Luke 9:59

Luk_9:59-60

Let the dead bury their dead

Christs invitation put off

We have now before us one of those who excuse themselves from immediate compliance with the Saviours demands--Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

Perhaps you have beensometimes disposed to pity this man, and to think it rather a hard case that such an act of charity and necessity should be denied. Never fear, my brethren, for the character of Christ. It was an Eastern proverb, When I have buried my father I will do so-and-so. Mark that the man does not say his father was already dead. Had that been the case, he must, at this very time, have been engaged in the funeral preparations instead of joining the crowd in the Saviours presence. The interment of the dead was required to take place before the sunset of the day on which they expired. He had an aged sire who could not live long, and when he was gone, and the property divided--in other words, at his own leisure--he would be a Christian. He is a type of the large class who want heaven in their own time and on their own terms. (W. G. Lewis.)

Following Christ the great business of life

I. THAT THE ATTAINMENT AND PRACTICE OF TRUE RELIGION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BUSINESS IN WHICH WE CAN BE ENGAGED. It is so, because it is the necessary preparation for a happy immortality. We have commenced a course of being that shall never end. Our faculties, now in their infancy, and but just budding, shall exist and expand for ever and ever. If so, then mans great concern should be to secure a blissful immortality.

II. THAT TO THIS GREAT BUSINESS OF RELIGION ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SHOULD BE MADE TO GIVE WAY. This second proposition is the necessary sequence of the first. If religion is the most important business, then everything else should yield to it. You conduct your temporal business on this principle. You endeavour to ascertain the relative importance of each department, and you make the lesser bend to the greater. (J. H. Beech.)

No excuse against a speedy obeying Christs call

The reasons of Christs refusal. Christ would show hereby--

1. That all human offices and duties must give place to the duty we owe to God. Duty to parents must be observed, but duty to God must be preferred before that or anything whatsoever.

2. He would teach us hereby that the ministry requires the whole man, even sometimes the omission of necessary works, much more superfluous: Give thyself wholly to these things (1Ti_4:15). The words are now explained; the practical notes are these two--First, that nothing in the world is a matter of such great weight as to be a sufficient excuse for not following of Christ. Secondly, that those who are called to follow Christ should follow Him speedily, without interposing any delays. For the first point, that nothing in the world is a matter of such great weight as to be a Sufficient excuse for not following of Christ, I will illustrate it by these considerations.

1. There are two sorts of men. Some understand not their Lords will, others have no mind to do it (Luk_12:47-48). Some understand not the terms of the gospel; they think to have Christ and the pleasures of the flesh and the world too.

2. They that have no mind to follow Christ put off the matter with dilatory shifts and excuses. To refuse altogether is more heinous, and therefore they shift it off for a time. Non vacat is the pretence--I am not at leisure. Non placer, I like it not, is the real interpretation, disposition, and inclination of their hearts, for excuses are always a sign of an unwilling and backward heart. When they should serve God there is still something in the way, some danger, or some difficulty which they are loth to encounter with. Secondly, that those who are called to follow Christ should follow Him speedily, without interposing any delays.

Consider--

1. Ready obedience is a good evidence of a sound impression of grace left upon our hearts. When our call is clear, there needeth no debate or demurring upon the matter.

2. The work goeth on the more kindly when we speedily obey the sanctifying motions of the Spirit, and the present influence and impulsion of His grace. To adjourn and put it off, as Felix did (Act_24:25), doth damp and cool the work--you quench this holy fire; or to stand hucking with God, as Pharaoh did, the work dieth on your hand.

3. There is hazard in delaying and putting off such a business of concernment as conversion to God. We know not the day of our death, therefore we should get God to bless us ere we die. A new call is uncertain 2Co_6:1-2). It may be He will treat with us no more in such a warm and affectionate manner. It is a hazard or uncertain if the Spirit of God will put another thought of turning into your hearts, when former grace is despised (Isa_55:6).

4. Consider the mischiefs of delaying. Every day we contract a greater indisposition of embracing Gods call. We complain now it is hard; if it be hard to-day, it will be harder to-morrow, when God is more provoked, and sin more strengthened (Jer_13:23). (T. Manton, D. D.)

Christ stimulating sluggish discipleship

This man is one of the people that always see something else to be done first when any plain duty comes before them. Sluggish, hesitating, keenly conscious of other possibilities and demands, he needs precisely the opposite treatment from his lighthearted and light-purposed brother. Some plants want putting into a cold house to be checked; some into a greenhouse to be forwarded. The diversity of treatment, even when it amounts to opposition of treatment, comes from the same single purpose. And so here the spur is applied, whilst in the former incident it was the rein that was needed.

I. Note, then, first of all, THIS APPARENTLY MOST LAUDABLE AND REASONABLE REQUEST. Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Nature says Yes, and religion enjoins it, and everything seems to say that it is the right thing for a man to do. The man was perfectly sincere in his petition, and perfectly sincere in the implied promise that, as soon as the funeral was over, he would come back. He meant it, out and out. If he had not, he would have got different treatment, and if he had not, he would have ceased to be the valuable example and lesson that he is to us. So we have here a disciple quite sincere, who believes himself to have already obeyed in spirit, and only to be hindered from obeying in outward act by an imperative duty that even a barbarian would know to be imperative. And yet Jesus Christ read him better than he read himself; and by His answer lets us see that that tone of mind into which we are all tempted to drop, and which is the characteristic natural tendency of some of us, of being hindered from doing the plain thing that lies before us, because something else crops up, which we also think is imperative upon us, is full of danger, and may be the cover of a great deal of self-deception; and, at any rate, is not in consonance with Christs supreme and pressing and immediate claims. The tempter which says Suffer me first to go and bury my father is full of danger, never knows but that, after he has got his father buried, there will be something else turning up equally important. There was the will to be read afterwards, you know, and if he was, as probably he was, the eldest son, he would be executor most likely, and there would be all sorts of things to settle up before he might feel that it was his duty to leave everything and follow the Master. And so it always is: Suffer me first, and when we get to the top of that hill, there is another one beyond. And so we go on from step to step, getting ready to do the duties that we know are most imperative upon us, and sweeping preliminaries out of the way; and so we go on until our dying day, when somebody else buries us. Like some backwoodsman in the American forests who should say to himself, Now I will not sow a grain of wheat until I have cleared all the land that belongs to me. I will do that first, and then begin to reap. He would be a great deal wiser if he cleared and sowed a little bit first and lived upon it, and then cleared a little bit more. Mark the plain lesson that comes out of this incident, that the habit, for it is a habit with some of us, of putting other pressing duties forward, before we attend to the highest claims of Christ, is full of danger, because there will be no end to them if we once admit the principle. And this is true not only in regard of Christianity, but in regard of everything that is worth doing in this world.

II. Now LOOK AT THE APPARENTLY HARSH AND UNREASONABLE REFUSAL OF THIS REASONABLE REQUEST. It is extremely unlike Jesus Christ in substance and in tone. It is unlike Him to put any barrier in the way of a sons yielding to the impulses of his heart and attending to the last duties to his father. It is extremely unlike Him to couch His refusal in words that sound, at first hearing, so harsh and contemptuous, and that seem to say, Let the dead world go as it will; never you mind it, do you not go after it at all or care about it. But if we remember that it is Jesus Christ who came to bring life into the dead world that says this, then, I think, we shall understand better what He means. I do not need to explain, I suppose, that the one dead here is the physical and natural dead, and that the other is the morally and religiously dead; and that what Christ says, in the picturesque way that He so often affected in order to bring great truths home in concrete form to sluggish under standings, is in effect: Ay! For the men in the world that are separated from God, and so are dead, in their self-hoed and their sin, burying other dead people is appropriate work for them. But your business, as living by Me, is to carry life, and let the burying alone, to be done by the dead people that can do nothing else. Now, the spirit of our Lords answer may be put thus: It must always be Christ first, and everybody else second; and it must therefore sometimes be Christ only, and nobody else. Let me bury my father, and then I will come. No, says Christ, first your duty to Me; first in order of time, because first in order of importance. And this is His habitual tone, He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. Did you ever think of what a strange claim that is for a man to make upon others? This Jesus Christ comes to you and me, and to the whole race, and says, I demand, and I have a right to demand, thy supreme affection and thy first obedience. All other relations are subordinate to thy relation to Me. All other persons ought to be less dear to thee than I am. No other duty can be so imperative as the duty of following Me. What business has He to say that to us? On what does such a tremendous claim rest? Who is it that fronts humanity, and says: He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me? He has a right to say it, because He is more than they, and has done more than they all, because He is the Son of God manifest in the flesh, and because on the cross He has died for all men. Therefore all other claims dwindle and sink into nothingness before Him. Therefore, His will is supreme, and my relation to Him is the dominant fact in my whole moral and religious character. And He must be first, whoever comes second, and between the first and the second there is a great gulf fixed. Remember that this postponing of all other duties, relationships, and claims to Christs claims and relationships, and to our duties to Him, lifts them up, and does not lower them, ennobles and does not degrade, the earthly affections. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Let the dead bury their dead

The meaning of this passage may perhaps be this: If necessary, leave the dead unburied, but at all events obey My call to go and proclaim the kingdom of God. The Christian should be willing and prepared to leave his dearest dead unburied, or to slight any other tender natural affection, the indulgence of which would be in conflict with a plain command or call of God; not that such a conflict commonly exists, or may be brought about at pleasure, which, so far from being pleasing in the sight of God, is really the sin committed by the hypocrites who said Corban, when they ought to have supplied the wants of their dependent parents.

1. There is still a special call of Christ to individuals, not only to believe in Him, but to preach His kingdom. Without attempting to define this call at present, I may observe that it is neither miraculous on one hand, nor a matter of business calculation on the other, but a complete judgment or conclusion to which various elements contribute, such as intellectual and physical capacity, without which a call is inconceivable--providential facilities and opportunities, opening the way to this employment more than to all others--the judgment and desire of others, and especially of those best qualified by character and situation to sit in judgment on the case. I might add a desire for the work, which, in a certain sense, is certainly included in a call, but which is apt to be confounded with a mere liking for the outward part of the profession--for example, with that mania for preaching which is sometimes found in grossly wicked men, and has been known to follow them, not only to their haunts of vice, but to the prison and the madhouse. There is also a desire which results from early habit and association, the known wish of parents, pastors, and other friends, or the fixed inveterate habit of regarding this as a mans chosen calling, even when every evidence of piety is wanting. The desire which can be referred to any of these causes is entirely distinct from that which God produces in the heart of His true servants, as a part of their vocation to the ministry.

2. This vocation, where it really exists, is paramount to every personal and selfish plan, to every natural affection, even the most tender, which conflicts with it.

3. This conflict is not usually unavoidable, though often so regarded by fanatics. The first duty of the Christian is not to desire or create, but to avoid it; but if unavoidable, his next is to obey God rather than man.

4. Our Saviour did not deal indiscriminately with all cases of desire to enter His immediate service. The remark is at least as old as Calvin, that in this case He repelled the man who wanted to go with Him everywhere, and urged the man to follow Him at once who wanted to go home for what appeared to be most necessary purposes. So far as His example is a guide to us in these things, we are bound, not only to persuade, but to discourage, as the case may be.

5. There is no more danger of excluding those whom God has called by faithful presentation of the whole truth, than there is of preventing the conversion of His chosen ones by showing them the true tests of faith and repentance. The man who can be finally driven back in this way ought to be so driven. He whom God has called will only be confirmed in his desire and resolution by such warnings against self-deception, though he may pass through the discipline of painful doubt and hesitation for a season. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)

Religious impressions not to be checked

I. The importance of a prompt and resolute devotedness of mind to the great concern of religion. This is, in other words, to follow Christ; and it includes three things.

1. The candid reception of His revelation.

2. To follow Christ involves a surrender of ourselves to Him as our Saviour and Governor. There must be transactions of a personal nature between every such individual and Christ. First, he must seek to Him, and to God by Him, for reconciliation. Next, he must pay attention to the institutions of Christ. They must have his punctual and cordial regard.

Moreover, every such person must be careful to comply with the moral precepts of the New Testament, as well as its more spiritual injunctions.

3. To follow Christ imports also ardent solicitude for the prevalence of His religion.

II. The egregrious folly of stifling impressions in favour of such devotedness, by worldly considerations. Our Lords language implies this: Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead. Leave the cares of the world to those who have no such call of God upon their hearts, but by no means postpone compliance with it for their sake. It is peculiarly sinful, then, to stifle religious impressions by the influence of worldly considerations. Yet--

1. Some are prevented from an immediate compliance with their convictions by the notion that there is a happiness to be found in the world, which they, in that case, would be required to abandon. An entire mistake. Religion imposes no gloomy austerities, no unnecessary self-inflictions.

2. Some are prevented from going the full length of their religious convictions by the remonstrances of worldly relatives and friends.

3. The prompt devotedness of other minds is prevented by some particular worldly object of pursuit upon which they are at that moment intent, and which promises, by its attainment, soon to leave them at liberty. But this is the artifice of Satan. It quiets the present alarm; it hinders the heart, at this time, from closing with the call of God. (J. Leifchild.)

Action and grief: a meditation for a churchyard

And are not these strange words for one so loving as our Lord? How mighty was the attractive force of our Lords character! When He spake, they were compelled to leave all, and to follow Him.

I. Lord, suffer me first. Ah; that is the cry of nature. I will come to Thee, but suffer me first. First suffer me to be disappointed, and then I will follow Thee; first, build my house upon the sand, and then I will come, O Rock, to Thee. First, worship and waste my affections on the day, and then I will come to Thee. Suffer me first; but Jesus answered, Follow thou Me.

1. Follow Me. I am Life, and you seek life, but then you have only death; as long as you linger there, you do but seek the living among the dead.

2. Follow Me. You seek love, and here nothing loves you; that which loved you has gone, and, if you would regain what loved you, you must follow Me.

3. Follow Me. I am not only Life--I am the only Master of the kingdom of life. I am the Way to the life. In following Me, you do not leave behind you merely dead affections; you rise to the true kingdom of the affections. Action, action, action. Life is in action, in following more than in musing. The music of the harp is beautiful, but that has not served the world so well as the music of the hammer; and even all poetry is action--all true poetry is. (E. Paxton Hood.)

Meaning of the prohibition

We are not to suppose, by this prohibition, that Christ disallows or disapproves of any civil office from one person to another, much less of a child to a parent, either living or dying i but He lets us know--

1. That no office of love and service to man must be preferred before our duty to God, to whom we owe our first and chief obedience.

2. That lawful and decent offices become sinful when they hinder greater duties.

3. That such as are called by Christ to preach the gospel, must mind that alone, and leave inferior duties to inferior persons. (W. Burkitt.)

Preach thou the kingdom

There are many of you who are busily engaged in legitimate occupations, and devoting yourselves in various degrees to various forms of good, touching the secular condition of the people around us. May I hint to you, Let the dead bury their dead; preach thou the gospel? A Christian mans first business is to witness for Jesus Christ. And no amount of diligence in legitimate occupations or for the good of others will absolve him from the charge of having turned duties upside down if he says, I cannot witness for Jesus Christ. I am so busy about these other things. This command has a special application to us ministers. There are hosts of admirable things that we are tempted to engage in now-a-days, with the enlarged opportunities that we have of influencing men socially, politically, intellectually, and it wants rigid cocentration for us to keep out of the paths which might hinder our usefulness, or, at all events, dissipate our strength. Let us hear that voice ringing always in our ears: preach thou the gospel of the kingdom. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Our just obligation

These words seem at first harsh and severe. Our Lords teaching gives no sanction, however, to the monstrous error that the new life releases men from obligations which they may have found irksome. The common relations of life are a discipline whereby we are trained to spiritual perfection. What did our Lord say, and under what circumstances?

1. The man probably heard of his fathers death when he was with Christ, and wanted to return to the funeral. But the father was dead, and the son could do nothing for him now. If he had neglected him in life, he could not now repair the neglect.

2. Still you say natural affection impels a man to discharge the last offices of love. Yes; but there are reasons which justify a man in being absent from his fathers funeral. This was a very solemn and critical time. The man appears to have been selected as one of the seventy; and if he had gone home, he would have been detained some days by the ceremonial law; his purpose might have been weakened; so even in the hour of his grief he is commanded to do this great service,

3. Let the dead bury their dead. Does this show contempt for the unspiritual? No; our Lord never spoke with contemptuous indifference of such; it was his very eagerness that they should rise to a new and better life that led Him to call this man away.

4. The whole narrative suggests that critical moments in a mans life bring critical duties. If God is near us now in a very special and solemn manner, then that principle enters our life and regulates our duty. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

Following Christ

I. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN FOLLOWING CHRIST?

1. By following Christ the disciple is brought into a new relation.

2. At all times the religious relation is more important than the natural one.

(1) It is formed by the will and choice of the individual himself.

(2) It is wider in its sympathies.

(3) It is a relation which will never fail.

II. THE DISCIPLE OF CHRIST HAS NEW RESPONSIBILITIES.

1. He has to learn of Him.

2. He has to suffer with Him.

3. He has to move on towards Him.

III. THE DISCIPLE IS BROUGHT TO POSSESS NEW PRIVILEGES.

1. He has the most powerful incentive to work in this world. He has the most glorious hope with regard to the world to come. (H. C. Williams.)

Living preaching

When the Master gave the command, Go thou and preach, He meant Go thou and shine; go thou and bear much fruit; go thou and do good; go thou and teach the poor; go thou and save the drunkard; go thou and heal the sick; go thou and witness for Me; go thou and live out this beautiful and sublime religion of the Cross.

1. A life of obedience to Christ is the most effective way of glorifying our Saviour. It has been well styled the strongest manifestation of God to the world.

2. There is no other preaching of the Word that makes so many converts to the truth.

3. Every man is a preacher, and every life a sermon. What sort of a discourse are you making, you, and you, and you? (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Ways of preaching Jesus

There are a great many ways of preaching Jesus without standing in a pulpit. Wilberforce proclaimed the gospel of love on the floor of the British Parliament, though he never wore a surplice, and never had the ordained hand of a bishop on his honoured head. George Stewart was an apostle of the Cross when he organized a Christian mission for our soldiers camps during the civil war in America. John Macgregor was another when he gathered the shoeblack brigade in the streets of London. Hannah More preached Jesus in English drawing-rooms, and Elizabeth Fry in Newgate prison walls, and Sarah Filey amongst the negro freedmen of our Southern plantations. Sometimes God gives a single precept to a man to carry out, as when the Roman Catholic Father Matthew wrought grandly and gloriously for the reformation of Irish drunkards, and William Lothian for the recovery of poor lost women from the streets of Glasgow. Our Lord scatters His commissions with a munificent liberality. The Dairymans Daughter murmuring the voice of Jesus, till we heard it across the Atlantic; Hannah Burton testifying to the power of Christ to sustain her--all these were most effective preachers of the unsearchable riches of Christ. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Supremacy of duty

An officer who served under Stonewall Jackson, having gone to visit some relatives without applying for leave, was detained late at night by a severe rain-storm. About two oclock in the morning, hearing a loud shouting at the gate of the house, he rose, and found his brother there with a message that he must report himself at daybreak. He returned immediately, through the drenching rain and mud, to find all quiet at the camp, and the captain not yet risen. Inquiring of the adjutant the meaning of the message, he received for reply: That is to teach you that a soldier in the face of an enemy has no business away from his post. (Mackay.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9:59 let me . . . bury my father: Respect for parents was a very important value in first-century Israel. Among other things, this meant providing them with an honorable burial. Jesus called for a commitment that took precedence over all human relationships.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 9:59. Ἀπελθόντι, having departed [i.e. to go and]) The dative. Here the man takes for granted his departure, does not ask leave for it. A different Kind of departure (ἀπελθὼν, “go thou and preach”) is enjoined in Luk 9:60.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 9:59-60 . The second case (Mat 8:21-22 ). ἀκολούθει μοι . Jesus takes the initiative in this case. That He should not have done so in the first is intelligible if the aspirant was a scribe . Jesus did not look for satisfactory discipleship from that quarter. σὺ δὲ , but thou , emphatic, implying that the man addressed is not among the dead, but one who appreciates the claims of the kingdom. διάγγελλε , keep proclaiming on every side the Kingdom of God; that, thy sole business henceforth, to which everything else, even burying parents, must be sacrificed: seek first the kingdom.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2 d. Luk 9:59-60.

Luke says, another (individual); Matthew, another of His disciples.

The scribe had offered himself; this latter is addressed by Jesus. Luke alone indicates the contrast which the succeeding conversation explains. Here we have no more a man of impulse, presumptuous and without self-distrust. On the contrary, we have a character reflecting and wary even to excess. Jesus has more confidence in him than in the former; He stimulates instead of correcting him.

Could the answer which He gives him (Luk 9:60) be altogether justified in the situation which Matthew indicates, and if what was contemplated was only a short expedition, in which this man without inconvenience could have taken part? In the position indicated by Luke, the whole aspect of the matter changes. The Lord is setting out, not again to return; will he who remains behind at this decisive moment ever rejoin Him? There are critical periods in the moral life, when that which is not done at the moment will never be done. The Spirit blows; its action over, the ship will never succeed in getting out of port. But, it is said, to bury a father is a sacred duty; Jesus has no right to set aside such a duty. But there may be conflicting duties; the law itself provided for one, in cases analogous to that which is before us. The high priest and the Nazarites, or consecrated ones, were not to pollute themselves for the dead, were it even their father or mother (Lev 21:11; Num 6:6-7); that is to say, they could neither touch the body to pay it the last duties, nor enter the house where it lay (Num 19:14), nor take part in the funeral meal (Hos 9:4). All that Jesus does here is to apply the moral principle implicitly laid down by the law,—to wit, that in case of conflict, spiritual duty takes precedence of the law of propriety. If his country be attacked, a citizen will leave his father’s body to run to the frontier; if his own life be threatened, the most devoted son will take to flight, leaving to others the care of paying the last honours to his father’s remains. Jesus calls upon this man to do for the life of his soul what every son would do for that of his body. It must be remembered that the pollution contracted by the presence of a dead body lasted seven days (Num 19:11-22). What would have happened to this man during these seven days? His impressions would have been chilled. Already Jesus saw him plunged anew in the tide of his ordinary life, lost to the kingdom of God. There was needed in this case a decision like that which Jesus had just taken Himself (Luk 9:51). ᾿Απελθών (strictly, from the spot) is opposed to every desire of delay; the higher mission, the spiritual Nazariteship, begins immediately. From the word dead, on the double meaning of which the answer of Jesus turns, there is suggested the judgment which He passed on human nature before its renewal by the gospel. This saying is parallel to that other, “If ye who are evil...,” and to Paul’s declaration, “Ye were dead in your sins...” (Eph 2:1). The command, “Preach the kingdom of God,” justifies, by the sublimity of the object, the sacrifice demanded. The διά in διάγγελλε indicates diffusion. The mission of the seventy disciples, which immediately follows, sets this command in its true light. Jesus had a place for this man to fill in that army of evangelists which He purposed to send before Him, and which at a later date was to labour in changing the aspect of the world. Everything in this scene is explained by the situation in which Luke places it.

Clement of Alexandria relates (Strom. 3.4) that the name of this man was Philip. In any case, it could not have been the apostle of that name who had long been following Jesus (John 6); but might it not be the deacon Philip, who afterwards played so important a part as deacon and evangelist in the primitive Church? If it is so, we can understand why Jesus did not allow such a prize to escape Him.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The calling of God ought to be preferred, without all controversy before all duties that we owe to men.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

59. Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father] An ancient, but groundless tradition (Clem. Alex. Strom, ill. 4, § 25), says that this was Philip. This man was already a disciple (Mat_8:21). The request could hardly mean ‘let me live at home till my father’s death,’ which would be too indefinite an offer; nor can it well mean that his father was lying unburied, for in that case the disciple would hardly have been among the crowd. Perhaps it meant ‘let me go and give a farewell funeral feast, and put everything in order.’ The man was bidden to be Christ’s Nazarite (Num_6:6-7).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

Ver. 59. See Mat 8:21.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See Poole on "Mat 8:21". See Poole on "Mat 8:22". How free is Divine grace! The scribe offers to follow Christ: Christ encourages him not. To another that made no such offer, he first speaketh, saying, Follow me, and will admit of no excuse.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 59, 60. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. In this case the Master was the Summoner. Something he read in this man"s heart, or words he had heard him speak, moved the Redeemer"s great love, so he gave him a special call. This was a very different character from the last. Whereas that seeker for work from Jesus was impulsive, and even thoughtless in his enthusiasm, one who would begin to act without counting the cost, this one was overcautious, cold and calculating to an ungenerous excess; yet there was evidently sterling stuff in the character, for Jesus argues and remonstrates with him; there was, too, much gold mingled with the earth of that man"s disposition, for the Lord lightly to let it go. It is thus that the Spirit pleads still with the selfishness which disfigures many a noble and devoted servant of high God. He seems to say, "My call is too imperative to yield to any home duties, however orderly and respectable." During the official days of mourning (in the case of a funeral, these were seven) the impression now made by his summoning words would have worn off. It is noticeable that the home duties, which Jesus suggested should give place to other and more imperative claims, were in connection with the dead. It was not the living father who was to be left to hirelings, only the inanimate corpse. It was rather a society call than a home or family duty which was to give place to work for the Master. St. Chrysostom makes some quaint, but strikingly practical, remarks here. "He might need, if he went to the funeral, to proceed, after the burial, to make inquiry about the will, and then about the distribution of the inheritance, and all the other things that followed thereupon; and thus waves after waves of things coming in upon him in succession might bear him very far away from the harbour of truth. For this cause, doubtless, the Saviour draws him, and fastens him to himself."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We are not to suppose by this prohibition, that Christ disallows or disapproves of any civil office from one person to another, much less of a child to a parent, either living or dying; but he lets us know,

1. That no office of love and service to man must be preferred before our duty to God, to whom we owe our first and chief obedience.

2. That lawful and decent offices become sinful, when they hinder greater duties.

3. That such as are called by Christ to preach the gospel, must mind that alone, and leave inferior persons; as if Christ had said, "Others will serve well enough to bury the dead, but thou that art called to minister unto God, must do that unto which thou art called." Under the law the priests might not come near a dead corpse; nor meddle with the interment of their own parents, unto which our Saviour here probably alludes.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus continues to talk with the people along the road.

Follow me

By saying this Jesus is asking the person to become his disciple and to go with him.

first let me go and bury my father

It is unclear whether the man's father has died and he will bury him immediately, or if the man wants to stay for a longer amount of time until his father dies so he can bury him then. The main point is the man wants to do something else first before he follows Jesus.

first let me go

"before I do that, let me go"

Leave the dead to bury their own dead

Jesus does not mean literally that dead people will bury other dead people. Possible meanings of "the dead" are 1) it is a metaphor for those who will soon die, or 2) it is a metaphor for those who do not follow Jesus and are spiritually dead. The main point is that a disciple must not let anything delay him from following Jesus. (See: Metaphor)

the dead

This refers to dead people in general. AT: "the dead people" (See: Nominal Adjectives)

translationWords

lord

bury

kingdom of God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

59. ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον ἀπελθόντι θάψαι τὸν πατέρα μου. An ancient, but groundless tradition (Clem. Alex. Strom. III. 4, § 25), says that this was Philip. This man was already a disciple (Mat 8:21). The request could hardly mean ‘let me live at home till my father’s death,’ which would be too indefinite an offer; nor can it well mean that his father was lying unburied, for in that case the disciple would hardly have been among the crowd. Perhaps it meant ‘let me go and give a farewell funeral feast, and put everything in order.’ The man was bidden to be Christ’s Nazarite (Num 6:6-7).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

59. ἀκολούθει μοι] This command is implied in Matthew, where the reply is, as here, κύριε, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον … which words could hardly be spoken without a reference in the πρῶτον to it.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

59. Εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς ἕτερον. Mt. tells us that this man was ἕτερος τῶν μαθητῶν, i.e. one of the casual disciples, who is now invited to become a permanent follower.

Quite without reason Clem. Alex identifies him with Philip, pobably meaning the Evangelist (Strom. iii. 4, 522, ed. Potter). So also Hilgenfeld, who identifies the scribe of ver. 57 with Bartholomew. Lange would make this second case to be the desponding Thomas, and the scribe to be Judas Iscariot (L.J. ii. p. 144, Eng. tr.). Keim more reasonably remarks that it is futile to attempt to discover the names by mere sagacity (Jes. of Nas. iii. p. 270).

Ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον ἀπελθόντι θάψαι τὸν πατέρα μου. The most obvious meaning is the best. His father is in extremis or has just died, and the funeral will take place almost immediately (Act 5:6, Act 5:10). Perhaps Jesus can wait; or he may be allowed to follow later, after he has performed the sacred duty of burial (Gen 25:9; Tobit 4:3). “I must first bury my father” is an almost brutal way of saying, “I cannot come so long as my father is alive”: and to have put off following Jesus for so indefinite a period would have seemed like unworthy trifling. Yet Grotius and Hase (Gesch. Jesu, § 41), adopt this.

The κύριε before ἐπίτρεψον is of doubtful authority, and may come from Mat 8:21: om. B* D V, Syr-Sin. For the attraction in ἀπελθόντι see on 3:19. Mt. has ἀπελθεῖν καὶ θάψαι.In vv. 59 and 60 Lk., has his favourite εῖπεν δέ, which Mt. has in neither place.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.