And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.
Read Chapter 8
John Chrysostom
AD 407
He does not openly convict those who were up to mischief. He replies to their secret thoughts, leaving it to themselves only to know they are convicted. … These were not the words of one who was turning his back on the scribe but rather of one who was making clear to the scribe his own proud disposition, even while yet permitting him, if he were willing to proceed, to follow him. After the scribe had heard Jesus’ convicting response and had been proven to be wholly unready for it, he did not then proceed to say, “I am ready to follow you.” Similarly there are many other places where Christ made this sort of subtle response. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
And the multitudes for their part evinced this great love, and were following with much affection; but some one person, a slave of wealth, and possessed with much arrogance, approaches Him.
Do you see how great his arrogance? For as not deigning to be numbered with the multitude, and indicating that he is above the common sort, so he comes near. Because such is the Jewish character; full of unseasonable confidence. So too another afterwards, when all men were keeping silence, of his own accord springs up, and says, Which is the first commandment?
Yet nevertheless the Lord rebuked not his unseasonable confidence, teaching us to bear even with such as these. Therefore He does not openly convict them who are devising mischief, but replies to their secret thought, leaving it to themselves only to know that they are convicted, and doubly doing them good, first by showing that He knows what is in their conscience, next by granting unto them concealment after this manifestation, and all...
The scribe’s declaration is prompt indeed, but proud. The Lord was on his way toward his final suffering, descent into hell and ascent into heaven. Is human frailty really prepared to follow him “wherever he goes”? This is more a foolish presumption than a confession of faith. Later the Lord would say to the apostle Peter, when he thought that he would follow the Savior in every circumstance: “Where I am going you are not able to follow me now.” And when Peter obstinately insisted and said that death would not separate him from [Jesus], he heard that he would deny the Lord three times. In this he was censured, as it were, for his pride. Thus the one who promised, while confessing Christ, that he would not be separated from him by death is cut off from fellowship with him by a little maidservant’s question.
