Luke 9:57-62

Context – Cultural Obstacles

Luke 9:57-62 - Jesus Warns Would-Be Followers

To follow the way called for total commitment, not from fear or obligation but from the strength of the vision people shared with Jesus.

⁵⁷ As they were travelling along the way,

someone said, "I shall follow you wherever you go."

⁵⁸ Jesus said, "The foxes have holes,

and the birds of the sky their nests,

but the Son of man has nowhere to rest his head."

⁵⁹ TTo another he said, "Follow me";

but the other answered,

"Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father".

⁶⁰ In reply Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their dead;

but you go and announce the kingdom of God."

⁶¹ Another said to him, "I shall follow you, Lord.

But let me first say good-bye to those at home."

⁶² But Jesus said to him,

"No one who puts his hand to the plough

and keeps on looking back i

s fit for the kingdom of God".

The three instances need not have happened in strict sequence. Luke grouped them together to make his point.

Two of the would-be disciples offered themselves to the small community. Jesus called the third. Luke did not bother to inform his readers if the would-be disciples took notice of the comments of Jesus and in fact followed him.

The evangelists gave little detail about the day-to-day living arrangements of Jesus. Luke had not even mentioned that Jesus had earlier moved his residence from Nazareth to Capernaum. Galilee was not a big area, a rough square of about forty kilometers both ways. With two hundred villages, no place was very distant from its neighbour. Depending on the weather Jesus may at times have slept rough. On the major pilgrimage and trade routes between Galilee and Jerusalem there would have been numerous over-night stopping places. Some towns and villages had “inns”, including Bethlehem. Hospitality was a key virtue among Jews, but what facilities were available to handle a large group of disciples is not certain. Jesus seemed to have seen his living conditions as at times precarious.

When Jesus commented Let the dead bury their dead, he was speaking metaphorically. For him, lack of response to the invitation of God indicated an absence of vitality and was a sign of inner death. The man’s request for time to bury his father did not assume that his father was already dead (burials usually happened immediately after death in hot climates). So the man really wanted to wait until his father eventually died before taking up discipleship. Family ties were not paramount with Jesus, even though honouring of father and mother was one of the commandments of the Decalogue.

The third instance echoed Elijah’s call of Elisha recorded in the First Book of Kings:

So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat,

who was plowing.

There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him,

and he was with the twelfth.

Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him.

He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said,

“Let me kiss my father and my mother,

and then I will follow you.”

Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again; f

or what have I done to you?”

He returned from following him,

took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them;

using the equipment from the oxen,

he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people,

and they ate.

Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

(1 Kings 19:19-21)

Sharing in the mission of Elijah paled in comparison to accepting the mission of Jesus. Discipleship calls for single-minded commitment.

Next >> Luke 10:1-24