And Jesus said to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead. The shocking instruction — leave the dead to bury their own dead — is one of the hardest sayings in the Gospels. The dead who bury the dead are those who are spiritually dead, the community that does not know the urgency of the kingdom moment. The call to discipleship creates a new ordering of priorities that can override even the deepest cultural obligations. Luke 14:26 says the disciple must love father and mother less than Jesus — the family bond is not destroyed but relativized by the priority of the kingdom's call.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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