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„Laß die Toten ihre Toten begraben“ (Q 9,60) Das Motiv der Zögerung in der Nachfolge Jesu

Summary: The motive for the proposed delay in following Jesus is, in the Synoptic tradition, taken over from the Elijah and Elisha cycle (See 1 Kings 19,19-21). This article will bring out just how the message is conveyed – in the Q Source and the Gospels of Luke and Matthew – that Jesus’s call does not allow for hesitation, because the very urgency of this call excludes every possible attempt to justify it, even should there be an otherwise compelling reason to delay, such as burying one’s parents (See Luke 9,59; Matthew 8,21). The demand for such “unnatural” behaviour as disregarding the duty to one’s departed parents, powerfully brings into focus that not even the most important of merely this-worldly obligations can be allowed to stand in the way when it is a matter of following Jesus and proclaiming the Kingdom of God.