Pentecost 26 Why Jesus Said, "Let the dead bury the dead."

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 26 Why Jesus Said, “Let the dead bury the dead (Mat.8:22).”

In the last two columns we spent the majority of the time lifting up the person of Jesus suggesting His perfection makes Him the sole proprietor of truth. If there is any one single process clarifying that fact it is the death and Resurrection of Jesus. When the Perfect One submitted to suffering and death on the Cross and then rose from the dead He proved that not only He but all who believed in Him would overcome suffering and death. Only perfection can rise above and overcome death since death is the destiny of imperfection which is sin. Scripture says, “The wages of sin is death (Rom.6:23).” By embracing suffering and death on the Cross, the Perfect One showed that neither suffering nor death could overcome His perfection, His Spirit, His emotions, His intellect and His relationships. His Resurrection lifted His teachings, His behavior, His attitude and His individuality above the world and all the speculative philosophies, religions and intuitive initiatives in human history. Who He is establishes why He is worshipped, followed and proclaimed.

But for a moment lets look at imperfection. Its source is sin. Sin distorts everything resulting in an imperfect spirit, imperfect perception, imperfect emotional reactions, imperfect reasoning, imperfect behavior and imperfect bodies in an imperfect environment. Sin is the contaminating spiritual ingredient that separates all these human living capacities from God. Sin turns them inward so that the self becomes the deity seeking to solve itself. Sin sends the message to the self that it has the capacity to overcome imperfection on every level. The promise of sin is that one can control and perfect personal destiny. But the fact is, the more one plunges into the depths of self the more isolated and alienated one becomes.

Self-help and pleasure seeking literature, occult practices, physical and emotional stimulants, the numerous kinds of therapies undertaken to solve self imperfection; all these self-treatment approaches end in aloneness. Aloneness is the goal of sin. Sin is subtle and its self-indulgent experiments absorb the moment with the illusion that if the present moment is satisfied then the same is true for all of a person’s life. Sin is the spiritual disease that infects everything. The results of sin’s imperfection for a human being are suffering and death; emotionally, physically, relationally, intellectually and spiritually. Suffering is the result of sin’s imperfections. Suffering ends in death.

Again God answered the problem of sin by sending His Son to embrace it, suffer for it, die because of it and then rise to defeat it and its power. He allowed Himself to experience aloneness in all its finality and then eliminate its reality when He rose from and above the death experience.

Being conceived by a perfect Spirit, Jesus was born with all His human capacities in tact. He had perfect perception and perfect responses. That perfection is the basis upon which we base trust. Trust that what He says is true, that what He is and claims to be is true and that when He speaks He speaks the truth. He is the truth personified and therefore the context we can trust to elevate His words as the source of truthful perception, truthful behavior and the Spirit of truth that energizes His words. He is the source for spiritual, emotional, relational and intellectual restoration and creative action.

So as we finally come to this saying, “Let the dead bury the dead,” we look at what was most important to Jesus---obedience to His Father, love for mankind and suffering and dying as a substitute for sin in their place. He is the meaning and He is the context. This saying in particular has had many interpretations because it has been yanked out of context. Context saves it from the slipping sands of conjecture. Before it come vs.18-21. After it come vs.23-27.

First of all, this is the concluding statement made while Jesus is getting the disciples to cross Lake Galilee where a major lesson will be learned.
Second, consider that Jesus’ ministry is a spiritual ministry revealing the nature and power of the Kingdom of God and His position in it.
Third, the context is one that calls for recognizing who Jesus really is and the singular demand it makes. It involves a choice between eternal life and eternal death.
Fourth, and maybe most important, we are created in the image of God so truth is an extension of God’s mind, His intellect, reason and order. We are made to think, reason and order our lives like God. Truth is the extension of the mind of God. This is why Jesus says He is the truth. This is why when Jesus teaches He preferences His remarks with, “I tell you the truth….” and at another point concludes “I and the Father are One.”

Simply put then, anything that leads man to die spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and physically must be avoided and allowed to implode. Even what
we tend to cherish and promote that might become ends in themselves (idols) like family, friendship, religion, political concepts, bloodline and ethnic loyalties, must not take place of the God who created them and loves them. We were created for a relationship with God and Jesus is the only relational way to God the Father. Anything less will result in eternal death. The stakes are that high for everyone.

So His statement challenges us to think about what we really believe about God, life and Jesus’ claims. He states bluntly that the only answer is to follow Him. When Jesus saw some disciples deserting Him He said to the Twelve, “Would you leave too?” Peter replied, “To whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you’re the Holy One of God (John 6:67-69).” All this writer can say is ‘Amen.’ Stay tuned…….