The gospel today was quite interesting to me. For those attending children at the time, we meet two men that desire to follow Jesus. One is rebuked for wanting to bury his father before becoming a disciple. The other is rebuked for wanting to wish his parents farewell. The first reading today is of Elisha being called by God. Elisha desires to wish his parents farewell. Elisha is allowed to so do so however, and having done so, he follows Elijah, although he does sacrifice his oxen. With “Here I Am Lord” still in my head, I don’t think I had difficulty understanding the message father was trying to impart this morning.
I however have a few questions myself. With a three-fold admonition, it is quite clear Jesus was communicated something here. Discipleship being hard could be that message, and the NAB footnotes confirm that interpretation. Along the lines of the discussions here at Vox Nova over genocide in the Bible, I suppose I could make the claim that burying the dead and honoring one’s parents isn’t as important as discipleship and be content. This would seem to be the wrong argument. There is that whole honor thy mother and thy father thing in the 10 commandments. One of the corporal works of mercy is to bury the dead. Neither of these has been interpreted as an impediment to discipleship. Then there is Christ’s admonition to the first: “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
It’s been quipped that a humanist is someone who loves the concept of humanity in principle. This seems like a similar thing. How are we to understand discipleship absent the care of the dead and following the 10 commandments? Sure one could argue being with Christ is more important, but then the whole Sermon on the Mount doesn’t make near as much sense, because there are a lot of places we find Christ, even today, and I don’t think anyone would claim we don’t find Him in caring for the dead. Unfortunately, you aren’t going to find any clearcut answers from me, because I’m considering the matter as I type it, lacking theological training. Plowing ahead however, the reply to third, “[No one who] (paraphrase edit-mz) looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God,” seems to almost parallel the warning the Lord gave before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps the Lord had already rendered judgment on the men’s families, as would be suggested in his admonition to the second man, “Let the dead bury their dead.”
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