Flashback Episode — Burying the Dead: Matthew 8:18-22

When reading the gospels, one might get the mistaken impression that everyone who Jesus invited to follow Him dropped everything they were previously doing to follow. While dropping everything to follow Jesus appears to be the case in a number of instances, within the few verses of the passage we are focusing in on, we discover that not everyone invited has an easy decision.

In many cases, as well as in my own life, the decision to follow Jesus involves giving certain things up from within this life. While I don’t believe God asks us to give up things of value in this life without offering us something greater in the future, too often, we find ourselves believing that following God isn’t worth it, or following Jesus is too difficult.

While it is easy to think about our own struggle with choosing to follow Jesus, it is surprising to discover that those in the first century also faced this dilemma.

Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 8, and we’ll be reading it using the Good News Translation: Starting in verse 18, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁸ When Jesus noticed the crowd around him, he ordered his disciples to go to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ A teacher of the Law came to him. “Teacher,” he said, “I am ready to go with you wherever you go.”

²⁰ Jesus answered him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.”

²¹ Another man, who was a disciple, said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.”

²² “Follow me,” Jesus answered, “and let the dead bury their own dead.”

What amazes me about the event in this passage is one detail that is often missed.

Usually, when we read this event, we think all the people who faced tension on whether to follow Jesus rejected the invitation. I suspect this is because in the most notable case, the rich, young ruler leaves sorrowfully, even if his question isn’t directly about following Jesus. However, in the case of the verses we just read, there isn’t any clear distinction about what each man chose.

That is, except for one overlooked clue that only Matthew includes. Verse 21 begins with the words, “Another man, who was a disciple, said . . .”

Now in the first century, the word disciple was common and many rabbis and teachers had followers called disciples, but when we read the four gospels of the New Testament, the authors seem to reserve this descriptive term for those who were followers of Jesus.

In Matthew’s gospel, I think we are able to see a subtle clue that this was the unassuming call of one of the less famous disciples. This man took Jesus’ words to heart and chose to follow Him and let the dead bury themselves.

Some scholars say that this disciple’s request was not about simply attending an event that lowered a corpse into the ground, but a request that was asking if Jesus would be okay with him delaying accepting Jesus’ invitation until his father, who may have been old or on his deathbed, had died.

While I can understand the logic that these scholars use to reach their conclusion, I doubt this was the case in this instance. However, regardless of how long the disciple would have delayed accepting his invitation, I actually fully agree with the conclusion these scholars reach.

In His response, Jesus bluntly tells the man to get off the fence and make a decision on whether to follow Him, and because Matthew opens this man’s invitation by calling him a disciple, I logically conclude that this man accepted Jesus’ invitation, and followed Him from that point forward.

In a similar way, the invitation Jesus gives this unnamed disciple is the invitation that He gives to each one of us.

It is crucial that we don’t let anyone or anything delay us making the choice to accept Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. Our next moments are not 100% guaranteed, and while we are able to make the decision right now, this will not always be the case in the future.

While choosing to follow Jesus will redirect the focus of your life, this choice is not one that causes you to miss anything truly significant. Even though the temptation is to feel as though following Jesus means you will give up many things, almost everything we are called to give up can be categorized as something not really worthwhile. In the rare instance that we do give up something significant to follow Jesus, He promises us exponentially more and better things in return.

In other words, by focusing on Jesus, you will miss out on some things, but as I have learned, the things that are missed probably should be missed or skipped since they weren’t really beneficial for your life as a whole.

God wants the best life possible for us, both today and in the future, and the only things He wants us to miss or skip out on are the things that cheapen our lives, our relationships, and our value in God’s eyes.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you haven’t chosen to live for Jesus yet, choose to do so today. At the very least, try living for Jesus for a few months or years. If you really don’t see the benefits after testing it out for yourself, nothing is stopping you from leaving. Christianity is free to join and free to leave for anyone who wants. While I don’t advocate leaving because of what God has promised to His people, God values your choice, and He loves freedom more than forcing you into a heaven that you wouldn’t want to live in.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to discover what God is really like, straight from the best source we have. While there is no shortage of opinions about God or the Bible, only by studying it for yourself can you personally discover what it says. Only by studying it for yourself can you really know if it is valuable for your life or not.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!