Mercy and legality are like grass and fire

The thoughts of a drugged church

Love alone is credible

Violation of the day: Jesus breaks one of the 10 commandments

Matthew 8:18 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 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.” 21 Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” 

Here Jesus goes again, breaking the law. Or at least, telling his followers to do so.

It's hard to find actual instructions for burial in the Old Testament, which I find surprising. Certainly there are prohibitions about uncleanliness related to touching the dead, and there are passages about the death and burial of many prominent figures. Deuteronomy 21:23 instructs us to bury a man on the same day that he was hanged, but that's about the most specific bit I can find.

But we do know that it was an obligation for family members to bury their dead, and an act of piety for Jews to bury those outside their families when necessary.

More importantly for this passage however is the commandment to honor our parents. This is one of the biggies. The top ten. The ones that overarch the Levitical laws and instructions that came afterward.

The man, this disciple, asked to bury his father. He asked to fulfill his familial obligation and to perform a final, ultimate act of honoring. An act that is a significant milestone in each of our lives.

And yet Jesus told him not to.

Of course he had his purposes. Presumably this is Jewish hyperbole in action. But the truth is the truth: Jesus advised his disciple to go against Jewish custom, and to break one of the Ten Commandments.

Your ways, Oh Lord, are unfathomable.

On zeal.