Can someone kindly explain to me the difference between Jesus' two statements:

Luke 9:59-62 59 But he said to him, 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.' 60 But he said to him, 'Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.'

and:

Matthew 5:4: �Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.�

Thanks.

Maybe it is obvious, but I am reading the "burying" metaphorically as a type of mourning. I suppose they can be read as two distinct phases of mourning? Or perhaps mourning in Matthew relates to a mourning for God, rather than for losing someone or something? Or mourning for the loss of an image/preconception of who or what God is?

Asher.

I will try to explain it as I see it. If I am wrong I hope someone will correct it for me.


Luke 9:59-62 59 But he said to him, 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.' 60 But he said to him, 'Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' 61 Another said, 'I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.' 62 Jesus said to him, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'


The dead were held to be those of this world. I think it was in reference to the spiritually dead. I think he was using it as a good use of metaphors.


Matthew 5:4: �Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.�


The Beatitudes were written for disciples who are committed to living the Christian life. No one can live up to the standards set before us in this passage. It is only through dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer that we can live this kind of life. The kind of righteousness God demands is far beyond our inadequate self-righteousness. Every person saved through the grace of God through Christ has been credited with God's kind of righteousness. It is a gift from God that opens up the possibility for our living the Christian life the way God expects us to live. It should provoke us to ask, how then shall we live? How would you identify a disciple of Jesus if you saw one?

Jesus taught us that the "blessed" person is one who lives above the chances, changes and circumstances in life. He is a spiritually prosperous person who has a right relationship with God and everything about him is based on that relationship.


This is not all of my own writting. I copied a lot of it. But I agree with what it is saying.

Eric, I have great respect for your honesty re admitting that your post is not all your own writing. I was so impressed by it and still am coming to the end of same.

I'll give it a try and hope it adds to what you have said already.

To follow Jesus as His disciple comes at a great price. Jesus tells His disciples: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". Luke 9:23.

To be a true Christian and follower of Christ, we must forsake all earthly ways and carnal teachings, never leaving the pure mind of Christ, not even for a second. This is the seriousness of our commitment to Him in our love and faith. Within us must be alive the truth:

"This world is not my home
I am just a-passing through;
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond
the blue;
The angels beckon me from Heaven's door
And I can't feel at home in this
world anymore".

Jesus' answer to the man whose father died, appears harsh. It seems to run counter to family responsibilities. It is strong. "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and declare the kingdom of God. Who are the dead who are going to conduct the funeral? These are as Eric mentioned already, the spiritually dead who put responsibilities before their responsibilities to Jesus. But the spiritually alive are to follow Jesus now and to declare the kingdom of God.

Don't think that Jesus would not have the son's dead father not have a proper funeral. My mother died last year. She lived in another State and I visited her while she was alive 3 years ago. I actually rejoiced upon hearing of her death because she had a hard life and was ill for a long time. God also released me from responsibilities that I carried in my having to give permission for medical procedures, etc. I made long distance funeral arrangements and spent the day of her funeral in prayers for her in the Love and Light of Christ.

We all are sojourners here on earth. Our mission is to follow Christ and to serve Him at all costs. We must carry our own cross in faithfulness and love for Him. That does not mean to shut our eyes in neglecting our duties and responsibilities to family, mankind, etc. We must at all times love our neighbors as ourselves, yet never forsaking Christ, nor following the ways of this world which leads us away from Christ into darkness and spiritual death.

How is it possible for mourners to be blessed and comforted?

We as fellow brothers and sisters of humanity can by our aid give food, shelter, clothing, medical care etc., Also great compassion and love together with hugs are a true blessing. Yet the true Comforter is God's Holy Spirit who leads and guides us to Jesus who is ever available to embrace us in His loving arms and call us home to Him. Blessed assurance Jesus is mine.

"No one who puts his hand to the plough, and
looks back is fit for the service in the
kingdom of God". Luke 9:62

Freebird, I think that was an excellent intepretation, and your application to personal experience makes it all the more clear and expressive. Thank you for reviving this thread. This is a beautiful example of the living message of Christ.

More than one spiritual teacher has suggested this as the key to the door of spirituality. My conclusions so far:

Suffering stinks and in itself is useless, but God finds a use for it anyway.

If I turn and face it, I grow stronger, when I run from it, I grow weaker.

I need not seek it, it will find me.

Taking on the pain of the world is a rock too large to carry. I must drop the rock. Attempting to carry it can be an excercise in pride rather than a measure of growth, but as the Rabbi said, "If I am not for myself, who will be, but if I am for myself alone, then what am I."

It's a process or a spiral and I never seem to finish, although it has seemed quite bottomless
during the last two months, I may be "peeling the onion." Sometimes you cry...

"The deeper sorrow carves into your soul, the greater joy you may contain."- Kahlil Gibran

"All great artists and poets must suffer"- some jerk

Those are all great interpretations all. I think I agree with Eric's interpretation and Freebird's extension of it to his own experience, further confirming Eric's understanding. The dead must be the spiritually dead. And MM's additions from Gibran. I still wonder about this...i.e who is really "spiritually dead"? Can any one be "spiritually dead?" Obviously, I am missing a historical context here.I'm not sure about Eric's interpretation of the Beautitudes. I wonder what mourning in the Beatitudes means, specifically. Obviously, it is not depression. I think it must be the sorrow of the true self when the false self begins to become exposed. From that insight love for the true self grows and it is only the true self that can love God rightly. I know that's all simple sounding and general and doesn't necessarily relate to Christ or the mythos surrounding him.

"No one who puts his hand to the plough, and
looks back is fit for the service in the
kingdom of God". Luke 9:62

I think this is a brilliant and moving passage but, again, I sense something harsh in it. You know? Someone can be in the process of putting his/her hand on the plough and also looking back, right? Someone can be in limbo and still be ploughing. Someone can be ploughing without their knowing that they are ploughing! In fact that is what is going on all the time if we could only see rightly. Nothing escapes the eye of God, no action; somehow He is involved in everything. So who is not ploughing? I know that is a different approach. But it cuts through the righteousness of "I am ploughing." Rather it is God makes it possible for me to move away from the past and live in his present. But, one can be ploughing and also looking back, in which case they will stumble on a stone and be compelled to look forward, but foward is really his ever present mercy which never leaves us, even as we look back. I know that, again, sounds simple. But it is how I see it. 99% of it is showing up in the field. Then when we look back, it's up to God (or a stone) to shake us. Looking back is necessary. One needs to look back in order to leap foward. Faith arises from a deep enough doubt. In short, we have "arrived" when we look back intensely enough to stumble forward - into the ever-present arms of the ploughman.

I understand the "plough and looking back" metaphor to be a hyperbolic statement about commitment. In that light, what Jesus is saying is that his "way" needs to be primary and decisive. He is calling for total commitment, which implies renunciation from all that compromises this commitment. Having given one's heart completely to him, one is then free to care for one's eartlhy duties (including burying one's parents) without being compromised within . . . i.e., one can be detached. This goes along with other teachings of his about seeds falling on pathways and not growing, or getting strangled by the thorny cares of the world.

I watched the made for TV version of Joan of Arc the other day. Total commitment. She may have been wrong or mistaken in ways, but without doubt had her hand on the plow.

I see a sweetness in those who persist. If it is the emotional wringer that reveals the necessity of the path, then it may be the willingness to remain at the plow until the heart itself is plowed up like fallow ground which reveals the purpose of the path.

The good news is, as I and many I know have discovered, that like Peter, I can deny Him several times, come to the end of myself, and
still return to the plow. Alot of those ploughs
had two oxes. One is God's will, one is mine.

When I see only one ox, then I'll know I have ploughed well, but of course I may not live that long...

Asher your post dated 2/25 asks an excellent question re who are really the spiritually dead.

A great number of the world population fit into the category of the spiritually dead. Anyone being alienated from the life of God without the quickening (made alive) through the life of the Holy Spirit is spiritually dead. When we are born again, the spiritual death is reversed. Before salvation we are dead for our soul is separated from God. When Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. The fellowship had been broken. They were spiritually dead due to eating the fruit and their disobedience. They became alienated from the life of God.

Even Jesus hanging from the cross experienced a spiritual death. After three hours of supernatural darkness, He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?. (Mark 15:33-34). This spiritual separation from the Father was the result of the Son's taking our sins upon Himself.

We all need the quickening of God's Holy Spirit to awaken from our spiritual deadness into everlasting life. Jesus Christ is that life in us.