John Calvin Commentary Matthew 8:21

"And another of the disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." — Matthew 8:21 (ASV)

Lord, permit me to go first and bury my father. We have said that the scribe was rejected by Christ as a follower because he made his offer without consideration and imagined that he would enjoy an easy life. The person whom Christ, in this case, did not dismiss had an opposite fault. He was hindered from immediately obeying Christ's call by his reluctance, as he considered it a hardship to leave his father.

It is probable that his father was in extreme old age, for the phrasing, Permit me to bury, implies that he had only a short time to live. Luke says that Christ ordered him to follow; while Matthew says that he was one of his disciples. But he does not refuse the call: he only asks permission for a time to fulfill a duty which he owes to his father.⁵⁰⁶

The excuse indicates that he regarded himself as free until his father’s death. From Christ’s reply we learn that children should fulfill their duty to their parents in such a way that, whenever God calls them to another employment, they should set this aside and give God's command the first place.

Whatever duties we owe to people must give way when God requires of us what is directly owed to Him. Everyone should consider what God requires from them as individuals, and what is demanded by their particular calling, so that earthly parents do not prevent the claims of the highest and only Father of all from remaining fully intact.

⁵⁰⁶ “Jusque a ce qu'il se soit acquitte envers son pere du devoir que nature commande;” — “until he has discharged that duty to his father which nature requires.”;” — “until he has discharged that duty to his father which nature requires.”