"Elijah passed by him [Elisha], and cast his mantle [succession of the office of prophet] upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss [the assurance of affection] my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee." To run after Elijah betrays the lack of reality. The oxen are still alive and waiting for his return to them. Elisha was acting like the young man in Mark 14:51,52 who turned back when he faced the cross and rejection. He had nothing beyond death.
For Elisha to return to kiss his father and mother (the old relationships) would show where his heart was. Double-mindedness will not do for entrance into the kingdom of God. "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife." The old must be abandoned for the new; there must be no attempt to mix the old and the new or there will be no fitness for the kingdom of God.
Elijah rebuked him, saying, "Go back again: for what have I done to thee?" If the old garment is to be retained, there is no use even starting with the new Fitness for the kingdom of God comes by having a new object (Christ) altogether. "Death and judgment are behind us, grace and glory are before." All of the past life must be put in the place of death, then the new life will thrive. This is the arrow that struck deep into the conscience of Elisha.
Barbed words may fasten where they fall, and stay, deep in the hearts of men, and never pass away. Whether one receives or rejects the rebuke, the message heard at that time, and it comes to all, will remain with them for all eternity, having either accepted or rejected the kingdom of God. How good for the believer to reminisce about that moment when darkness was turned to light, when eternal life was assured, when we forsook all for Christ.