Dead Works
Scripture Reading - Matthew 8:21-22 KJV
21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
These two verses of scripture are used in the context of two major conflicts found in the Body of Christ today. The first one is spiritual intimacy over family duty and the second one is good works verses “dead works”. The first conflict is seen when the son tells Jesus that his father just died and he has a family responsibility to bury his father. If nothing more than pure respect unto his family it is the proper thing to do. Of course, the Loving, Merciful and full of Compassion Minister, the Lord Jesus Himself, would certainty excuse him for such an urgent need. However, not so with our Lord and Leader of the Church. This was not an oversight because remember even in the Old Testament the Holy Priest were not supposed to bury their dead and then come in the temple to minister unto the Lord.-Leviticus 21:10-11 and Numbers 6:6-8 Our Lord, yes our counselor and even our friend answered quite the contrary. Jesus said, “Don’t put your family obligations before My work that I am doing with you at that time”. This is not a pat. (patented) answer for all situations where there is a scheduling conflict between a family obligation and the work of the ministry but a specific answer to a young man expected to learn from Jesus while He (the Lord) is here on the earth. One reason the Lord said to His disciple to follow Me is because if he goes home to feed on grief and sorrow he will be in no condition to minister to others but rather he would need to be ministered to himself. As a disciple of Christ we must know that if the Lord is personally spending His precious time with us for detailed instruction that specific time of personal training is not the time to conduct family business. Yes, even if a family emergency arises we must be willing to continue with Jesus. Another good thing that we notice in these scriptures is that the young man came to Jesus to ask for permission to leave. Many people of today’s society would not even ask Jesus they would text Him the message presumptuously thinking the Lord will understand. No, my faith friend, it will be you who won’t understand why the Lord is not asking for your services at a later date. The second issue of letting the dead bury their dead speaks of “dead works”. This dawned on us (ihlcc) a few days ago when the thought came to mind that “dead people” must do “dead works”. What this means is that all people who operation outside the motive of pure Godly Love will practice “dead works” on a regular basis. The Lord Jesus knew that there were (and always are) other people who can do “dead works” because the world is full of dead people (those without Jesus). “Dead works” are produced by dead people and it is those same “dead works” that draw other dead people unto them. However on the contrary its only a remnant (small percentage) of people who can do God’s good works. We know only the Christian with the help of the Holy Spirit can lead a person to Jesus and our Heavenly Father. Just like only the children of God can compassionately love other people (souls) like God. Since these statements are true we (all saints) must not take our calling lightly because if we don’t let our light shine what other religion even has some light to shine? The correct answer is, “none” because without Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, man has no light at all. Therefore, let the people of the world concentrate on the worldly “dead works” of this life, while we practice preaching and teaching and healing the people of this world with the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Knowing that all “dead works” will perish but all works of righteousness will remain in the records of Heaven forever. Amen!