Have you ever had a great urge to take a tour through a cemetery? Cemeteries are wonderful places! When I was in Moscow in 2004 my brother and I had a guided tour of an old cemetery. And in 2007 in St. Petersburg I again took a guided tour through a cemetery there. Here are some of the graves I saw.
This man you may know as the famous Russian comedian Yuri Nikulin (PP-2), but he is not making many people laugh nowadays. Here is my brother Owen next to Anton Chekhov’s grave (PP-3). Here is Dostoevsky’s grave in St. Petersburg (PP-4); and here is Lev Tolstoy’s grave at his estate, Nasnaya Polyana, southeast of Moscow (PP-5). Here is the grave of one of my namesakes in Ireland, where my father’s family came from. (PP-6) (PP-7)
The death of a family member or a friend are very significant events, because we realise that we will not see these loved ones in this life again. In most cultures it is also incumbent upon the closest family members to arrange burial for these. In Jewish tradition the responsibility rested particularly on the sons, and it was a prime religious duty for them. According to one source the occasion is so significant that it is said that, “He who is confronted by a dead relative is freed from reciting the Shema, from the Eighteen Benedictions, and from all the commandments stated in the Torah...” [1]
When I heard the news that my own father had passed away I was in Kiev, Ukraine. Of course I got on the next plane to Australia. I wanted to be with my family, and I wanted to honour my father as he was buried. As with any culture, if I had said to my mother and siblings that I was a bit busy at the moment, and that it was a long way and an expensive trip back home – I would be called the scum of the earth! And rightly so!
But in the scripture we are about to read this morning, Jesus says something amazing, something shocking. Lets read it.
Luke 9:57-60
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 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.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
What an absolute slap in the face. Was Jesus serious? What was his meaning? This Jewish son was considered to have prime responsibility for providing a decent burial. His request seems to be not only very normal, but expected, and honourable. In Jewish tradition this obligation was so sacred as to override any other obligations of the law. We wonder why Jesus would use such harsh language. It is very difficult for us to juxtapose this kind of saying with what is expected in our social milieu.
Probably we must assume that the father is either already dead, or about to die, and the man is asking for a time of preparation and mourning. Another possibility to understand this text is in the context of the established custom in Jesus day of primary burial in a sealed tomb for twelve months, followed by a secondary re-burial of just the bones in an ossuary, or bone box. The twelve months were seen as a time to allow appropriate mourning.
Whatever the setting of the saying, Jesus words were a glaring break with tradition.
We could also take it metaphorically to mean, “Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead,” or, if we accept the “bone box” understanding, he is saying, “Let those already dead in the family tomb rebury their own dead.” Either way it is a caustic slap in the face to the cultural status quo.
What we must do is to see that these sayings, which surely happened at different times and in different places, have been grouped together here to give us a common message. And we must see this passage in its larger context. We looked at the first saying last time. And the final saying in the triplet is speaking to a farmer about ploughs, and that is home territory for me, so we are sure to get to that one next time.
The larger context is that Luke has us on a journey. He is taking us with Jesus, and the disciples, as they slowly make their way to Jerusalem. There are detours on the way, and always instruction on how to be a follower of the master. But in Luke Jesus is always heading to Jerusalem. Because, what prophet ever died outside Jerusalem? Jesus would say later as he berated the Pharisees, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” (Matt 23:37) He wanted to gather them, as a hen gathers chickens under its wing, but they would not!
Come back with me to Jesus inaugural sermon in his hometown, Nazareth.
Luke 4:18-19
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
So far it was fine. Then he continued with, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The scripture reading was fine. He announces that this very day it is being fulfilled in their presence. Everybody is still on a high.
But then he had to spoil it all by beginning his sermon! And it is the briefest of sermons too. Why? Because they wanted to stone him after only a few sentences. Look what he says:
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ”
24 “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
Imagine that? When I preach to you I try to make a good impression. I try to leave behind a blessing. I want you to smile at me and shake my hand at the door. But Jesus! He makes them furious! So you see what I was saying last time about Jesus. He is a strange man! He insists on insulting people – and their culture – and their religion.
His hometown hearers were thinking, “This is one of our own boys. He’s Joseph’s son. Isn’t he a fine young man, and a preacher to boot. And we have heard such great news about his mission work up-country.”
But in his sermon he starts by insulting them. He had read their thoughts, and in effect he says, “You’re going to ask me to do a miracle for your pleasure, aren’t you?”
What he does in his sermon is illustrate what the scripture from Isaiah is saying. He starts by telling the stories of two prophets who were rejected by Israel, God’s own people. He says about Elijah and Elisha that even though there were many needy people in Israel at the time, God sent them to outsiders – to the poor, to the outcast and dispossessed, to the unclean and the leprous – to Gentiles. And that just made their blood boil. He was putting the seal on his claim that no prophet was accepted in his hometown!
Jesus message and mission was in the tradition of Elijah and Elisha. If God’s people will not receive his message, he will give his massage to others. Look at how far off the map God sent Elijah and Elisha (PP-8). Zaraphath and Damascus! What Elijah did was “good news to the poor” widow (PP-9). What Naaman received was “release from the oppression of leprosy.”
In Isaiah’s mind this was the beginning of the last and great Jubilee – salvation physically, socially, mentally and spiritually! It has all got to be there. The spiritual is not enough on its own – because we are not only spiritual. God made us social creatures, and we have bodies, and minds – we need universal salvation. That’s why we preach about health in this church – about the salvation of the physical. That’s why we used to preach that we shouldn’t fight as soldiers – war is a social catastrophe. That’s why we preach that salvation is a gracious gift from God, received through faith – it’s mental and spiritual release. And that’s why we keep the commandments, because we want the blessings of this universal salvation to remain with us.
Jesus sometimes spoke razor sharp words to some groups of people. He saw the need to wake them from their sleepy lethargy. From their self-congratulating triumphalism. And that is what Adventists have to be careful of, self-congratulating triumphalism! We have been known to kill the prophets too! We are like the Baptists. Some of the greatest preachers they produced, they persecuted to oblivion. Charles Spurgeon, a great gospel preacher, was hounded out of the Baptist Church over trivial issues. And Adventists ran their greatest theologian and one of the their best preachers out of their ranks. That man was Des Ford. A prophet by any other name would sound the same message.
The reason Jesus said to the man on the road, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (PP-10) is because this message of the Kingdom is so important we can’t put it off. It takes precedence over other responsibilities. It is a more pressing duty than almost all others. Jesus is not saying it is not important to show honour to your father or mother in burial. He would never suggest violating the fifth commandment. But “proclaiming the kingdom of God” was paramount.
There is an urgency about binding yourself to Jesus and to proclaiming the Kingdom. We don’t always see it. But Jesus was painfully aware of it, because he was heading to Jerusalem where he knew he was due to, “…suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and … be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Luke 9:22)
On a hot summer day in south Florida, some years ago, a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house. He dived into the water, not realising that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore.
In the house, his mother was watching him through the window. Then she saw the alligator! And that her boy was headed to cross its path. In utter fear she ran, yelling to her son as loudly as she could. Hearing her voice the little boy became alarmed, and turned to swim to his mother. But just as he reached her, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy’s arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. An incredible tug-of-war began. The alligator was strong, but the mother was passionate.
A farmer driving by heard her screams, and raced from his truck with a shotgun, took aim, and shot the alligator. Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were badly scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And on his arms were deep scratches where his mother's fingernails dug into him in her effort to hang on.
A newspaper reporter interviewed the boy and asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his trouser legs. Then he said to the reporter with obvious pride, 'But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms too, because my Mom wouldn't let go.'
We have scars too. Scars from a painful past. Some of those scars are ugly and they cause us deep regret. There are other scars that you don’t see, because they are not on your arms, they are on Jesus arms. That was when he was holding on for you. He was holding on for every one of us as he struggled with the Alligator of temptation. His temptation was to give up on us.
That Alligator is a tenacious beast, he twists and flails about, he doesn’t want to let you go. He wants to drag you into the murky deep. But God also refuses to let you go. Jesus could have let go of his struggle, a struggle much bigger than anything we go through, but he held on for our sake. In the midst of your struggle, he's right there, he is faithful and he will hang on to you till the end. Don’t let go of his hand.
You are a child of God. He wants to protect you, and provide for you in every way. But, sometimes, we foolishly wade into dangerous situations, not knowing what lies ahead. Or knowing what lies ahead but wading ahead anyway. What foolhardy people we are. The swimming hole of life is filled with peril and we are too frivolous about it. The enemy is there to attack. That is when the tug-of-war begins. Sometimes we even let go of God’s hand. But he will drag us from the murky water, after the alligator has had his way with us. He will forgive us, if we take his hand. But he will wear more scars from it. The scars of His love are on His arms. He will wear those scars for eternity. Be very, very grateful. He will never let you go.
Straight after Jesus said he would have to be handed over to suffer and be killed, he warned his disciples with these words,
“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:25) Think about it!
[1] Hengel, Charismatic Leader, 8–10; b. Ber. 31a.
Image: Grave of Fedor Dostoevskiy's in St. Petersburg, by the author.
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