Mt. 8:19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
Lk. 9:57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”
In this segment we have three examples of the cost of discipleship. Once we understand what is going on here, we can see there is a very clear cost that God expects us to put forth to follow Him. This is not “earning our salvation,” but proving that we are serious about serving Him.
Mt. 8:20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Lk. 9:58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Here Yeshua simply expounds on the cost of discipleship to an individual. Evidently Yeshua senses something in this man that told Him he was not willing to make the sacrifices required. In the first century, being an apprentice disciple to a peripatetic rabbi was hard. That person gave up everything, including his family, to follow his rabbi wherever he went, regardless of conditions. It also shows that God will not call someone to a particular ministry that He knows the person can’t handle.
Mt. 8:21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Lk. 9:59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
Mt. 8:22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Lk. 9:60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the Gospel.”
These seem like harsh words to someone who has just lost their father. But, knowing something about the culture, we can tell that this disciple’s father had passed away approximately a year ago. The apparent rebuke from Yeshua was not aimed at this disciple’s care for his father, but toward a tradition concerning burial that violated the Scriptures. The Jewish practice of burial required the body to be placed in the ground within 24 hours of death (Deut. 21:22). There was no embalming practiced at this time like it is today. The family was required to go through a mourning period of seven days known as shivah, and were not even permitted to leave the house during this period. If the disciple’s father had just died, he would have been in mourning, not following Yeshua.
After the body was placed in a burial chamber, it was left to decompose. The Jerusalem Talmud says, “When the flesh had wasted away, the bones were collected and placed in a small chest called an ossuary. After the flesh was gone from the bones, and the bones were placed in the ossuary, the son stopped mourning.” This ossuary (stone bone box) was known as a secondary burial that was done by the oldest son, taking them to the holy city of Jerusalem or to a family burial cave and placed them with the bones of their ancestors. Evidently this is what the disciple was wanting to do when he made the request of Yeshua.
This concept became popular during the first century, but there was an idea behind it which Yeshua obviously did not approve of. There was a tradition that had developed over the years which held that the decomposing of the flesh between the first and second burial atoned for the sins of the dead person. At this second burial, the son could rejoice as the bones of his father were laid with his ancestors because his sins were forgiven. This concept was actually a derivative of Gnosticism that taught that salvation came when the human being rid himself of this corrupt body of flesh. Yeshua very much hated this kind of false teaching.
Yeshua was not hindering the son in fulfillment of the fifth commandment of caring for and honoring his father, but was opposed to this secondary burial which promoted the unscriptural idea that something other than the Messiah could deliver one from his sins. In all probability, the first burial of the disciple’s father had taken place during the previous year. Otherwise he would have been home mourning and not with Yeshua.
The commandment of honoring his parents would have allowed him to go bury his father if he had just died while the disciple was with Yeshua. In fact, if the disciple’s parents lived very far away from where Yeshua and His disciples were at, it is very possible that the father could have been buried even before the news of his death reached the son.
Lk. 9:61 And another said, Lord, I will follow You, but first let me go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
Lk. 9:62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Yeshua’s reply shows that only those who were prepared to commit themselves totally to Him would be welcome in His movement. If this man needed to go say goodbye to his family after he had made the commitment, more than likely he would not have returned to follow Yeshua. For the true disciple, the Lord demands total commitment and loyalty to Him. This form of discipleship was a unique feature of ancient Jewish society. Not everyone today is called to be a disciple in the true Biblical sense. It is from this concept that the rabbis and sages of Judaism were born. Very few people, compared to the whole population, became disciples. Today this concept should be used to give birth to the leadership of the church. It was a period of very intense training and commitment that not everyone was willing to enter into. This is not to be used to teach them the basic doctrines of the church. All converts need to be taught that discipleship is a greater level of training to prepare men and women to take their rightful places in the leadership of the church.
Three things are learned in this segment concerning someone entering into discipleship. First, count the cost before you commit yourself. Second, having made the commitment, don’t delay. And third, there should be no division of loyalty, and cut all ties that would keep you from fulfilling your commitment to the Lord.
