Luke 9:57-58 NIV
[57] “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
[58] Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

If we know anything about Jesus, this is a cryptic statement of fact, not a plea of poverty as some interpret it. Taken literally, Jesus sounds as though He is looking for sympathy. “Poor me! I’m so poor that I don’t even have my own bed!”
Is this really Jesus talking? Did He ever look for sympathy? Consider these words on His way to the cross …

Luke 23:27-31 NIV
[27] “A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. [28] Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. [29] For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ [30] Then “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ [31] For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

If Jesus was not crying poverty when some man wanted to become part of His disciple group, what was He saying?

Let’s look at the bigger picture. Jesus came to earth to represent the Father. As His son, it was Jesus’ role to carry out His Father’s business, to establish His kingdom on earth, to do His will as it is done in heaven.

Through His death and resurrection, Jesus would build His church to carry on the Father’s kingdom work when He returned to the Father. How would He do that? By joining people to Himself and to one another, He would build His church, His body, to continue His work by representing His kingdom on earth.

Jesus is head of His body, the church, but the church only came into being at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to fill the believers with His presence and power.

When Jesus spoke to the man who wanted to join the disciples, as head of His church-to-be, His body had not yet come into existence. He was the head but He had no body.

So, correctly understood, He told the would-be disciple,

“Since I have not yet died and risen again, I do not have a body upon which to lay my head.”

Jesus was training the Twelve to be the spearhead of His enterprise to establish God’s kingdom on earth, hence He focused on them to prepare them for their massive task when He was no longer with them. He chose them and spent time training them to do what He was doing. He could not allow others to join them until His training was complete.

Jesus was not, on fact, rejecting the man’ request. He was delaying his desire to be a part of Jesus’ band of followers until the time came when he could become a member of the body of which Jesus is the head.