“Let the Dead Bury the Dead”
“And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.” Matthew 8:21-23
When one of Jesus’ disciples told Jesus he had to go back and bury his dead dad before he followed Jesus, Jesus made it emphatically and bluntly clear that the disciple needed to let the dead go and turn his back on the past if he wanted to move forward and follow Jesus. Some of us have dead dreams, dead relationships, dead thinking, and dead people, not to mention a whole lot of other dead stuff, we are hanging onto whereby we are unable to be full-fledged followers of Christ. We are holding on for dear life to people and stuff that have no life left in them, and it’s killing our ability to forsake all and be committed followers of Christ whereby we live for the Lord and according to His ways instead of continuing to live for ourselves and what we want and according to our own ways. We’re weighed down as though we’re trying to carry dead bodies.
I speak from far too much experience of professing to love the Lord while in reality loving the people and stuff I refused to let go more than I loved Him. The true disciples of Christ in the Bible and those who are truly His disciples today look to the Lord for the strength to let go of what needs to be released so our hearts and hands are free to cling to the Lord in a mighty, life-long pursuit of Him. I am finally learning what it is to be a true follower, and that I need to let the dead bury the dead so I can be fully alive as I follow the One who died and rose again so those who genuinely believe in Him can follow Him all the way to eternity!
If the Lord is tugging on your heartstrings right now, perhaps you realize what, or whom, you need to let go in order to give your all to Him. Don’t hold back any longer. If it’s time to let go, by all means, let go!