Matthew 8:21

21. Another of his disciples It may be more intelligibly rendered: “Another, being, one of his disciples.” Tradition says it was Philip. It is clear he was one of the twelve, for our Lord does not excuse him at his request. Nothing but the apparent solemn duty which formed the reason for the request justified the making it, for in the instance added by Luke a slight reason offered was ground of reproof and rejection.

Bury my father Who is aged, and needs my care until he goes down to the grave. Alas! before he dies and the burial is accomplished, the Son of man will have finished his ministry, and thou wilt have lost thy apostleship.

But most commentators understand that the father lies already a corpse, and the disciple asks a dispensation from duty to go and bury him. With this interpretation there is a deep rigour in our Lord’s words. He must then be understood to declare that a higher duty is pressing upon him than even the burying his dead father. The Gospel is more than the paternal corpse. Other relatives may perform that task, on whom rests no higher duty. And perhaps our Lord recognized that if this disciple went, there was danger that he would soon be numbered with the morally dead who were burying the corporeally dead. Our Lord may have perceived a worldliness in his heart and in his request that would have involved him in danger. The tenderest ties are often the conductors of temptation. The man who is willing to delay his obedience to God’s call, may find in his delay the snare that will involve him in ruin.