But Jesus said unto him,
Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Read Chapter 8
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
It is clear that this day on which they went over the lake was another day, and not that which followed the one on which Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, on which day Mark and Luke relate that He went out into the desert.
Serm., 100, 1: Otherwise; “The Son of man hath not where to lay his head;” that is, in your faith. “The foxes have hole,” in your heart, because you are deceitful. “The birds of the air have nests,” in your heart, because you are proud. Deceitful and proud follow Me not; for how should guile follow sincerity?.
Quaest. in Matt., q. 5: He was moved to follow Christ because of the miracles; this vain desire of glory is signified by the birds; but he assumed the submissiveness of a disciple, which deceit is signified by the foxes. "Another of his disciples saith unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.”.
Serm., 100, 1: The Lord when He prepares men for the Gospel will not have any excuse of this fleshly and temporal attachment to interfere, therefore it ...
Let the dead bury their dead. The first words, let the dead, cannot mean those that were dead by a corporal death; and therefore must needs be understood of those who were spiritually dead in sin. (Witham)
Two similar answers are mentioned in Luke ix. 57, 60. Jesus Christ may have given the same answers on two different occasions. (Bible de Vence)
God will not suffer us to go and bury a deceased parent, when he calls us to other employments. (St. Chrysostom)
Mor., xix. 1: Otherwise; The fox is a crafty animal, lying hid in ditches and dens, and when it comes abroad never going in a straight path, but in crooked windings; birds raise themselves in the air. By the foxes then are meant the subtle and deceitful daemons, by the birds the proud daemons; as though He had said; Deceitful and proud daemons have their abode in your heart; but my lowliness finds no rest in a proud spirit.
Mor., iv, 27: The dead also bury the dead, when sinners protect sinners. They who exalt sinners with their praises, hide the dead under a pile of words.
The name “disciples” is not to be supposed to be confined to the twelve Apostles; for we read of many disciples besides the twelve.
Otherwise; This Scribe being one of the doctors of the Law, asks if he shall follow Him, as though it were not contained in the Law that this is He whom it were gain to follow. Therefore He discovers the feeling of unbelief under the diffidence of his enquiry. For the taking up of the faith is not by question but by following.
The disciple does not ask whether he shall follow Him; for he already believed that he ought to follow, but prays to be suffered first to bury his father.
Also, because we are taught in the beginning of the Lord’s prayer, first tosay, “Our Father, which art in heaven;” and since this disciple represents the believing people; he is here reminded that he has one only Father in heaven, and that between a believing son and an unbelieving father the filial relation does not hold good. We are also admonished that the unbelieving dead are n...
. Why do you seek to follow Me for the sake of the riches and gain of this world, when My poverty is such that I have neither lodging nor home of My own?.
In what one thing is this disciple like the Scribe? The one called Him Master, the other confesses Him as his Lord. The one from filial piety asks permission to go and bury his father; the other offers to follow, not seeking a master, but by means of his master seeking gain for himself.
But if the dead shall bury the dead, we ought not to be careful for the dead but for the living, lest while we are anxious for the dead, we ourselves should be counted dead.
Mark well the difference between the scribe who earlier had impudently blurted out, “I will follow you wherever you go” and the other one who was asking to do a sacred duty when he said, “Permit me first to go [bury my father].” Yet Jesus did not permit him, saying, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” In both cases, Jesus was paying attention strictly to their inward intention. But one may ask, “Why was the latter not permitted?” Because on the one hand, there were plenty of others who could fulfill that duty. The dead person was not going to remain actually unburied. On the other hand, it appears that it was not fit for this particular person to be taken away from the more urgent matters required of him. … Was it not then, one may ask, extreme ingratitude to be absent from the burial of one’s own father? If indeed he did so out of negligence, it would have been ingratitude. But his departure would not have been considered fitting if it required interrupting a more ...
Nothing else then do we learn hereby, but that we must not wantonly lose any, no not the smallest time, though there be ten thousand things to press on us; but to set what is spiritual before all, even the most indispensable matters, and to know both what is life, and what is death. Since many even of them that seem to live are nothing better than dead men, living as they do in wickedness; or rather these are worse than the dead; For he that is dead, it is said, is freed from sin, Romans 6:7 but this man is a slave to sin. For tell me not of this, that he is not eaten of worms, nor lies in a coffin, nor has closed his eyes, nor is bound in graveclothes. Nay, for these things he undergoes more grievously than the dead, no worms devouring him, but the passions of his soul tearing him to pieces more fiercely than wild beasts.
And if his eyes be open, this too again is far worse than having closed them. For those of the dead see no evil thing, but this man is gathering unto himself dise...
Observe that He does not dismiss the multitudes, that He may not offend them. He did say to them, Depart ye, but bade His disciples go away from thence, thus the crowds might hope to be able to follow.
Observe also how great his pride; approaching and speaking as though he disdained to be considered as one of the multitude; desiring to show that hewas above the rest.
So Christ answers him not so much to what he had said, but to the obvious purpose of his mind. “Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head;” asthough He had said;.
This was not to send him away, but rather to convict him of evil intentions; at the same time permitting him if he would to follow Christ with the expectation of poverty.
This saying does not condemn natural affection to our parents, but shows that nothing ought to be more binding on us than the business of heaven; that to this we ought to apply ourselves with all our endeavo...
Or; He did this as one desiring to shun the thronging of the multitude. But they hung upon Him in admiration, crowding to see Him. For who would depart from one who did such miracles? Who would not wish to look upon His open face, to see His mouth that spoke such things? For if Moses’ countenance was made glorious, and Stephen’s as that of an Angel, gather from this how it was to have been supposed that their common Lord must have then appeared; of whom the Prophet speaks, “Thy form is fair above the sons of men.” .
What happened between the command of the Lord given, and their crossing over, the Evangelist purposes to relate in what follows: “And one of the Scribes cameto him and said, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”
After one has given himself to God, he ought not to turn back to the things of this life. Indeed one must honor one’s parents; but God first. That this man’s father was an unbeliever is evident from Jesus’ words, "Let the dead," that is, the unbelievers, "bury their dead." If this man was not even permitted to bury his father, woe to those who after they have begun the monastic life turn back to worldly things!
