What does Matthew 8:22 mean by "let the dead bury their own dead"

[Chad]

What does Matthew 8:22 mean by "let the dead bury their own dead"?

In Matthew:8:22 Jesus said, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." He was responding to a request from one of His followers who asked to be excused from his responsibilities to "go and bury [his] father" (verse 21).

Does this scripture mean that we should not bury our loved ones? What is the spiritual implication of this verse?

It might seem that he was asking to make funeral arrangements for his recently deceased father. However, he was actually asking Christ to excuse him from his spiritual responsibilities, so that he could return to live with his aging father until after his father died. Of course, that could mean the disciple would be gone for a long time. It seems he was skirting his spiritual calling and wanted Christ to give His blessing to this action.

Instead, Christ told him to focus on his calling. A better sense of Jesus' statement would be, "Don't neglect the high spiritual calling I've given you; let the spiritually dead attend to the routine tasks of life." Certainly, Christ would not forbid the man from attending to the funeral arrangements for his father. Christ Himself went to visit the family of His friend Lazarus after Lazarus' death—even at great risk of His life (John:11:1-16).
God wants us to care for the needs of our families (Mark:7:10-13; 1 Timothy:5:8), but not to neglect our spiritual calling in the process.

What does Matthew 8:22 mean by "let the dead bury their own dead"? - Bible FAQ | United Church of God

 

[RJ]

What does Matthew 8:22 mean by "let the dead bury their own dead"?

Does this scripture mean that we should not bury our loved ones? What is the spiritual implication of this verse?
In Matthew:8:22 Jesus said, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." He was responding to a request from one of His followers who asked to be excused from his responsibilities to "go and bury [his] father" (verse 21).
It might seem that he was asking to make funeral arrangements for his recently deceased father. However, he was actually asking Christ to excuse him from his spiritual responsibilities, so that he could return to live with his aging father until after his father died. Of course, that could mean the disciple would be gone for a long time. It seems he was skirting his spiritual calling and wanted Christ to give His blessing to this action.

Instead, Christ told him to focus on his calling. A better sense of Jesus' statement would be, "Don't neglect the high spiritual calling I've given you; let the spiritually dead attend to the routine tasks of life." Certainly, Christ would not forbid the man from attending to the funeral arrangements for his father. Christ Himself went to visit the family of His friend Lazarus after Lazarus' death—even at great risk of His life (John:11:1-16).
God wants us to care for the needs of our families (Mark:7:10-13; 1 Timothy:5:8), but not to neglect our spiritual calling in the process.

What does Matthew 8:22 mean by "let the dead bury their own dead"? - Bible FAQ | United Church of God

I agree.
Jesus said he did not come to condem but to save. One of our hardest tasks is to put God ahead of our own interests, including family.
Of course, Jesus had compassion for the disciple's father. It is important to remember, at this time, Jesus was still under the Old Covenant and would have supported the customs dealing with this situation. I can imagine Jesus probably told the disciple latter to go take care of his father and catch up with us latter.

It could have been Jesus was intent on the task at hand, "The Fisher Of Men" and was just saying to leve the dead to themsleves and we need to focus on the living and God's work. Say that, in verse 22, I think Jesus was speaking metaphorically: The dead have had their chance or time and, we are about saving the living, so let the dead take care of themselves, it is the living that need our help.

 

[HisFollower]

Let the dead spiritually bury the dead corporally; let worldly offices be left to worldly people; do not you encumber yourself with them. Burying the dead, and especially a dead father, is a good work, but it is not your work at this time: it may be done as well by others, that are not called and qualified, as you are, to be employed for Christ; you have something else to do, and must not defer that.” Note, Piety to God must be preferred before piety to parents, though that is a great and needful part of our religion. The Nazarites, under the law, were not to mourn for their own parents, because they were holy to the Lord (Num 6:6-8); nor was the high priest to defile himself for the dead, no, not for his own father, (Lev 21:11, Lev 21:12). And Christ requires of those who would follow him, that they hate father and mother (Luk 14:26); love them less than God; we must comparatively neglect and disesteem our nearest relations, when they come in competition with Christ, in either our doing for him, or our suffering for him.

 

[clark thompson]

We should not let the things of this world keep us from following the Lord.

 

[amadeus2]

Before any of us had Jesus, we were dead. We were of the world and all of those still of the world are dead. That comes from the sin of Adam and Eve. They and their offspring were all dead without the renewal of the Holy Spirit. Once we have Life, the Life which Jesus is, then we must always pursue first things first. The first things can never be the things of even those unsaved ones we care about...

"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Matt 10:37

So then "... Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead." Matt 8:22

"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." John 11:26

Are we alive now with no death to face or are like too many today among the walking dead?