Matthew 8:18–22

¹⁸ And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. ¹⁹ Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 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.” ²¹ Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

 Commentary

Vs. 18 “And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.”

 Having healed all who were demon possessed or sick, and now with great multitudes about Him, the Lord Jesus gives a command to his disciples that they should depart and cross the Sea of Galilee to the other side. It is clear throughout His earthly ministry the Lord Jesus was never about gathering large followings of peoples to Himself, though these things occurred as His fame spread everywhere, Jesus is quite unique in that He was never about that, but was always about doing and fulfilling God His Father’s Will.

Vs. 19-20 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 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.”

Now as Jesus and the disciples are preparing to depart a certain scribe approaches Jesus and says to him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” Obviously the man had been moved by Jesus preaching and teaching and miraculous works He did. Nonetheless the Lord Jesus’ response to him is not an immediate reception of the man’s hasty declaration of being willing to follow Him wherever He goes. Instead the Lord Jesus’ says to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Revealing to us all that following Christ in discipleship means that the comforts of home and life that are so often taken for granted by us all are not even assured the Son of Man, and so they are not guaranteed us either if we follow Him in discipleship. In essence the Lord Jesus is revealing to us all that we must all count the cost before we start out on a journey with Him, because there will be hardships that we must endure and sacrifices that we all must make in following Him.

Vs. 21-22 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

If the Lord Jesus’ previous response seemed somewhat flippant when He exposed the insincerity of the scribes hasty declaration (vs. 18-20), His word here is clear and directly to the point. Nothing or no one must be put before the Lord Jesus Christ’s call and purposes for our persons and lives. And so though the man’s request seems reasonable, it is clear from the Lord’s response to him that he too would always find a way out of following Christ in discipleship, he would always have other “priorities” that he would need to attend too. Therefore Jesus’ response to him too, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” Is not Jesus being insensitive to the man’s request; for apparently the man was seeking to return home and wait until his father passed away so that he could then bury him and receive his estate, (see Bible knowledge Commentary on this passage). Therefore it is the Lord’s declaration that those who are spiritually dead in their sins and transgressions (who have neither the time nor patience for the Kingdom of heaven and its work) can bury their own physically dead. For there is Kingdom Work that only you and I as Christ’s disciples can do, and that work must always take our lives priority. Therefore anything or anyone that takes us away from doing it is not God’s Will for us.

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.