Matthew 8:20

Jesus saith unto him.

He rejects not this man's offer, nor refuses him the liberty to follow him, only he will have him know what he is doing and "count the cost." He will have him weigh well the real nature and the strength of his attachment, whether it be such as will abide in the day of trial. If so, he will be right welcome, for Christ puts none away; but it seems to be plain that in this case that had not been done. From the first he had held out no rewards, but predicted only privation and suffering to his disciples, but these were closer at hand than they had been when he called the Twelve. To follow him had come to mean, literally, to leave all, and to make up one's mind to the worst.

The Son of man.

It is the name by which the Lord ordinarily designates himself as the Messiah--the Son of God manifested in the flesh of Adam--the second Adam. And to it belonged all those conditions of humiliation, suffering, and exaltation, which it behooved the Son of man to go through.-- Alford.

Not where to lay his head.

Overdrawn portrayals of our Lord's poverty are always out of place, yet he who as the "Son of man" was "the crown of creation" did not possess what the humbler animals claim,. home.-- Schaff. Learn, hence, that such men will find themselves miserably mistaken, and greatly disappointed, who expect to gain anything by following of Christ but their soul's salvation. It was. common opinion among the Jews that the disciples of the Messiah should get wealth and honor by following him.