Allow the dead to bury their own dead
May 17, 2021•243 words
The second of our Lord’s sayings is addressed to one whom Jesus invited to follow Him. The answer He received was a very remarkable one. “Lord,” said the man, “permit me first to go and bury my father.” [Luke 9:59] The thing he requested was in itself harmless. But the time at which the request was made was unseasonable. Affairs of far greater importance than even a father’s funeral demanded the man’s immediate attention. There would always be plenty of people ready and fit to take care of a funeral. But there was at that moment a pressing need of laborers to do Christ’s work in the world. And hence the man’s request drew from our Lord the solemn reply, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” [v 60]
Let us learn from this saying to beware of allowing family and social duties to interfere with our duty to Christ. Funerals, and marriages, and visits of courtesy, and the like unquestionably are not in themselves sinful. But when they are allowed to absorb a believer’s time and keep him back from any plain Christian duty, they become a snare to his soul. That the unconverted people of the world should allow these kinds of things to occupy all their time and thoughts is not astonishing. They know nothing higher, and better, and more important.
—J.C. Ryle, ‘Expository Thoughts on Luke’