Following Jesus, if it is done properly, is not a whim or personal preference.  It is a conscious decision to obey the call of Christ (Luke 5:27-28).  Today's passage is the second of three encounters recorded between Jesus and would-be disciples.  Jesus issues this man with the call to follow Him.  It is quite clear: the Greek puts it in the present tense, the active voice and the imperative mood.  In other words, 'you must do it and do it now'!  But the man's response showed he did not see it as an instruction for that moment, he saw no urgency in Christ's command, and he put up an excuse to avoid taking the action Jesus commanded.

The expression, "...bury my father", probably did not mean his father had died, but that he would consider the call to discipleship when his father was dead.  By that time, he would then have received his share of the inheritance and fulfilled all that was expected of him as a son in the family.  He might have been seen as a responsible family man.  But he was disobedient to Jesus.  Like Lot’s wife, he looked back at the life he feared losing, instead of looking forward to new life in Christ (Luke 17:32-33).

Jesus' response seems quite cutting.  He was saying that those who had no interest in obeying God's call (the spiritually dead) had no higher authority than the demands of family. But those who recognised the privilege of being in God's family would set His priorities as their own, even when it means that the family comes in second place as in Luke 14:26.  Although the normal pattern of godly life is to honour parents (Ephesians 6:1-3) and provide for families (1 Timothy 3:2-5), God has the right to take first place.  If it is like that in the conscription of soldiers when a country is at war, so much more when our Master instructs us to move from our comfort zone.

Family relationships are God designed and should be very precious.  But nothing can be more precious than accepting and obeying God's call.  However much a relationship is special, it must never be more important than our relationship with the God who made us and the Saviour who died for us.  His call on our lives, to proclaim the supremacy of His kingdom and His grace, is the primary priority.  The Lord does not want us to dishonour our family, but when we use them as an excuse to disobey our heavenly Father, we dishonour both Him and His calling of us (Matthew 15:3-6).  Yet Mark 10:29-30 tells us that those who obey the call will find that God blesses them in a greater way than they could ever have experienced in the way of the world.