Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
'Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but asfor you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God' (Luke 9:60)
These words belong to the second in the group of three incidents in which Jesus impresses on potential followers the absolute priority of the claims of the kingdom of God over everything else. Here he calls on a man to come along with him as his disciple. The man is not unwilling, but says, `let me first go and bury my father'. A reasonable request, one might have thought: burial took place very soon after death, so, if his father had just died, he would probably be buried the same day. The man would then be free to follow Jesus. If he was the eldest son, it was his responsibility to see to his father's burial. It may be, however, that he meant, 'Let me stay at home until my father dies; when I have buried him, I shall be free of family obligations, and then I will come and follow you.' This is not the most natural way to take his words, although it makes Jesus's response less peremptory. But an interpretation which makes Jesus's demands less peremptory than they seem to be at first blush is probably to be rejected for that very reason. His demands were peremptory.
Who then are `the dead' who are to be left to bury the dead? One suggestion is that Jesus's Aramaic words have been mistranslated into Greek - that he actually meant, `Leave the dead to the burier of the dead.' That is to say, there are people whose professional work it is to bury the dead; they can be left to look after this business, but there is more important work for you to do. But this again detracts from the rigorous peremptoriness of Jesus's words. They are best taken to mean, `Leave the (spiritually) dead to bury the (physically) dead' - there are people who are quite insensitive to the claims of the kingdom of God, and they can deal with routine matters like the burial of the dead, but those who are alive to its claims must give them the first place. T. W. Manson thought that Jesus's reply was a vivid way of saying, `That business must look after itself; you have more important work to do."
The burial even of dead strangers was regarded as a highly meritorious work of piety in Judaism; how much more the burial of one's own kith and kin! Attendance to the duty of burying one's parents was held to be implied in the fifth commandment: `Honour your father and mother.' It took precedence over the most solemn religious obligations. But so important in Jesus's eyes was the business of following him and promoting the kingdom of God that it took precedence even over the burial of the dead.
The added words in Luke 9:60, `but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God', are absent from the parallel in Matthew 8:22. The proclamation that the kingdom of God had drawn near was part of the charge which Jesus laid on his disciples (Luke 9:2; 10:9). The direct sense of his injunction to this man is related to the circumstances of his Galilean ministry, but it retained its relevance after his death and resurrection, and a situation may arise in which it proves still to be strikingly relevant.
John McNeill, a well-known Scottish preacher of a past generation, used to tell how he found this saying directly relevant to him. When his father died in Scotland, towards the end of the nineteenth century, he was in the English Midlands, and was advertised to address an evangelistic meeting in a certain city on the very day of his father's funeral. People would have understood had he sent a message to say that he was compelled to cancel his engagement. `But I dared not send it,' he said, `for this same Jesus stood by me, and seemed to say, "Now, look, I have you. You go and preach the gospel to those people. Whether would you rather bury the dead or raise the dead?" And I went to preach.'2