Matthew 8:22. Leave the dead to bury their own dead. ‘This is a hard saying, and who can bear it' The common interpretation is: Let the (spiritually) dead attend to burying the (naturally) dead. Such a double meaning is common in brief-pointed remarks. ‘The goal and end of those who are spiritually dead their last and highest aim here is to bury one another.' If ‘dead' be taken literally in both cases we have the meaning: Let the dead bury themselves, i.e.., better let them be unburied than that Christ's disciples be drawn away from their obedience. Chrysostom says: ‘Jesus forbade him to go, in order to show that nothing, not even the most important work of natural duty and affection, is so momentous, as care for the kingdom of heaven; and that nothing, however urgent, should cause us to be guilty of a moment's delay in providing first for that.'

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Old Testament