Luke 9:60 Did Jesus actually encourage the man to bury his Father?

Question

Why, in Luke's account does Jesus specifically tell the disciple to go after he requests to go and bury his father?

In Matthew's account, Jesus responds to the request of the man to bury his father by instructing the disciple to follow him:

Matthew 8:21-22
21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

However, in the Luke account things are a little different:

Luke 9:59-60 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Here, the instruction to follow Jesus occurs before the man requests to go and bury his father. After this request, Jesus says the famous line about burying the dead and then tells the man he previously told to follow him, instead to go, or depart, in response to hearing his request to bury his father.

Does the Luke account reveal that Jesus actually permitted the disciple to depart and bury his father on the condition that he proclaims the gospel of the kingdom of God?

Otherwise, why, in context, would Jesus tell the man he just instructed to follow him to depart?

Answer 1

No contradiction: One should not take the verb “go” separately, but with the adjacent place+purpose, thus it is not here a simple predicate but a composite predicate to the effect that “go and proclaim Kingdom”=“go next to Me” for only by this going next to me, i.e. by following Me, you will be seen as proclaiming the Kingdom along with other My followers.

That is to say “going proclaiming Kingdom” is to go to other direction from that aimed at by those who are about to bury his father.

Answer 2

Luke 9:

60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Smith's Bible Commentary:

And Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their dead: but you go and preach the kingdom of God (Luke 9:60 ).

You say, "Wow, how cold and insensitive Jesus must have been. Wouldn't even allow this fellow to go and attend his father's funeral. Why anybody lets you off work to attend your dad's funeral." But that phrase, "Allow me first to bury my father," is an interesting phrase of procrastination. It doesn't mean that your father is dead. It is a phrase that they still use to the present day, that says, I want to stick around home for a while. I want to wait till my father dies, and then I'll come. And it didn't mean that his father was dead and was ready to be buried, because they always buried people within two hours after they were dead. So when he says, "Allow me first to bury my father," he is saying, "Maybe down the road a ways, I've got a few things I want to do first, and down the road a ways maybe I'll do it. Me first."

Barclay's Daily Study Bible:

Jesus' words to the second man sound harsh, but they need not be so. In all probability the man's father was not dead, and not even nearly dead. His saying most likely meant, "I will follow you after my father has died." An English official in the East tells of a very brilliant young Arab who was offered a scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge. His answer was, "I will take it after I have buried my father." At the time his father was not much more than forty years of age.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible expressed a similar sentiment.

Answer 3

In both Matt 8:21, 22 and Luke 9:59, 60, Jesus is using "dead" in two senses: one metaphorical/spiritual and one literal. The literal sense is obvious, but the metaphorical sense is also used in a number of places in the NT such as:

• Eph 2:1 - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
• Eph 2:5 - made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
• Eph 5:14 - So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
• Col 2:13 - When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,
• Col 8:10 - But if Christ is in you, the body is indeed dead on account of sin, but the Spirit is life on account of righteousness.

Thus, when Jesus says, "let the dead bury the dead", He is effectively saying to the potential disciple something like, "let those spiritually dead bury the literally dead; but you are not spiritually dead, come and work with/for me".

Thus, Jesus discouraged the man from burying his father but suggested that other should do it.

The "command to "Go"

While the verbs used in both Luke 9:60 and Matt 28:19 are translated "go", neither is imperative; that is, neither is a command. Indeed, they are different verbs in both cases:

• Matt 28:19 - πορευθέντες = having gone, aorist
• Luke 9:60 - ἀπελθὼν = having gone forth, aorist