Luke 9:59-60

2 d. Luke 9:59-60.

Luke says, another (individual); Matthew, another of His disciples.

The scribe had offered himself; this latter is addressed by Jesus. Luke alone indicates the contrast which the succeeding conversation explains. Here we have no more a man of impulse, presumptuous and without self-distrust. On the contrary, we have a character reflecting and wary even to excess. Jesus has more confidence in him than in the former; He stimulates instead of correcting him.

Could the answer which He gives him (Luke 9:60) be altogether justified in the situation which Matthew indicates, and if what was contemplated was only a short expedition, in which this man without inconvenience could have taken part? In the position indicated by Luke, the whole aspect of the matter changes. The Lord is setting out, not again to return; will he who remains behind at this decisive moment ever rejoin Him? There are critical periods in the moral life, when that which is not done at the moment will never be done. The Spirit blows; its action over, the ship will never succeed in getting out of port. But, it is said, to bury a father is a sacred duty; Jesus has no right to set aside such a duty. But there may be conflicting duties; the law itself provided for one, in cases analogous to that which is before us. The high priest and the Nazarites, or consecrated ones, were not to pollute themselves for the dead, were it even their father or mother (Leviticus 21:11; Num 6:6-7); that is to say, they could neither touch the body to pay it the last duties, nor enter the house where it lay (Num 19:14), nor take part in the funeral meal (Hos 9:4). All that Jesus does here is to apply the moral principle implicitly laid down by the law, to wit, that in case of conflict, spiritual duty takes precedence of the law of propriety. If his country be attacked, a citizen will leave his father's body to run to the frontier; if his own life be threatened, the most devoted son will take to flight, leaving to others the care of paying the last honours to his father's remains. Jesus calls upon this man to do for the life of his soul what every son would do for that of his body. It must be remembered that the pollution contracted by the presence of a dead body lasted seven days (Num 19:11-22). What would have happened to this man during these seven days? His impressions would have been chilled. Already Jesus saw him plunged anew in the tide of his ordinary life, lost to the kingdom of God. There was needed in this case a decision like that which Jesus had just taken Himself (Luke 9:51). ᾿Απελθών (strictly, from the spot) is opposed to every desire of delay; the higher mission, the spiritual Nazariteship, begins immediately. From the word dead, on the double meaning of which the answer of Jesus turns, there is suggested the judgment which He passed on human nature before its renewal by the gospel. This saying is parallel to that other, “ If ye who are evil...,” and to Paul's declaration, “ Ye were dead in your sins...” (Ephesians 2:1). The command, “ Preach the kingdom of God,” justifies, by the sublimity of the object, the sacrifice demanded. The διά in διάγγελλε indicates diffusion. The mission of the seventy disciples, which immediately follows, sets this command in its true light. Jesus had a place for this man to fill in that army of evangelists which He purposed to send before Him, and which at a later date was to labour in changing the aspect of the world. Everything in this scene is explained by the situation in which Luke places it.

Clement of Alexandria relates (Strom. 3.4) that the name of this man was Philip. In any case, it could not have been the apostle of that name who had long been following Jesus (John 6); but might it not be the deacon Philip, who afterwards played so important a part as deacon and evangelist in the primitive Church? If it is so, we can understand why Jesus did not allow such a prize to escape Him.