"Let the dead bury the dead"

When Jesus is about to cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee with his disciples, one of them says to him: “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus responds with a very well known but surprisingly harsh statement: “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Mt. 8:21-22)

Not surprisingly, this text from the anonymous gospel attributed by the early church to the disciple Matthew is almost never read in church. If asked to explain it, a Christian preacher or teacher is likely to describe the words attributed to Jesus, or spoken by him, not as criticism of observing rituals to bury deceased loved ones, but as an exaggeration intended to emphasize the importance of following Jesus.

I suggest, however, that the words attributed in this text to Jesus should be understood in the light of the Lord’s Prayer recorded in the gospel of Matthew, which affirms: “Our Father in heaven . . . Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven.” (Mt. 6:9-10) This prayerful appeal, known to every Christian, clearly affirms that “following Jesus” involves a faithful way of living with God now physically on earth, and also after death spiritually “in heaven.”

The gospel of Matthew uses the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” for the phrase “the kingdom of God” in the anonymous gospels attributed to the colleagues of the apostle Paul, Mark and Luke. In the earliest of these three gospels, Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and have faith in the gospel.” (Mk. 1:15)

In the gospel of Matthew, this declaration becomes: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Writing for Jewish readers, who out of respect for God do not utter God's name, the author of the gospel attributed to Matthew replaces the word God in Mk. 1:15  with the word heaven (Mt. 4:17). The kingdom of heaven (the kingdom of God) is a choice we may make. Following Jesus is choosing to do God’s will “on earth as in heaven.” (Mt. 6:10)

Deuteronomy 21:23 in the Torah requires that someone executed for a crime must be buried “that same day,” and rabbis interpreted this to mean that no corpse should "remain unburied overnight.” (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3842-burial) So, the disciple’s request to bury his father before following Jesus across the Sea of Galilee was his attempt to fulfill his duty according to the Law of Moses.

The reply of Jesus, therefore, seems to require his Jewish followers to ignore this duty under the Law of Moses, when fulfilling one's duty interferes with “following Jesus.”

In the light of the Lord’s Prayer, we also learn that “following Jesus” involves repenting to enter eternal life in “the kingdom of heaven” that is “on earth as in heaven." 

The image above is from the Coptic Christian Church, which dates to the first century.