The Lord’s response to irresolute would-be followers.

(Mat. 8:18-22; Luke 9:57-62).

The Lord was surrounded and crushed by people to such an extent, that He was unable to separate Himself for prayer and discussions with the Apostles (Luke 4:42) — He didn’t even have time to eat (Mark 3:20). Then once, the Lord instructed His disciples to sail to the other side of the Tiberias Lake. When they had gathered in the boat, a Scribe approached the Lord and expressing his desire to follow Him, wherever He went. Wishing to caution the Scribe that he may be undertaking a task that is beyond his capabilities, the Lord points out to him His nomadic type of life: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Mat. 8:20; Luke 9:58); ie. the Lord wanted to say that He has no place where He could cover Himself and rest from His labours.

Calling Himself “Son of Man,” the Lord humbly underlines His human nature. Together with this, for those familiar with Daniel’s prophecy (7:13-14), He incisively indicates with this name His Messianic worthiness. Apparently, this response caused a strong reaction on the people travelling with the Lord, which included His disciples. And one of them, showing reluctance to follow the Lord immediately, citing that he first had to bury his father, was told by the Lord: “Follow Me, and let the dead bury the dead” (Mat. 8:22; Luke 9:60). The two unigenous words applied here the dead and the dead (deceased) have two different meanings; the first, means in the sense of the spiritually dead. What the Lord had in mind was that - for the sake of the great undertaking, for the sake of the good news on the Kingdom of Heaven - it is necessary to leave everything and everybody that is “dead,” who are deaf to the word of God, to His great undertaking. It is as though the Lord is saying: leave those who are totally attached to earthly life to bury the dead, while you, who have heeded the word of life spoken by Me, follow Me.

Likewise, in the not fully understandable prohibition of paying last respects to his deceased father, the Lord apparently wanted to either test the character and loyalty of this disciple, or save him from his relatives, who could have distracted him from following Him. Another disciple, not waiting to be called, expressed to the Lord his desire to follow Him. However, he asks permission to first, just to say farewell to his relatives. To this request the Lord replies: “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.” In other words: he who has decided to follow Christ, should not look back at the world with kindred ties and earthly attachments, inasmuch as any type of earthly bond impedes complete commitment to the teachings of Christ.