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0:00 Jesus once said something to a grieving son that sounds so cold. Skeptics still quote it against him. But three details hidden in that scene prove it was one of the most merciful sentences he ever spoke. And the third detail is the one almost every reader misses. Here is the first thing you need to know. In the world of that man, burying your father was not one duty among many. It was the highest duty there was. So, when he says in Luke 9, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." He's not making an excuse. He is naming the one obligation nobody in Israel would ever question. And Jesus answers, "Let the dead bury their own dead." If that has ever bothered you, good. It was meant to stop you. Now, watch what happens when we slow the
0:45 scene down. It helps to see who else was on that road. Luke places three people in a row. The first one runs up and says, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answers [music] "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." In other words, count the cost before you promise. The second is our grieving son. The third wants to go home and say goodbye. Three people, three reasonable sentences, and three answers that sound almost severe. Luke is not collecting harsh sayings. He is showing us, one conversation at a time, what it means that the king is passing through and will not pass this way again. Matthew, telling the same moment, even calls this man a disciple.
1:31 So, this is not an outsider making excuses. This is someone who already believes and is negotiating the terms. Detail number one, the weight of a father's burial. The fifth commandment says, "Honor your father and your mother." The Hebrew word for honor is kabed, and at its root it means to give weight, to treat someone as heavy, as significant. And the teachers of Israel taught that the final and greatest way to give your father his weight was to carry him to the grave yourself. You can feel how deep this ran in the old Jewish story of Tobit, a man living in exile who risked his life again and again to bury the dead with dignity. Jewish tradition went even further. A person who had a dead relative to bury was released, in that moment, from other
2:18 religious duties, even daily prayers. Burial outranked nearly everything. So, in that culture, no rabbi would have told this son anything except, "Go." Which raises the real question. Was there anyone in Israel who was not allowed to stop for a parent's funeral? Yes, two people. In Leviticus 21, the high priest was forbidden to go near a dead body, even for his father or his mother, because the anointing oil of his God was upon him. And in Numbers 6, the same was true for a Nazarite during the days of his vow. Only those two. People whose closeness to the presence of God outranked the most sacred family duty on earth. Now, go back to the road. Jesus is speaking to an ordinary man, not a
3:05 priest, not a Nazarite, and he hands him the rule of the high priest. Do you hear what that means? He is saying that walking behind him down a dusty path belongs in the same category as standing in the Holy of Holies. Either that is the most arrogant thing a teacher ever said, or the presence of God was standing on that road in sandals. There is no middle option. And that is only the first detail. Detail number two. Jesus asked for more than the greatest prophet did. Go back to 1 Kings 19. Elijah finds Elisha plowing with 12 yoke of oxen and throws his cloak over him. Elisha says, "Let me kiss my father and my mother goodbye, and then I will follow you." And Elijah lets him. Elisha goes home, slaughters the oxen,
3:51 burns the plow for firewood, feeds the whole village, and then he follows. So, the greatest prophet in the history of Israel gave his disciple [music] time to say goodbye. Every person listening to Jesus knew that story. Now, listen to how Luke arranges the scene. Right after the son with the father, a third man steps up and says, "I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Almost the exact words of Elisha. And Jesus replies with a picture from the same story. "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Elijah allowed it. Jesus did not. Why? Because someone greater than Elijah was passing by, and the hour was shorter than anyone understood. Luke tells us
4:38 only a few verses earlier that Jesus had set his face to go to Jerusalem. He was walking toward a cross. This was not an ordinary season with room for ordinary delays, which brings us to the detail that turns the whole passage around. Detail number three. The father was almost certainly not lying dead at home. Think about how burial worked in first-century Israel. There was no embalming. In that climate, a person who died in the morning was in the tomb by evening. Then the family sat in mourning at home for 7 days. So, if this man's father had died that day, the son would not be standing in a crowd listening to a traveling teacher. He would be carrying the body or sitting with his family. So, what was he really asking? There are
5:23 two serious readings, and both lead to the same place. The first comes from the culture itself. Scholars who have spent decades living in Middle Eastern villages report that the phrase, "Let me bury my father." is a common expression. It does not mean, "My father died this morning." It means, "Let me stay home and fulfill my duty until my father passes, however long that takes. The father might be healthy. It might be 10 more years. The second reading comes from archaeology. In that period, burial happened in two stages. First, the body was laid in the family tomb. Then, about a year later, the family returned, gathered the bones, and placed them in a small stone box.
6:10 Only then was the duty complete. On that reading, the father had died recently, and the son was asking for the rest of the mourning [music] year. 10 years or 1 year. Either way, the request was never about one afternoon at a funeral. It was a postponement. The man was not saying no to Jesus. He was saying later. And now look at his sentence one more time and find the word that carries all the weight. Lord, let me first. First. That was the entire problem, not the burial, not the love for his father, the order. He called Jesus Lord, and then he told his Lord where he ranked. And notice that Jesus did not leave him with only a hard word. In the same breath, he gave him a commission.
6:55 But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. He was not taking away an errand. He was replacing it. You were about to spend a year facing a tomb. I am sending you to announce [music] that tombs are about to lose. Let the dead bury their own dead. Those who are spiritually asleep can manage the business of death. You have been called to carry life. If you still wonder whether Jesus despised burial, look at how his own story ends. On the day he died, his disciples had scattered. Then a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the council, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body. Nicodemus came with him, bringing about 75 lb of myrrh and aloes,
7:41 linen spices a new tomb cut from rock, a great stone at the door. It was the most honorable burial imaginable. Scripture records it with tenderness, without a hint of shame. And it lasted 3 days. All that care, and the body it was wrapped around walked out on Sunday morning. That is what Jesus could see on the road in Galilee that nobody else could see. He was not being careless about death. He was the only person in history with the authority to speak about a grave as something temporary. The word that once belonged to the funeral, kabed, wait, belongs to him now. Death is no longer the heaviest thing in the world. He is. So, let me turn this towards you, gently, as a pastor.
8:28 You have probably never said no to God. Very few believers do. What we say is, first. First, let me get the finances stable. First, let me finish this season at work. First, let me fix this one relationship. First, let me feel ready. And it sounds every bit as reasonable in our mouths as it did on that road. That is what makes it dangerous. Obedience is rarely killed by a no. A no is at least honest. Obedience is killed by a first that waits in the doorway for years, looking exactly like responsibility. Delayed obedience feels like obedience. It is not. It is refusal wearing respectable clothes. Jesus is not asking you to love your family less. The same Lord rebuked
9:14 religious leaders in Mark 7 for using spiritual excuses to neglect their parents. And from the cross, in agony, he made sure his own mother would be cared for. He honors [music] family. He simply refuses to be second to it, because he knows that anything you place in front of him, you will eventually lose your grip on anyway. "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," he said, and all these things will be added to you. When he is first, everything else finds its proper place. When he is second, nothing does. And hear the kindness inside the urgency. The son on that road thought he was choosing between honoring his father and following a rabbi. He did not know he was speaking [music] to the one who would defeat the grave his father was headed for.
10:00 The best thing he could ever do for his family was to follow the only person who gives life to the dead. The same is true for you. Your obedience is not a loss to the people you love. It may be the very thing God uses to reach them. So, here is my question for you today. What is your first? Name it honestly before God right where you are. The conversation you keep postponing. [music] The calling you keep scheduling for someday. The step of faith you have been one more month away from for years. You do not have to have your whole life arranged to take one step behind him today. Lord Jesus, forgive us for every later we have offered you in place of a yes. Show each of us the thing we have placed in front of you and give us the courage
10:47 to move it. You are worthy of first place. We follow you now, not someday. In your name, amen. This is Daily Faith Ministry, here every day with a word for your walk. Jesus is still passing by. The dead have plenty of time. You do not. And if you believe God placed this video in your path, don't ignore that feeling. If Daily Faith has encouraged you, if these messages have helped you feel closer to God, if they have strengthened your faith in difficult moments, then you can help this mission reach even more lives. When you join our Patreon family, you help us keep sharing God's word, hope, and encouragement every single day with people around the world who who need it more than you know. Some people will
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