Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

604
Luke IX. 57-60.
Ver. 57, 58.—The address aKoXovdrjao) aot onov dv dnepxr], I wiU
folloio thee luherever thou goest, i^lainly implies a certain conscious-
ness already of the difficulties involved in being the companion of
Jesus. The "wherever thou goest" cannot refer merely to the
change of locality, but denotes dangers, for example those attending
the journeys of Jesus to the feasts, in which every one acquainted
with the circumstances (and that this well-disposed scribe was ac-
quainted with them we must believe), must have seen peril both
for the Saviour and those about him. The words then are akin to
the exclamation of Thomas, ayw/iev koi rjixelg Iva dnoddvcofxev [jlet'
avTov (John xi. 16), and with Peter's declaration, Matth. xxvi. 35,
inasmuch as both these declarations, like that of the scribe before us,
came from the natural man, who, failing to weigh the greatness of
the self-denial required, quickly starts upon the path, but soon falls.
According to the connexion, the term "follow" refers primarily to
an external companionship, but it also involves at the same time a
spiritual following, i. e., the choice of that path of life which Christ
opened, a walk in righteousness and truth, and consequently a contest
undertaken with unrighteousness and falsehood. The Lord
acknowledging, indeed, the good intentions of the suppliant, but
perceiving his weakness, sets before him in the strongest terms the
difficulty of following him. The want of necessaries, which are
provided by the Creator even for the lower animals, of personal
property and the shelter of a roof, must be encountered in following
the Son of man, (^o)Xe6g occurs only in this passage. Hesychius
explains it as roTrog ov rd drjpia Koifidrai.—KaTaaKrjvuoig = l^aa.)
The j)roper sense of ovk tx^cv ttov ri]v /ce0a/l?)v kXiveiv^ not having
ivhere to lay Ms head, is that of the entire renunciation of everything
which man can call his own, which was exhibited even externally in
the life of the Saviour, but which is to be spiritually repeated in the
life of all his followers, as we are taught at 1 Cor. vii. 29, seq. Although
it is not expressly recorded what effect this admonition of
Jesus produced, yet from the following narratives we may infer that
probably it had deterred the scribe. The remarks of the two per-
sons whom Jesus asked to follow him lead us to conjecture that they
could not as yet resolve to abandon everything in order to embrace
Christ, for the necessity of so doing is brought forward as the main
idea of the short narrative. (See on Matth. xix. 27.)
Ver. 59, 60.—As in the preceding case, the scribe had volun-
teered to follow the Saviour, Jesus in this instance himself gives
the invitation to do so. While the former, however, was deterred by
difficulties, the latter were apparently held back by sacred duties.
The truth of greatest prominence to be drawn from the following
narrative, and to which most importance should be given, is this,
that not merely sins and crimes (which call first for forgiveness