Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead

 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.  Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.  And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.  But He was asleep.  Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us!  We are perishing!"  But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"  Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"

- Matthew 8:18-27

Yesterday we read that when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."  And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."  The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."  When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!  And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness.  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."  And his servant was healed that same hour.  Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw His wife's mother lying sick with a fever.  So He touched her hand, and the fever left her.  And she arose and served them."  When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed.  And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:  "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.  Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."   My study bible comments here that since the term Son of Man refers to the Messiah (Daniel 7:13), it expresses both Christ's humanity and His divinity.  Here it is referring to Christ's human condition.  Elsewhere (25:31-33) Jesus uses the term to describe His divine authority.

Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."     As always, Jesus is not negating a commandment (to honor parents).  But He is teaching us to put the things of the Kingdom as our highest priority.  Those who ignore this priority, my study bible says, are spiritually dead.

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.  And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.  But He was asleep.  Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us!  We are perishing!"  But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"  Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"  Immediately after the text uses the name "Son of Man" for Jesus, indicating that He is both human and divine, this event is given in which both His humanity and divinity are on display.  Christ's mastery over creation is another sign that He is the Messiah and is divine.  My study bible suggests that commands to the sea and waves can only be issued by God (Job 38:8-11; Psalms 66:5-6, 107:29).  But Jesus was asleep because He is a man, and as human being, He needs rest.  My study bible says that in His Incarnation, Jesus assumed all the natural actions of the flesh, which includes sleep.  This image of Jesus and His disciples in a boat is a traditional one used to illustrate the Church itself.  My study bible adds that God both permits storms and delivers us through them, so that we can see God's protection more clearly.  Jesus' rebuke of the storm, it says, also illustrates His capacity to calm the tempests in the human soul.

I am one who can testify to Christ's capacity to calm the tempests in the human soul, as my study bible puts it.  As one who has met with frequent tempests of the soul, I can say with a certain authority that this is indeed the truth.  It reminds me of the man blind from birth who was healed by Jesus in John's 9th chapter.  When the disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (thinking that sin must be the direct cause of such misfortune), Jesus replied, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him" (John 9:1-3).  Just as one calamity might be grounds for the work of God, so the tempests in our own souls might also be grounds for Christ's work in us, to calm what needs calming and heal what needs healing.  This ties in nicely with the first part of today's reading, in which we are reminded that in all things and through all things, we may prioritize the Kingdom first, as my study bible comments.  It sets us free from the immediate storm, disaster, hardship, or sorrow -- and also offers up to us answers we might not get otherwise, giving us baby steps out of our problems.  If we are capable of putting aside our immediate fears or struggles, even for a moment, and focusing on Christ, setting ourselves to prayer, we might find a better way, an acceptance, and a plan for moving forward into the future.  Indeed, for some of us, disaster might just be the way to God's kingdom, for we would not have turned to Christ for answers otherwise.  Hence, the wisdom in my study bible's comments regarding the storms that Christ both permits and delivers us through.  In fact, if experience is anything to go by, there are a number of ways in which disasters and personal dilemmas may offer us a great way to go forward in life, particularly if we're mainly or primarily concerned with spiritual growth.  This may not be a recipe for worldly success, or the greatest social impressions that may be sought, but it is a way to deepen faith and to growth within the reality that Christ wants for us.  And this number of avenues forward and into new life is multiplied through all those facets developed through the Church and historical worship through time, such as praying with the saints, and the angels who help to guide us, the Scriptures of both Old and New Testaments, and our fellow faithful.  A crisis is a time for turning over life with its "shoulds" and "would-haves" and "could-have-beens" to an open place for inquiry, a freedom we didn't allow ourselves before, and an open mind and heart to God and God's direction that just wasn't possible without it.  I find that when we come up against a wall of the impossible, it is most likely that our direction needs changing, or our expectations need to be re-examined, and possibly our goals and desires re-evaluated in light of God's sight and influence.  That is the time we turn to prayer and find our way.  Often we come up against a wall not necessarily of our own making, but one that others might put before us in the form of social rejection.  There may be a line which we can't cross and remain within a particular social circle.  For the earliest Christian martyrs, that line meant death when responding by refusal to worship Caesar rather than Christ.  In a modern context, there are other ways in which people may stand in the way of proper priority in worship, often demanding that our freedom to choose Christ first be surrendered to priorities which don't recognize that essential choice.  Like the young man whom Christ tells to "let the dead bury their own dead," we also may find ourselves having to leave behind certain groups of people whom we think are indispensable, but we'll find ourselves called forward if we let prayer be our guide, and put Christ's Kingdom first.  These things aren't easy to do, and they are not simple.  Like Jesus Himself, we won't evade all of the storms of human life and what it means to be fully human.  But we will be led through them, and we will find our dependence grow upon God.  It is a question of putting our trust in this particular basket, giving Christ the keys to our souls and our choices, and setting ourselves free through God's truth (John 8:32).  This just might be the time of our greatest freedom, a realization that we can choose differently, and are not bound through the things we think must be done or observed.  It is time to give Christ the chance to show us the way forward, to let go and be guided by praying with the saints, to accept change that otherwise seems impossible.  Let us consider His way when no other ways seem to work.  It might just be time for a change in priorities, an unloosing of even the ties that bind.