Verse 18 says, “Now when Jesus saw great crowds around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side.” In His ministry, as recorded in the four Gospels, the Lord always withdrew from the crowds. He did not want the curious ones to be with Him. He did not care for great crowds, but only for the sincere seekers after Himself.
In verses 18 through 22 we see the way to follow the heavenly King. The way is revealed through the cases of two who came to the King. The first, a scribe, said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” In saying this, he did not consider the cost. Hence, the King answered in verse 20 in a way to cause him to consider the cost.
In verse 20 the Lord said to the scribe who wanted to follow Him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have roosts, but the Son of Man has nowhere that He may lay His head.” Here the Lord referred to Himself as the Son of Man. The new King in His kingly ministry continually took the standing of the Son of Man until 16:13-17. The King of the kingdom did not even have a resting place, as the foxes and birds do. This proves that the kingdom which He was establishing was not material in the earthly nature, but spiritual in the heavenly nature. The Lord seemed to be saying to the scribe, “Do you intend to follow Me? You have underestimated the price. You, a scribe, a learned one with a high rank in society, must realize that I am nothing and that I have nothing. I have even less than the birds and the foxes, for I have nowhere to lay My head.” I believe that the scribe was disappointed and that he did not follow Him. The principle of following the Lord is the same today. We must consider the price. In following this King, there is no material enjoyment.
Verse 21 says, “And another of the disciples said to Him, Lord, permit me first to go away and bury my father.” In saying this, this disciple, who was not a scribe, overly considered the cost of following the King of the heavenly kingdom. This disciple, apparently warned by the first case, overestimated the cost. He seemed to be saying to the Lord, “I will follow You, but I have a dead father. Let me first go back to bury him, and then I will come back to follow You.”
Because this disciple overestimated the cost of following the King, He answered him in the way of encouraging him to follow Him and drop his consideration of the cost, leaving the burial of his father to others. The Lord said, “Follow Me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” How wonderful the Lord Jesus is! He purposely disappointed the first and deliberately encouraged the second. The Lord was very wise in dealing with people. If I had been the Lord Jesus, I would have been excited to hear that a scribe wanted to follow me, and I would have encouraged him to do so. The Lord, however, was cool toward him and did not encourage him at all. Rather, He seemed to say, “Will you follow Me? You have a nice bed, a comfortable place to lay your head. But if you come to follow Me, you will not have a place to lay your head. I have even less than the birds and the foxes do.” Thus, He discouraged this person of high rank. But to the disciple who had been warned by this case not to follow the Lord in a light or loose way, the Lord gave a word of encouragement. The Lord’s word encouraged him to forget about all the preparations he was making, to leave the dead to bury the dead, and to follow Him.
By these two cases we see that it is not easy to contact people. How would you deal with these two if they came to you today? Probably you would accept both of them. However, the Lord differentiated between them, discouraging the one and encouraging the other.
In these two cases we see the way to follow the heavenly King. First, as we follow Him, we should not expect to have any material enjoyment. Second, in order to follow Him, we must ignore the requirements of the dead. The Lord told the disciple to “leave the dead to bury their own dead.” The first dead refers to the people who are spiritually dead, as mentioned in Ephesians 2:1, 5; the second refers to the physically dead father of the disciple. Eventually, the spiritually dead will fulfill the duty of burying the physically dead. Through experience we have learned that we should not go back to fulfill the duty for the dead. Let the dead perform these duties on behalf of the dead. We are the living ones and we must go on to follow the King. But do not expect any material enjoyment, for you may have no nest, no roost, no place to lay your head. If you do not expect any material enjoyment and if you will leave the dead duties to the dead, you can go on to follow Him.