In The Master's Service

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LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD

"Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60). Our Lord made this statement after He had said unto a man, "Follow me." That individual had responded, "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father."

This passage is not intended to excuse us from showing due respect unto our parents while they live, nor to their memories after they have died. It is not intended to excuse ministers from their natural responsibilities. It is showing the importance of the gospel call and how that is to take priority over even our natural relationships in life. God calls men to preach the gospel. They alone are fitted for that great and important work. He does not call every man to preach. He does not call any women to preach. It is manifest that He has charged and burdened a few men with this great work, and they are to give themselves to it.

I could not say exactly what the Lord meant when He referred to the dead. It probably includes the dead in trespasses and in sins, but may also refer to those who are dead in other senses, such as being dead to gospel responsibilities or gospel privileges. We do know that burying someone is a natural act, and natural men can do it. It does not take grace to dig a grave or cover the body. It is not required of an undertaker that he be regenerate. The dead are able to bury the dead. In whatever sense it is used, it is clear that Christ intended us to understand the responsibilities of the gospel ministry are to take priority over natural matters where there is a conflict. The work of the ministry is so important that preachers of the gospel are not to let entanglement in natural affairs keep them from their duties.

While I do not think good deacons would be included among "the dead" in this text, we can also learn from it a very important related lesson about the divinely-appointed division of labor in the church. It is a good work to care for the physical well-being of members of the church. It is pure and undefiled religion. However, it does not require a man called to the ministry to care for the needs of widows and orphans. Since a man cannot do two things at once, the apostles directed that other men were to be appointed to see over the welfare of the widows and orphans in the early church so the apostles could give themselves to prayer and ministry of the word. Caring for the widows is a great and important work but a man does not have to be called to preach to do that, so godly and sound men were appointed to 'serve tables,' so the apostles could give themselves to the service of the word of God.

The word dead has the thought of separation; some men are separated to the work of gospel preaching, and some men are separated from it; we might say they are dead to the work of the ministry. Many good and able ministers have worked themselves to an early grave doing things that could have been and should have been left to faithful, spiritual deacons. Those ministers should have let men who were dead as far as the call to the ministry was concerned (meaning they were not called to that work) do the work to which they had been set apart.

Whether it is purely natural matters that can be left to "the dead," or work in the kingdom that does not deal directly with the word of God, God has left instructions so that the health of the church may be preserved. We ignore those instructions only to our detriment.