In all this context, since the transfiguration, human flesh is judged in its various forms. Indeed even there the flesh was shown quite incompetent to appreciate the glory of God, or the new things of His kingdom. Thenceforward disciples and man manifest their unbelief and consequent powerlessness before Satan; their unintelligence as to the sufferings of the Son of man; their worldly ambition, cloaking itself under the Lord's name, though so utterly inconsistent with Him; the party-spirit that overlooks the Spirit of God who deigns to work sovereignly; and the spirit of grace that God was now showing in Christ as contrasted with all that even an Elias did.
But now we have not the failure of the apostles themselves, but the judgment of those who either were or wanted to be disciples. This is brought before us in the close of the chapter in three different forms successively. “It came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” It was apparently a good confession, as it was a zealous resolution; but man never can go before the Lord. No one ever did give himself up to God—he must be called. He who says “I will follow thee” knows not his weakness. When we think what man is and what Jesus is, for man to say “I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest” is manifestly the grossest presumption, yet man sees no presumption in it. So ignorant is man, so besotted in unbelief, that to his eyes real faith seems presumptuous, whereas there is nothing so humble; for faith forgets itself in the goodness and might of Him on whom it leans. It was the expression of self-confidence to say to Jesus, “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” Now he who does this always miscalculates. He overlooks the glory of Christ and the depth of His grace. He overlooks also his own total want of power and perhaps even his need of forgiveness. No man is competent, till he is called by grace, to follow the Lord. And when we are called, the Lord does not send us forth at our own charges. He gives liberally the needed wisdom and ability to those who ask Him; but He goes before us. To follow the Lord whithersoever He went, before His death (as in this case), was beyond man. When even Peter, at a later date, said something like it, it was just before he denied the Lord. Such is flesh. “I will follow thee to prison and to death,” said Peter; but in fact the very shadow of what was coming frightened him. A servant girl was enough to terrify the chief of the apostles. It made him tell lies with oaths; whereas the same Peter, after the death and resurrection of Christ, when his own conscience had been purified by faith according to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, became bold as a lion, as he finally followed the Lord not only to prison but to the death of the cross. But this was altogether the strength giving effect of God's grace, not of his own power, which utterly failed. When his natural energy was gone, he was stronger than ever: be was only truly strong when he had no strength of his own. The Lord answers the scribe (for such we know him to be from another gospel) “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” The man was judged. He came for what he could get, and the Lord had nothing to give him—nothing but shame, and suffering, and destitution. The foxes might have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but the rejected Messiah had not an earthly resting-place. There was to be found in Israel no man so poor as the Lord Jesus. When He wanted to teach them a lesson of subjection to Caesar, whom their sins had set over them, He had to ask for a penny to be shown Him. We do not know that the Lord ever possessed a fraction. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” It was no use therefore for this man to follow Him in hopes of gaining by it. What now could be gained there by it on earth, but a share of His rejection? “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
But now comes another case, considerably different, where the Lord takes the initiative.
“He said unto another, Follow me.” The flesh, so bold in its offers to go after. Jesus, is really slow to follow when He calls; as this man, though called, instantly feels the difficulties, and says, “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.” You find this in true believers. When a person has Christianity before his mind as a theory, all seems easy. He thinks he can do anything. Ordinarily, where the faith is genuine, difficulties are felt; and this man pleads the very first of all human duties. What would seem not only reasonable, but so incumbent on him, as first to go and bury his father? Did not the law command the child to honor father and mother? To be sure; but One was there greater than the law. The God who gave the law was calling, and if He says Follow me, faith gives up everything, even be it father, or mother, or wife, or children, for Christ's sake. Persons must come to this sooner or later; generally, in the long run, every one who thoroughly follows Christ. It is not felt at every moment; but the principle of Christianity is the sovereign 'call of God in Christ that takes one clean out of the world. Whilst still in the world one belongs to another—absolutely and only to Christ to do the will of God. Hence all natural ties must be in comparison like the green withs with which Samson was bound, and which were no more than tow before his all-overcoming strength. The most intimate of natural ties are after all but of flesh; whereas flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The link with Christ is of the Spirit; and the Spirit is mightier than the flesh. Therefore, whatever might be the claim of a dead father, or of what was due to the feelings of a Jew—for the Jew regarded him that did not bury his father with suitable care and affection as lost to all that was proper and as unworthy of any association with them; yet if the distinct person and call of Christ comes in at that moment, surely He must be followed.
This was a test; Christ knew all and not without moral motive had called him at that point precisely rather than any other; and the. question for him was whether Christ was more to his soul than any one or thing in the world besides. Was it really so, that standing well with the Jews and with his family was of more consequence to him than Christ, than heaven or hell, than eternity itself? This man may have honestly desired to follow Christ, yet he pleads for a delay on the road. But the Lord's answer to him is “Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God” —a perplexing answer to a person whose eye was not single. Thus the Lord tries faith. He does not put things in the simplest possible form to faith or to unbelief; above all, where there is something allowed that hinders. The Lord will be inquired of. So He says here, “Let the dead bury their dead” —that is, let the dead spiritually bury their natural dead— “but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” It was not only that this man was called to follow Jesus, but to be a witness for Him, to be a proclaimer of God's kingdom. How could it fare with others, if there was not faith in him to give up all for Christ? One of the reasons why there is so little power in the testimony of Christ is because there is so little faith in those who testify it. Mohammedans, &c., constantly tax Christian missionaries with this. “You profess to have a revelation from God in the Bible; but you yourselves evidently do not act according to that book. How can you seriously ask us to believe? How can we think that you believe it? We believe our books, and if we accept loyally the Koran, with its system of prayers and ablutions, we follow it. We scrupulously conform to the prescriptions of the prophet. You affirm that Christ preached the sermon on the mount for instance. Yet you constantly get out of the difficulty of not following it by the plea that the times are changed. We stick to the Koran every day and at all costs. God is the unchangeable God, and He has a constant claim upon the faithful.” Thus one of the main obstacles to the conversion of other religionists is the way in which ministers of Christ expose themselves by their want of faith to the mockery of their adversaries. This increases the heart's unbelief, because for the most part professing Christendom does not even pretend to adhere inflexibly to scripture. They say that times have so altered that they can take only such parts as suit the present day. They think nothing of seeking the world and its glory and everything that will attract flesh. They think to draw some by this means and some by that; whereas the truth is, they are themselves drawn away by the world from the truth and will of God. To court the countenance of man, to seek what the world values, is practically to abandon Christianity for the will of man. It is the living mingling with the dead, instead of leaving the dead to bury their dead. The Lord's call must set aside every other.
The third case again differs somewhat. “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house.” There we have one who allows the amenities of life to be “first.” It was no such serious detention. It was merely to pay them ordinary courtesy. But the Lord insists upon the absolute renunciation of every hindrance. “No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” If Christianity is anything, it is and must be everything. It admits of no rivals and of no delays. It could not be the kingdom of the true God if it tolerated the turning aside of His servants forever so little. Christ is the first and the last, and must be all to the heart or He becomes nothing through the wiles of the devil.