What Does Jesus Mean When He Says, 'Let The Dead Bury Their Own Dead'?

'Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go,' said a would-be disciple of Jesus to him as they were walking along the road. The story's told in Matthew 8:18-22 and it's a good offer, you'd think. But Jesus discourages him: 'Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but I have nowhere,' he says. Someone else in this story also offers to follow him, but says, 'Let me first go and bury my father.' 'Let the dead bury their own dead,' says Jesus; 'You follow me.'

That seems harsh, until we realise that his father was probably still quite hale and hearty. The man was asking to be able to secure his inheritance by waiting until his father had died before following Jesus. He didn't want to risk poverty by offending him through leaving the family farm to follow this vagabond preacher, or by being cut out by other relatives. When his future was secure and he could follow Jesus without risk, he would do so. So when Jesus said, 'Let the dead bury their own dead,' he was saying that there was a choice to be made: following him would cost everything, but it led to life, whereas staying put led nowhere.

In today's world making life-long choices is deeply unfashionable. We don't have life-long careers. Fewer and fewer of us have life-long marriages. We don't even like to plan our diaries too far in advance because if we commit to something it means ruling out a better offer if one comes along.

But Jesus spoke of the importance of being absolutely committed to him, with no reservations and no turning back.

Extremism nowadays has a very bad press. Moderation is supposed to be better; a 'moderate Muslim,' for instance, is someone who speaks up against terrorism. But most Christians would be very offended to be called a moderate Christian; there's nothing moderate about being a disciple of Jesus. He calls us to follow him with everything we have and are.

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it vividly: 'When Jesus calls a man, he calls him to die.' We may not be called on to lose our lives for Christ, but we are all call to live them for him.