Matthew 8:22

‘But Jesus says to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Jesus' reply is that the man must be willing to immediately turn his back on his family life and follow Jesus. The dead can be left to look after their own dead. Here ‘the dead' is unquestionably figurative in at least one of its uses, for the dead could not literally bury the dead. It therefore refers at least partly, to the dead in soul. What Jesus therefore probably means is that in following Him the man will find life, and he must therefore leave those who are not seeking that life to look after each other. He must put obtaining eternal life before all else, for being a disciple of Jesus means becoming part of another sphere where human death loses its significance. In Jesus life has transcended death.

There is something very solemn about Jesus describing those who did not seek Him as ‘dead'. Jesus was by this bringing out the stark difference between those who had found life by believing in Him (Matthew 19:29) and those who chose to remain in ‘death' (John 3:16; John 5:24). In the words of Paul they were ‘dead in trespasses and sins' (Ephesians 2:1). They were thus spiritually dead and without eternal life. But His point is that those who are His must leave ‘the dead' behind to carry on their own affairs, and must themselves engage in the ministry of ‘life' to all who will receive it. It was this ministry that these disciples would engage in by following Jesus, and nothing must deter them from it, not even the death of someone close to them.

The responsibility for burying a father fell on the eldest son, and it could be quite a performance. Even a priest was allowed to forsake his duties in order that he might fulfil this obligation. But it should be noted that a Nazirite who was under an oath of dedication to God was also not allowed to bury his father (Numbers 6:7), nor was a High Priest (Leviticus 21:11). Thus it may be that Jesus is bringing out the extraordinary level of dedication required of His disciples, which was to be seen as on a level with that of a lifelong Nazirite or a High Priest. It could hardly have been less.

We are not told whether or not these two did follow Jesus, that was not Matthew's purpose. His purpose was to bring out the cost and demands of discipleship, and the fact that Jesus Himself fulfilled them. But there are really no grounds for saying that they did not. Normally when He said ‘Follow Me' specifically, men did follow Him (Matthew 4:18; Matthew 9:9; John 1:43). The rich young man is a stated exception (Matthew 19:21). On the other hand it may be that there is a contrast with the fact that, while the respectable Scribe was hesitant, in Matthew 9:9 the unrespectable Matthew was not. (This would be especially significant if Matthew then became the ‘scribe' of the band of Apostles as some have suggested).