Let the Dead Bury Their 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.
                              -St. Matthew 8:21-22


This remark of Jesus, spoken to a grieving son or daughter, is quite puzzling. How is it possible that the Son of God—a loving God—could be so insensitive? Answer: it’s not possible. There must have been a loving reason for his words.
This is what I think he meant to teach us… The disciple’s father was literally dead; those who buried him [perhaps non-believers in Christ] may have been spiritually dead.
I am come that they might have life, and…have it more abundantly, Jesus told us in the famous verse St. John 10:10. To be without Him, therefore, is be without life.
Those who don’t follow him are the dead.

Another example from the gospels:
 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living:　　 ye therefore do greatly err.
                                       -St. Mark 12:27