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.”

At times the physical crush of the multitudes were so great it interfered with the work of Jesus. (Mark 2:4; Mark 3:9; Luke 8:19) This is the case in these verses so Jesus gives the orders to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

A scribe was an important member of the Jewish religious class, and they made great pretensions of being knowledgeable and wanted to be recognized as indispensable in their standings.

This scribe came to Jesus with the apparent concern with Jesus work and the desire to be part of it.

Jesus knows the hearts of all, so he knew the man had mixed motives about his apparent devotion to Christ.

At this time to promise to follow Jesus meant to be traveling all about the country with him with no promise of arrangements for food and lodging.

Christ states the animals have fixed places to live, but it was not so with Him and His disciples.

When he states he does not even have a place to sleep, it does not mean He and His followers were sleeping on the ground wherever they were working. We know Jesus had many followers, such as Mary, Martha, and Lazarus who would give him use of a bed to sleep in. Peter had a home in Caesarea where Christ made His headquarters when there.

What it does mean is he owned no property to call home.

However it does not mean He was destitute.

Jesus is not so callous and uncaring to tell the man he cannot go bury his dead father. The actual scenario at this time probably the man's father was not dead. If he had been dead then he would not have been away from home.

The likely situation is the man's father was elderly and could pass away almost any time. The man used this as an excuse for not traveling around the country with Christ.

Since the man's father was not yet dead and the man professed to be a disciple of Jesus. Then he was alive spiritually he should leave the physical work of a burial for those who were dead spiritually, the family members who did not believe in Jesus being the Son of God.

Even the importance of laying your father to rest should not interfere with the requirements of our spiritual life.

While Jesus says “take my yoke upon you for my burden is light.” It does not mean as a follower of His there is no cost. He tells us in other places, he will divide families, part of a family will believe in Him and part will not causing division and perhaps the loss of the earthly relationships.

We need to decide whether our reward of eternal life is worth losing friendship and family on earth.

Or is friendship and family for a short time worth jeopardizing our life eternal?