I've been stuck on this passage for about two weeks now, and it's affected my ability to write in the mornings. Since I've been using the directives of Jesus as my writing prompts for a few weeks now, I just haven't been able to navigate around this seemingly harsh bit of writing.
And so, I'm gonna give my honest reaction to this passage and sort of maneuver around to see if I can come to a new understanding - one of those understandings that require some digging.
So, for the honest reaction first.
As I prepare to go through with funeral preparations for my good friend Hal, I can't help but get an emotional response to this passage. At first look, which is always a literal look, the author has Jesus telling one of his fellow Jews to disregard the richness of Jewish burial practices and to instead follow Jesus. There are some questions that arise out of this.
Why would Jesus - a devout, practicing Jew - tell a fellow Jew to disregard his father's burial?
Why would Jesus direct a fellow Jew to break the commandment of honoring father and mother?
If Jesus cared so much about the death of his friend Lazarus, why would he want a fellow Jew to not care about his own father's death?
These are just a few questions that come out of this. I could ask many more because the answers are definitely not found by just reading the scriptures. Sure, I can go back to the Old Testament to find out what exactly those burial practices required. I can find out all the Jewish traditions involving burial and death. But that will not answer the question "why?"
So . . . why?
First of all, if Jesus really said this, and said it verbatim, then he's a contradiction and no one should follow his teachings. He obviously didn't practice this himself because he cared so much about seeing people die that he went out of his way to see them live again (see the story of Lazarus among several others).
Second of all, we're not told how many people Jesus buried himself. Since he was a devout Jew, the practice of burying and mourning was not a foreign practice to him. He would've had his share of practice in that rich tradition.
This is one of those passages in which the scriptures and the literalism confound me. If I take this literally, there's no way in hell anyone's going to be honored by my actions. And I don't know of any literalist who's gonna take this passage and not construe it in such a way that allows them to do what their heart chooses. If I was to choose to disregard the funeral procedures and the mourning of my friend Hal, I would for one let our mutual friends down by not helping out. And two, I would have to convince myself that there is nothing sacred about a funeral. If I could muster up these ideas and be courageous enough (or cowardly enough) to walk away, I guess I'd be a good literal Jesus follower.
And the thought of a Jesus who would demand such a thing sounds ridiculous, arrogant, condescending, and rude.
In order to proceed further, I need to delve into the question "why" just a bit. It makes sense that since the Bible doesn't answer the "why" question most of the time (unless the question involves some piece of historical data that can actually be researched and found), there are all sorts of "why's" that flow out of interpretation of the scriptures. In other words, the "why" has to be interpreted. It's not there, and "because Jesus said it" doesn't work anymore for me. It's not a valid answer.
"Why did Jesus say that?"
"Because Jesus said that. That's why."
See how silly this reasoning sounds? I do.
Reading the scriptures at face value will get me into trouble if I leave it at that. And so, the only meaningful option outside of reading at face value is to interpret. Sure, their are all sorts of commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias and everything else under the sun, but all those are just mimics of the same desire - to interpret however one wishes to interpret.
And so, we're almost to my interpretation (an honest one). But first, let me point out a couple of the more common interpretations of the passage.
Some people like to insert the word "spiritually" before the word "dead." Since it seems way to harsh on a material level, just turn it into an abstract concept where only the spiritual elite can understand it. It's the religious elite's get out of jail free card. That's one way.
Others like to get deep into the burial practices. And so, they'll talk about the decomposition of the flesh and what that means, and how when the body dies it goes into some sort of purgatory and waits to be atoned for its earthly sins, and the bones are put into an ossuary and left alone for a year. And in all, the whole process lasts up to a year. So, to them Jesus is saying that "if you want to follow me, cut out some of those lengthy traditions so we can get to the real business of saving souls."
And still others would say that Jesus never actually said this at all. They would say that since the passage is only found in Matthew and Luke (which were written by authors who would've never heard Jesus say anything), that it must have been borrowed from a source outside of the canon - or - the selected scriptures that make up the commonly accepted Bible of today's standards.
This passage is neither referenced by Paul (the earliest writer of the New Testament) nor the author of Mark (the second earliest writer of the New Testament), and so (the critics say) the passage must have been taken from the Q Gospel, a term similar to the i in mathematics.
I tend to hold with the last version of interpretation. I don't believe Jesus said it at all. I believe it was doctored by obviously non-Jewish authors to convince their audiences that Jewish traditions were no longer an acceptable form of worship.
In other words, "follow Jesus or Jewish tradition." "Follow God or go bury your father, friend, mother, sister, brother . . . "
In today's culture, it would translate to something like "follow God or go to school and get a good education." Or, "follow God or get a job." It just doesn't make sense, but I'm sure that since I'm thinking it doesn't make sense, there are some people out there who are clinging tight to the literal sense of this passage for the sake of being a good follower and believer.
And so, as I prepare to celebrate the life of my friend Hal, I also prepare to experience something sacred, something profound. I prepare to experience the richness that comes with joining with friends to survey the life of someone we loved, someone we shared life with, and someone who brought more to the table than he ever knew.
I believe Jesus would've done the same thing. I believe Jesus would've viewed all of life through the lens of the sacred. I believe the real Jesus would've told his friend to go and do the same with his father.
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