, I would gladly go; but until their head is beneath the ground I am not free.' By that time, however, they are neither so in love with the work, nor is the field open to them. While the harvest is so plenteous and the labourers so few, let those who hear the Macedonian cry, "Come over and help us," beware of allowing secular obstacles, however formidable, to arrest the impulse to obey the summons. Beyond all doubt it is owing to this, among other things, that the commission, "Go, make disciples of all nations," remains still to so vast an extent unexecuted-eighteen centuries since it was given forth.
(3) The best illustration of the danger of "looking back," after having "put our hand to the plow," is the case of those converts from Hinduism, whose parents, when apprised of their intention to be baptized, travel to the mission-house, and plead, with tears and treats, that they will not take a step so fatal. Failing by this means to shake their resolution, they at length submit to their hard fate; only requesting that before they undergo the rite which is to sever them forever from home, they will pay them one parting visit-to "bid them farewell which are at home at their house." It seems but reasonable. To refuse it looks like gratuitously wounding parental feeling. 'Well, I will go; but my heart is with you, my spiritual fathers, and soon I will rejoin you.' He goes-but never returns. How many promising converts have thus been lost to Christianity, to the anguish of dear missionaries, travailing in birth until Christ be formed in the pagan, and to their own undoing! And though some have, after again conforming to paganism, been filed with such remorse, that, like Peter when he denied his Lord, they have gone out and wept bitterly, and, after severe and protracted struggles, have returned to be more resolute followers of Christ than ever, what seas of trouble does this "looking back" cost them! and how very few are such cases compared to the many that "make shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience"! "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."