Jesus wants the scribe to know the full cost of following Jesus, to be willing to, like him, have no place to call home. As well, Jesus is about to take an immediate journey across the sea, and a much greater journey to the cross, to which no one can follow him. The scribe’s response is not important here—only Jesus’ revelation of his task (as a despised One) and his solitary path toward our redemption.
The scribe, despite his clear confession, is immediately confronted by Jesus with the consequences thereof (see Luke 14:25–33). To follow him means sharing in all the challenges, concerns, and temptations. Jesus has no home and finds no place in the world to lay down his head and rest, and those who follow him need to be willing to share the same fate.1
Jesus’ statement also needs to be understood in the context of his imminent departure to an unknown destination, and it is obvious that the goal of his journey serves as the point of reference here. He does not make his home here on earth. He is the Son of Man, and the Son of Adam must wander outside paradise on his journey to death as the punishment for the sins of the people. The task of the last Adam is to die without a place to rest, and in the end he indeed did not even have his own grave, but was laid down in the grave of another. What Jesus here conveys to the scribe is that it is impossible for him to follow Jesus to his end goal. That end goal lies beyond this life, beyond this earth upon which people make their home in houses or palaces. The true goal lies on the other side of the sea; it lies on the other side of the river of death. Jesus will have to leave more than the large crowds behind. He will also have to leave his disciples behind in Gethsemane.2
While our Saviour does not alienate the scribe here, he also does not encourage him either. It is interesting that we read nothing of the scribe’s response here, for it is not important. What is important here, is that which Jesus teaches us concerning his character and his work.3
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”